Video showed pigeons fleeing a historic marketplace at the sight of a hawk brought in to scare them away.
After stallholders called the birds a “serious public health risk”, Norwich City Council introduced a Harris’s hawk to patrol Norwich Market for four weeks at a cost of about £4,000.
Falconer Mikael ChuFoon said: “The pigeons were all lined up against the wall, there were practically hundreds of them, as soon as I got my bird and came round the corner they all got up – they realised the threat.”
The effectiveness of the bird of prey in the area, which is regularly visited by hundreds of pigeons and gulls, will be evaluated by the council at the end of December.