Residents of a street in Hereford say they are being forced to shelter under umbrellas because of the huge amount of starlings flying overhead.

Wendy Goodman, 73, showed photographers how buildings on Macmillan Close were being drenched with droppings from the nearly 20,000 birds thought to be nesting in large Leylandii hedges nearby.

Wendy Goodman's garden shed has been covered in starling droppings. Credit: SWNS

Car owners in the area say they are having to wash their vehicles daily thanks to the regular shower of excrement falling from the sky.

SWNS

SWNS

The huge swarms can turn the sky black at dawn and dusk as the birds prepare to roost or feed.

SNWS

"We get people here standing and filming them, and it's a lovely spectacle, but when you live in the flight path it's really not pleasant at all," resident Steve Payne told the BBC.

"The street is covered in bird muck, you can't put washing out and we are having to wash our cars every day.

"Last night, I had to take an umbrella out with me. That hedge has got to go."

Herefordshire Council said they would not be taking any action to "harm or control" the birds because starlings are a protected wild species.