BANGKOK -- Provincial health officials distributed cotton face masts at a village north of Bangkok Friday after residents complained of foul smells and possible disease risks following an invasion of thousands of open-billed storks.

Officials said several thousand of the giant birds have been nesting in trees that surround Ban Tan village, in Pohtong district of Ang Thong Province, 70 kilometers north of Bangkok, since November.

Pohtong district Deputy District Chief Apithep Suwanprateep said the storks have been visiting the area for many years, coming south for the winter, but this year they have come in much greater numbers. "This year is different," Apithep told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA in a telephone interview. "There used to be just a few hundred and they were spread out. But this time there are many thousands of storks. And they don't stay in the jungle. They're all in the trees next to the village."

Since their arrival, he said, villagers have been putting up with a variety of problems and children are forced to wear face masks at school.

"Their droppings smell very bad," Apithep said. "And these storks are very noisy at night."

He said the storks are now laying their eggs in the trees despite efforts by villagers to scare them away with firecrackers, banging drums and slingshots. "Luckily for the storks, they picked a village with kind people," Apithep said. "The villagers don't want to hurt the storks."

He said the surgical facemasks will help to reduce the discomfort of villagers until the storks fly north, a migration that is expected to happen in April or May.