Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for

 

Title

Bird Hazing and Frightening Methods and Techniques (with emphasis on containment ponds)

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

March 1991

Comments

This volume of detailed information was prepared as part of a larger, more encompassing project under contract with California Department of Water Resources (Contract Number B-57211).

Abstract

Our primary purpose in preparing this overview of bird hazing or frightening methods and techniques is to provide the owners and operators of agricultural evaporation ponds with all possible information on hazing to minimize bird use of the ponds and reduce their exposure to possible contamination from accumulated substances, such as selenium.

While our main objective was to assist pond managers, our coverage of bird hazing is intentionally broad enough to be highly relevant to protect many agricultural crops and some aquaculture facilities from bird depredations, and to reduce bird numbers at airports where the potential for bird-aircraft strikes is high. The discussion of many hazing options may be also valuable for use in repelling birds from accidental oil spills and to repel birds, specifically waterfowl, from disease-contaminated water.

Much of the contents of this manual is derived from researching the available literature. However, this is intermixed with the personal knowledge of the authors based on their education, laboratory and field research in managing bird problems, and experience in applied bird control, especially in the area of pest bird management related to agricultural production.