If you grow berries, grapes or cherries, chances are you or someone you know has been hit by bird damage. Nuisance birds like starlings and robins may be small, but the damage they inflict can be devastating for growers.
Fortunately, growers today don’t have to rely on the old scarecrows of yesteryear. Even just a few years ago, propane cannons were the weapon of choice for fruit growers, especially grape growers. But it wasn’t long before the birds became accustomed to the booming, and now they’ve been known to perch on the cannons in between explosions.
However, modern growers can dip into an arsenal of new weapons to get rid of their bird problems. These weapons include recordings of the nuisance birds’ distress and alarm calls and sounds made by their predators; falconers who can deploy platoons of predators; and chemicals that smell and taste so bad to the birds that they leave the fruit alone.
Bird Gard Digital Bird Repeller
(Photo credit: Rick Willis, Bird Gard)
Bird Gard repels pest birds by broadcasting their actual distress and alarm calls, plus the sounds made by their natural predators: hawks, falcons and eagles. Bird Gard is not a noisemaker that is simply trying to startle the birds, but is a sophisticated bio-acoustic harassment device that appeals to the biological survival instincts of the birds, says the marketing manager for Bird Gard, Rick Willis.
That natural survival instinct is what causes them to flee the area. When a flock of birds comes within range of a Bird Gard unit they immediately change direction, he says. Bird Gard products work on all crops, processing facilities and any areas where birds and bird droppings are not wanted.
The biggest hurdle to overcome for any method of bird control is that birds are very adept at adapting and they can quickly habituate to any deterrent.
“A product that seems to work at first may not be very effective a week or two later,” Willis says. “Over the last decade, Bird Gard has developed some sophisticated random technologies that have virtually eliminated habituation in most bird species.”
These random features are controlled by a microprocessor in each unit that can randomly change the order in which the bird sounds are broadcast, the delay time between broadcasts, and the frequency of the bird sound, so that it sounds like they are many different birds of the same species being attacked by several different predators throughout the protected field.
The key to the effectiveness of Bird Gard is matching the distress calls to the bird species causing problems. “We have recordings of more than 120 different bird species and can effectively repel most pest birds causing problems,” he says.
The sophisticated devices have replaceable sound cards so the bird calls can be easily updated if the list of problem birds ever changes, and they cover from 3 acres to 30 acres. “Blocks of several hundred acres can be protected by installing Bird Gard units around the perimeter as the sound creates a sonic wall the birds won’t fly over,” Willis says.
At the edge of the effective range the sound level is down to about 70 decibels, which is about as loud as traffic on a highway. Neighbors at the edge of the effective range generally do not find the sound to be bothersome. Also, the units all have photo sensors so they can be programmed to turn on automatically at sunrise and off at sunset.
