They are pretty, but also nightmare for us wine makers. They come every autumn just in time of harvest and they can eat half hectare of grapes in matter of minutes.
What is your experience, would you concur that these birds were not as much as a threat some decades ago?
[*] Many reports also indicate that their number has grown, but that in turn could be a consequence of their shifting diet, not being anymore dependent on a naturally limited resource (insects) and now using a resource way more abundant (crops for human food). So the reduction of insect populations would have had this surprising two-steps consequence of raising the number of their former predators.