Birds Leave D.C. Neighborhood Covered in Filth

One block of Capitol Hill is plagued with so many bird droppings that even the U.S. Postal Service says there are days it won't deliver the mail. The starlings roosting on the 1600 block of Potomac Avenue in Southeast have turned the neighborhood into a disgusting mess. Not only have the birds been dropping a constant whitewash and turning the street and sidewalks into a slippery stinkfest, but the birds' "fecal matter" -- as the District Department of Health indelicately terms it -- makes nearly every parked car on the block look like an ambushed victim from a paintball war. Postal Service spokeswoman Deborah Yackley says the mess extends all the way across the sidewalk and into the street, so it's impossible for mail carriers to get to the mailbox without going through it.