They might look nice as they take off in a stunning flash mob of white. They're also highly intelligent and often playful.

But corellas can also be persistent and destructive pests, so annoying in fact that authorities in one western Victorian town have begun using drones to frighten them off.

The corellas have proven to be a major headache for the locals in Horsham where sporting activity has been brought to a virtual standstill because the birds have churned up cricket pitches, and dug holes the size of dinner plates in the outfield.

Members of the Horsham Saints Cricket Club have been unable to play on their home ground all year.

President Glenn Carroll said club members used to spend up to 15 hours a week repairing the field, but the birds were digging holes faster than they could fill them in.

Loading

"We can let the scare gun off half a dozen times, they disappear, they come back," Mr Carroll said.

"In the end we decided it was a waste of time even to repair the holes there."

Corellas are unprotected wildlife

The oval is set for a $150,000 makeover come September, but Mr Carroll said that work would be wasted without a permanent solution.

The club is applying for a licence to shoot corellas that come onto the oval.

"If we can't solve the problem of the birds we're going to waste all of this money. Hopefully, next year we're going to be able to control the situation ourselves but that's not going to help this year."

Councils in the region are debating whether to cull their corellas, which are classed as unprotected wildlife.

But now Horsham Rural City Council is hoping for a non-lethal solution.

The council has brought in drones to scare corellas away from the parks and ovals where they have done the most damage.

Best courts have been destroyed

Horsham Saints Cricket Club president Glenn Carroll says club members are spending up to 15 hours a week filling in holes dug by the corellas ( ABC: Jessica Black )

Community safety unit co-ordinator Glenn Dixon said the ongoing repairs had worn down volunteers.

"They're repairing the grounds, they're filling them with soil on a daily basis.

"They're having patrols down there themselves and spending a lot of time, so the collective number of hours is just phenomenal and in terms of cost that's a lot of cost for everybody and we thought with the drones, we can hunt them away, it reduces that cost as well."

Horsham Lawn Tennis Club president Andrew Dorman said there had been fewer birds on the courts since the program began.

The club had drawn up a roster for volunteers to scare the birds away, after they destroyed the best courts.

"We have club members come down every night and in the morning and chase them away. That seems to be the most effective but we can't always be here when the cockies are here.

"Last year we put up some black cats and they seemed to work very well but this year they got used to that. We've used tinsel and that scared them away for a day or do. A few years ago we used fake snakes — I think that scared some of our members away more than it scared the cockies away."

Research into birds of prey

Corellas are also a nuisance off the field. Their beaks can break up bitumen, and destroy TV aerials.

A drone captured this image of corellas on a sports field at sunset. ( Supplied: Australian Drone Mania Photography )

David Brennan has been in corella management for 20 years.

"People often refer to people being a galah and having a character that's a little bit obscure and corellas certainly do that.

"They'll pull a nail out of a roof, they'll pick it up in their beak, they'll show their friends, they'll throw it up in the air, they'll watch it go into the gutter, and then they'll start again."

Mr Brennan has been working on research into how birds of prey can deter pest birds, and said technology would play a big part in how we manage native species.

"There has been a reduction of corella damage in a rural environment and that's largely been with the development of better sowing machinery.

"So if we can apply that sort of learning into an urban environment, whether it's using drones, spraying out onion grass, or using other techniques that we haven't necessarily thought of, that will go a long way to getting on top of the corella problem."