Irrational fear of birds

I have a very bizarre fear of birds, especially pigeons. Just thinking about them makes me freak out in the worst way. I've been this way for as long as I can remember. I hate having this fear because it takes control of my life. I've gone miles out of my way to avoid birds, if I see a pigeon in the street I will go 100 blocks out of my way just to go another route. I'm always flinching when I'm in the street because anything that I see moving out of the corner of my eye I think automatically it's a bird, and people probably think I'm insane. I've almost gotten hit by a car on more than one occasion as I dodged towards the street like a maniac to avoid a bird on the sidewalk. Whenever I see one my heart starts beating and I start panicking. What's worst is that I live in nyc, so we have a never-ending supply of pigeons. Once I was vacationing in Europe and me and my family were sitting at an outdoor cafe, all of a sudden a pigeon started to come up to the sidewalk in our direction and I literally got up and started to freak out and caused a very embarassing scene. This has happened more than once. Another time I began crying hysterically. One time I was walking home from the train station and the only normal reasonable route was to go under a highway overpass that was loaded with pigeons underneath. Normal people were just walking through but I was too afraid so I decided to take the long route by the highway. It took more than an hour to get around it. I ended up crossing a desolate wooden bridge where no one was nearby, it was in the woods, and all I kept thinking was "oh my god, somebody could just pop up behind these trees and kill me all because of my phobia".. I think this all began when I was about 3 or 4 years old, I started having these reoccuring nightmares that pigeons were everywhere on my bed, under my bed, under the blankets with me, all over the place, fluttering their wings. Before then, when I was very young, I didn't have a problem (I don't think so at least). Is there anything I can do before I seriously injure myself by getting hit by a truck or something? Thanks