CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WVEC) -- A gang unlike any other is instilling fear in a Chesapeake neighborhood.
Residents say a bunch of large, ugly birds are scaring everyone -- especially children -- and making them afraid to go outside.
Resident Raven Banks said the issue started just about two weeks ago, when the birds invaded the neighborhood.
Neighbors say they have tried everything, from water hose to just shooing them, and nothing has worked. The problem is getting worse and plain scary.
"Them things are ugly," said Banks about the birds. "They are on the houses, they are in the trees."
They're all around the Wickford Drive neighborhood in Chesapeake.
"Every morning I get a phone call from my son, crying, like literally crying," she said.
Banks said the first phone call came about two weeks ago. Her 9-year-old son said he was too scared to walk to his school bus stop.
Banks at first was mad that her son would be scared of some birds. "'Go to your bus stop,'" she told him. "'Mommy works all the way in Virginia Beach. I can't come and take you to school.' He was like 'How about I send you a picture before I leave out?'"
Moments later, she received a picture from her son:
"My heart stopped. That's not normal. I don't know what these things are," she said.
As it turns out, experts with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fishers say these birds are black vultures. They are federally protected, and a permit is needed to get them removed.
Although they seem intimidating, for the most part these scavengers are considered harmless, yet are still causing plenty of headaches for Banks and her neighbors.
"You see the mess that they make. They are out here all day doing this and by the time we get off work, we have to sweep up the trash, because they are coming with citations about trash being everywhere," said Banks.
Banks says she has asked the city to get the neighborhood new trash cans that have lids, hoping it will keep the birds away from the garbage and away from the neighborhood.
"It's like, something has to be done," she said.
