I'm Switching To Birds, But Not Sure About The Name Yet

Protected bird damaging trees, plants on the Oregon coast / Northwest -The Olympian

Cormorants in this case. They aren't doing it by eating leaves or bark or anything like that. It's their poop:

Cormorant excrement is pretty potent stuff, according to Lowe. It is harvested as fertilizer in some parts of the world and is super-rich in nitrogen.

"It's so hot it burns the vegetation," Lowe said.

The trees and plants die, he said, because the foliage gets showered by the droppings, and the soil becomes saturated with nitrogen.

Kind of puts pigeons in perspective, doesn't it?