A woman has fallen out with her neighbour after her owl ornaments scared all the birds away from his garden.
Jeff Williams has spent a "fortune" on bird feeders and top quality bird seed over the years to attract flocks of sparrows and starlings into his back garden.
But then earlier this year next door neighbour Jane Morse placed five bird of prey decoys in her garden after getting fed up with her pet cats bringing in dead birds.
Since then the birds have taken flight from both gardens, leaving Mr Williams, 76, in despair.
When the retired merchant navy officer challenged his neighbour, she suggested the garden birds must have disappeared "because of bird flu".
Mr Williams, of Poole, Dorset, was "very upset" at the loss of his feathered friends and blamed the 'decoys'.
He said: "My neighbour brought in no less than five bird of prey replicas. There is an awful lot of upset from residents about this. All the garden birds have been driven away.
"We didn't have many birds in our area before this, but those that did come here have been driven away by the decoys.
"It's like putting a fierce bulldog in your garden to scare away the cats. I've spent a fortune on the best quality bird feed and designed my garden so the birds can enjoy it."
Mrs Morse, a retired nurse who lives with husband Keith, dismissed Mr Williams' complaints as "infantile" and insisted she could have whatever she wanted in her garden.
She said she bought the owl ornaments two years ago and the rest of the ornaments in January.
Mrs Morse said: "We've had a dry summer, unprecedented temperatures, avian flu in the area which we've all received letters about it, there are cats in the area - we have three ourselves - including a huge black fluffy cat.
"Our cats are hunters and I don't like coming down in the morning to find a dead bird or rodent in the kitchen with feathers everywhere.
"Keith bought the ornaments as ornaments - there was no thought that it would be a deterrent. There is no intention of scaring any birds from any other property."
A spokeswoman for the RSPB said bird of prey ornaments are 'often used as a legal deterrents' but advised that it is not always effective as as 'some birds can become used to them, others may remain wary of such items.'
She added: "If someone enquired wanting to encourage birds into their garden, we would not recommend for these figures to be in place due to the risk of deterring any species."
Jane, 61, and husband Keith, 66, claim Mr Williams has become "obsessed" with their garden and has "pestered" them to remove their six decoy ornaments.
She said her neighbour has at least eight bird feeders in his garden to attract smaller bird species like sparrows.
Earlier this year, dozens of sparrows nesting in her roof flew "back and forth" to her neighbour's garden.
But after they flew the nest, Mr Williams blamed his neighbour's ornamental birds for them not returning.
Mrs Morse has refused his request to remove the three owls, a king fisher, American eagle, and buzzard.
She said: "Earlier this year the birds were nesting in our roof. They can't have been that afraid of the statues as they perched on them.
"It all started on September 18. The day before he (Mr Williams) was sat in our kitchen laughing and eating my biscuits.
"Then he went to see some friends who suggested a sparrow hawk might be keeping the birds away.
"He got it in his head that one of our statues was a sparrow hawk, which it is not.
"I'm waiting for him to say the kingfisher is scaring the fish in his pond".
