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Our postcard tonight has a touch of the Alfred Hitchcocks. Duck down -- Mark Simkin’s winging his way across the Pacific from Tokyo, where a mysterious flock has the whole city in a flap.

City of Tokyo

Music

21:00

Garbage on streets

Simkin: Tokyo is one of the world's great cities. Every day it produces high tech gadgets, high end business deals, and 14,000 tons of garbage.

21:08

Music

Simkin: If there was a prize for waste production, Tokyo would have it in the bag. Or more accurately, all across the footpath.

21:27

Just how the rubbish gets strewn everywhere is a mystery. The local people take cleanliness very seriously, and it's unlikely there are any wild animals in the centre of the city. We went in search of answers.

Garbage Man: Excuse me …. Excuse me! Yes, it’s terrible – and it’s like this every day.

Man: What is responsible for the mess?

Garbage Man: It is the crows.

Man: The crows are responsible?

21:53

Crows on garbage

Simkin: Other big cities have to deal with rats or perhaps monkeys. But Tokyo's scourge is big, black and beaked.

22:09

The birds, with wingspans of up to one metre, are right at home in this urban jungle.

22:17

The government insists residents use plastic bags rather than bins, and that's easy pickings. In 1985, there were 7,000 crows in central Tokyo. Now, there are 40,000. People and crows once lived in peaceful coexistence. So much so, the birds were considered sacred. Not any more.

22:25

During breeding season, the crows developed nasty attitude problems.

22:48

Japanese television reports any attack with 'bird bites man' hysteria.

Japanese TV

Simkin dodging crows

Simkin: It's like something out of a Hitchcock movie, and the locals are running scared.

23:15

Simkin at train station

Super:

Mark Simkin

The crows have become public enemy number one. According to the local media, they're responsible for virtually every ill to befall the city. If there's a train derailment, the crows have put stones on the tracks; if there's a blackout, the crows have attacked the powerlines.

23:21

So the city has declared war -- a war in which no prisoners are to be taken.

23:37

Music

Pest Control men

Simkin: Well armoured, and armed, these men are preparing to go into battle. They're at the front line of the local government's fight back. They've been given the job of killing baby crows.

23:48

Pest Control Man: The crows attack small children and elderly people.

Simkin: Are you personally afraid of the crows?

Pest Control Man: Yes, even I am afraid of crows.

24:06

Simkin: That seems like a sensible attitude. The adult crows circle menacingly, as he climbs the ladder.

24:29

The plan isn't to stone the crows, it's to suffocate them.

24:45

Two chicks are put in a bag, a third tries to fly to safety, but doesn't get very far.

24:55

The nest is next. As it's broken up, scores of wire coat hangers come loose -- another of Tokyo's mysteries solved.

25:17

Simkin: Isn’t it all as bit of an over-reaction?

Pest Control Man: I do feel sorry for the crows, but they are a problem.

People who have passed by this tree have been threatened and attacked. These incidents happen very often – it is a big issue.

25:25

Simkin: So far this year the local government has disposed of more than 300 nests and 770 chicks. But the birds have found an ally.

26:00

Professor Hiroyoshi Higuchi

Professor Hiroyoshi Higuchi is Japan's leading ornithologist, and the author of a best selling book, 'What's Wrong With Crows?'

26:14

He says it's not the birds that are to blame, it's the humans.

Higuchi: It is the responsibility that increased the number of crows by providing garbage.

26:28

Simkin: Is it fair, then, that the city has decided to kill the crows?

26:35

Higuchi: It's not fair for crows, because I think the crows would like to complain about people killing them, because it's the fault of the people.

26:40

Music

Crows in Tokyo

Simkin: The government's offensive aims to reduce crow numbers by one third. But since the war began, crow numbers have actually increased. Unless the city deals with the rubbish that lies at the root of the problem, or perhaps considers a radical solution such as garbage bins, it's the birds that will have the last laugh.

27:02

Credits:

Tokyo Crows

Reporter: Mark Simkin

Camera: Geoffrey Lye

Sound: Jun Matsuzono

Editor: Geoffrey Lye

Research: Yayoi Eguchi

27:27