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Birds Invade Sacramento County Apartment Complex

SACRAMENTO COUNTY (CBS13) - The signs are everywhere that a local apartment complex is going to the birds.

Some would call the scene peaceful, but neighbors at the complex on Gerber and Bradshaw in Sacramento County say it's an all-out war.

"They've just totally taken over," Lisa Jackson said of the avian invasion.

"The birds, they come out and they swarm and they swarm and swarm," added Tamogene Silva.

The birds are dropping organic bombs on anything that moves - all over people's cars and even the people themselves aren't spared.

"It hits people too," Silva said Tuesday as she spoke with CBS13. "My daughter's been hit. It's pretty dangerous out here without an umbrella."

Silva likens her neighborhood to the famous Alfred Hitchcock thriller "The Birds."

But while it's much less dramatic, she say's it's no less terrifying. Dead birds falling from the sky litter parts of the complex.

Neighbors worry the bird carcasses and droppings may be a health hazard.

"Kids track it in the house, it's poisonous and I'm pregnant," Jackson said. "I don't want to get sick."

Of the 43 birds that have tested positive for West Nile virus in Sacramento County so far this year, the majority have come from this area where this apartment complex is located.

Vector Control officials doubt this type of bird would carry the virus, and it's transmitted by mosquitoes, not the birds themselves.

Still, people say they want these winged neighbors evicted, but the bird nests are protected by law.

"What about us?" one resident asked.

It make take a lawsuit against the apartment complex owners because residents say management isn't doing enough to keep the birds away. For now, they'll have to continue keeping a watchful eye to the sky.

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