Gardens Beautiful - Australian style?

Pests in Australian gardens include many of the dazzling local birds, especially sulphur-crested cockatoos, which not only eat ripening fuit, but also pull up seedlings and nip off flowers just for the hell of it.
A letter to the editor in our local paper claims to have solved the problem. "We discovered," it says, "that cockies can't stand flapping plastic bags. So,... we put plastic bags all over the garden, hung on branches or tied on branches securely so that they flapped in air movements. They couldn't stand it – squawked and off."
I think I'd have the same reaction.
"All our local gardening friends have been let in on the secret," the letter smugly concludes.