Ring-necked parakeets are holding up the already delayed renovation of the Binnenhof parliamentary complex in The Hague, prompting the council to engage the services of a falconer.
The birds have been gnawing on facades and electric crane cables, which poses a safety risk.
The falconer will send his bird into the air from now until mid-March to chase away the estimated 600 parakeets that have gathered around the Binnenhof in an animal-friendly way to deal with the problem.
The extent of the damage is not yet clear but “a lot of repair work “ has to be carried out, a spokesman for the government real estate agency Rijksvastgoedbedrijf told local broadcaster Omroep West.
The trouble reportedly started when the scaffolding at the Hofplaats building was removed. The parakeets immediately started to gnaw at the paint on window sills, putty, and roof finishings.
Work on the Binnenhof, home to both houses of parliament, has been delayed several times and is currently expected to be finished in the summer of 2031.
The ring-necked parakeet is not indigenous to the Netherlands although it has become well established. Numbers hover around 30,000 mark, with the biggest concentrations in the central urban belt.
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