Thousands of noisy corellas in search of food are terrorising residents in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, wreaking havoc to street lights, signs and trees.

The local council has tried using everything from drones to pyrotechnics to disperse the birds, but now they are calling on the Environment Department to take charge.

Imagine this noise three times a day

A flock of corellas captured on a mobile phone flying over a house at Andrews Farm shows the level of noise the birds make as they pass over homes.

Sandy Bandtock said that scene and sound were all too familiar to her in nearby Munno Para West.

"Five past six in the morning they come past and then they come past in the afternoon and then they do it again probably at 10 past six that night as well," she said.

"It's probably three times [a day] they make all this noise, it's quite loud."

Ms Bandtock said the noise could be "quite frightening, until you know what it is".

Glenn Docherty says the birds have caused massive amounts of destruction. ( ABC Open contributor Greg Sylvia )

Birds laying waste to suburbs

In recent years, the corellas have been frequent visitors to the northern suburbs.

But over the past few weeks they have returned with a vengeance, laying siege to Adelaide's northern suburbs.

Playford mayor Glenn Docherty said the birds have caused massive amounts of destruction.

"[We have] experienced a lot of bird business on the roofs, on the bitumen, all over our cars, damage to lights in the street because they like to get the insects," he said.

"The trees have got no leaves on them from them eating it all.

Ms Bandtock says the noise of the corellas can be "quite frightening." ( Audience submitted: Rod Squire )

"It can be a bit daunting when you're having a nice quiet time out the back cooking a barbie and next thing you know you see the flight of the birds."

Mr Docherty said good weather and ample food had brought the birds further south from their usual home.

"There's a couple of distinct groupings of birds, they've sort of emigrated out of the RAAF Edinburgh air force base, and they can be in flocks of a couple of hundred or up to a couple of thousand at a time," he said.

"It's not a problem just unique to Playford, but across the northern suburbs and even into the inner parts of Adelaide."

Falcons, drones, pyrotechnics used to scare birds away

The council have tried a range of ways to try to disperse the birds, which have caused thousands of dollars in damage across the area.

So far Mr Docherty said they have tried using a falconer — falcons are a natural predator of the birds — to help disperse the flocks.

Playford council have even tried using drones to scatter the birds. ( ABC News )

They have also used drones to scatter the birds away, as well as pyrotechnics and bird scaring devices.

While those techniques move the birds elsewhere, Mr Docherty said ultimately the Environment Department needed to take charge.

"What we're seeing now is getting to near plague proportions," he said.

"We're very keen on the State Government to take some proactive action, because Council's trying to do its best but we don't have any legal power to manage or control them on a long term basis.

"The flocks will continue to grow and they'll move closer to Adelaide and cause more issues for the community.

"It's something only they have control of about how they disperse numbers and how they help to control numbers."

In a statement, the state's Environment Department said it was "regularly reviewing approaches to mitigate impacts from corellas and is working closely with local councils and land managers to improve the outcomes for concerned residents."

It also suggested residents use noise and lights to deter the birds, but admitted a variety of disturbance measures might be needed to move them on.