Australia’s ever-lasting Indian or Common Myna problem appears to be growing – and the pests are heading straight for Ballarat.

Just as Sesame Street’s Big Bird frightened this reporter as a toddler, Ballarat residents could shortly be subjected to a similar reign of terror.

Except the problem, in the worst possible case of over exaggeration, could become something akin to the trauma faced in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic, ​The Birds.

Following a report in The Moorabool News earlier in the month, highlighting that the spread of Myna’s to Ballan, local bird watchers warn that the wretches could have already touched base with Creswick.

BirdLife Ballarat board member John Gregurke says they are rapidly spreading down the Western Freeway.

“The closest ones that I know of are on Gillies Road, near Creswick,” Mr Gregurke said.

“Certainly they’re down to Ballan and south of Ballan.

“People who have had a go of shooting them at Creswick haven't been successful – they hang around hollow trees and this is the second spring that I’ve noticed them down here.”

Although visually appealing, with a yellow eye band and beak set against a dark head and mottled brown feathers and wings, Indian Myna’s are known for their fierce territorial aggression.

Mr Gregurke describes Myna’s as both “opportunistic” and “very aggressive”, with the birds known to usurp the rightful pecking order of Australia’s native favourites.

“They're opportunistic and the big danger is that they're very aggressive birds, particularity when scouting out hollows,” Mr Gregurke said.

“They can displace larger birds and it’s (the problem) mainly the effect they have on native birds.”

Bird authorities across the country bemoan the lack of government contribution to curb what has become one of the worst environmental issues in Australia.

Mr Gregurke said it is too late to sit up and wait for a solution.

“The practical things that can be done is controlling isolated situations,” he said.

“For most people, in urban areas where you can't shoot them, but in Canberra there was a very successful program that went into trapping Miners and destroying them humanely.”

However, those who suffer at the wings of the terrible Myna can detail its spread on the http://www.feralscan.org.au/mynascan/ website.