Lunch-hour pigeon plague brings hawkish response

Park-keepers in Manhattan have unleashed a new weapon in the fight to give New Yorkers a peaceful lunch-break.

The city is employing hawks as part of a pilot programme to drive a growing number of pigeons out of Bryant Park where about 5,000 people spend their lunch hour each day.

"New Yorkers used to complain about muggers and drug dealers here. Now they're complaining about pigeon droppings on their business suits," says Daniel Biederman, director of Bryant Park Restoration, an organisation that helps maintain the 19th-century park, next to New York's imposing public library.

Falconer Thomas Cullen, 51, was hired to let his trained Harris hawks scare pigeons out of the patch of landscaped greenery. They generally prey on small ground animals. Mr Cullen keeps them well-fed so they'll scare pigeons for sport rather than food.

If the hundreds of pigeons at Bryant Park start to find greener pastures – the programme will continue.

In 1996, Mr Cullen set up a similar program at New York's Kennedy Airportto control the gull population.