A Thai district chief has clipped the wings of his town's pigeon population by paying residents to trap the birds and organising a cook-off to build support for the cull.

The campaign to go after hundreds of thousands of pigeons started earlier this week in a district of Lop Buri province - a region better known for its monkey menace.

"The number of pigeons increases four to five times each year, if we don't do anything the problem will get worse," said Plaek Thepparak, the highest government official in Mueang district, who came up with the idea.

The birds were a nuisance and defecated on government offices, historical sites, temples and houses while ravaging local crops, he added.

"Before people can drink rain water but now they have to buy drinking water because rain water is dirty from bird droppings," he said.