Morden residents are sleeping easier after a randy crow finally halted a savage string of dawn attacks on cars and homes.

The pecking pest would swoop down from chimney pots just after daybreak in Leamington Avenue, damaging vehicles and house windows with its beak.

To the relief of tired and frustrated residents the animal's breeding season antics eventually stopped on Friday when it found a mate.

But, according to Robert Miles, a 37-year-old writer, the bird had disturbed his family's sleep for weeks.

He said: "I was woken up one morning at 5.30am by a loud banging noise.

"I thought someone was trying to break into the house.

"I went back to bed, but several more times heard a thud as the bird crashed into the window as it tried to land on the handle.

"When I got back from work that night, it had torn several potted plants to shreds and foliage was all over the place. I couldn't understand what was going on.

"The next morning it started all over again. This time I went into the garden and found it had cut a trough about eight inches long and an inch deep in the wooden window sill of the patio doors.”

Other residents had complained as the bird turned its fire on cars, pecking roofs, panels and windscreens loudly enough to wake the neighbours.

According to the Wimbledon Guardian’s nature expert, Tony Drakeford, crows can be such a nuisance that they can often only be stopped using the most drastic of measures.

“Often the only humane thing that can be done is to bring someone in that can kill it. Crows are increasing in numbers and at this time of year [the mating season] they will get more aggressive.”

He said: “I’ve heard of people having their heads cut open, and crows also eat rubbish and spread germs.”

Problem crows

A jogger was left needing hospital treatment following an attack in Battersea Park four years ago.

The incident prompted wildlife experts to issue a warning to the capital’s park users to steer clear of the birds until the mating season was over.

European Union officials incurred the wrath of German park police in 2003 after bird protection regulations stopped marksmen from taking out a murder of carrion crows responsible for a series of attacks on pensioners and runners.

The attacks in Hamburg and Stuttgart, left six women requiring hospital treatment.

Bloody crow attacks formed the basis of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror film, The Birds. The movie culminates with the entire population of a Californian village taking refuge in boarded up buildings after a series of deaths caused by the birds on a rampage.

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