IT may sound like something from Alfred Hitchock’s film The Birds but crows have been damaging residents’ cars and homes in a Dorset town.

Jesmarie Blake-Watkins who lives in Ridgeway, Sherborne, had the rubber seal on her VW Transporter van, which she uses for her cleaning business, damaged by the birds.

She believes two crows were behind the damage and said the birds had been looking at their reflections before pecking at the rubber seal around the doors.

She said: “It’s all a bit odd and it’s all a bit funny. It’s a bit like Hot Fuzz with the swan.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever known it happen to me. I think it’s happened in St Mary’s but never in Ridgeway.”

She added: “Yes it’s annoying, yes it’s damaged my car and yes I was cross about it, but it was quite funny and it’s only a rubber seal and there are a lot worse things happening in the world.”

The attacks have been happening in Sherborne for around the past five weeks, with residents in St Mary’s Road area particularly affected and have resorted to covering their cars.

Margaret Case said in the Sherborne News and Views Facebook group, that she had seen the crows “literally throwing themselves against a front door in the street.”

Tony Whitehead speaking for the RSPB in the South West said; “Some individual birds do sometimes become obsessed with pecking at their own reflection. This is territorial behaviour and not uncommon at the moment as birds claim, and then defend, their breeding territory.

"This crow, or crows, will be nesting nearby. Seeing their reflection in the window makes them think that another bird is intruding, and they try to drive it away by pecking at it. Many birds do this, and they will also attack other reflective objects such as car wing mirrors and hub caps.

He added: "The simplest advice is to remove the reflection. Placing cling film or non-reflective cellophane on the outside of the glass may work. But the behaviour itself will soon pass as the birds start to become less territorial as the breeding season ends.”