Bird interactions with drones, from individuals to large colonies

Abstract

Drones are rapidly becoming a key part of the toolkit for a range of scientific disciplines, as well as a range of management and commercial applications. This presents a number of challenges in context of how drone use might impact nearby wildlife. Interactions between birds and drones naturally come to mind, since they share the airspace. This paper details initial findings on the interactions between drones and birds for a range of waterbird, passerine and raptor species, across of a range of scientific applications and natural environments. The primary aims of this paper are to provide guidance for those planning or undertaking drone monitoring exercises, as well as provide direction for future research into safe and effective monitoring with drones. Our study sites we all located within Australia and spanned a range of arid, semi-arid, dunefield, floodplain, wetland, woodland, forest, coastal heath and urban environments. We particularly focus on behavioral changes towards drones during breeding season, interactions with raptors, and effects on nesting birds in large colonies -three areas yet to be explored in published literature. In over 70 hours of flight, there were no incidents with birds. Although some aggressive behavior was encountered from solitary breeding birds. Several large breeding bird colonies were surveyed, and included in our observations is monitoring and counting of nests in a colony of over 200,000 Straw-necked Ibis, the largest drone-based bird monitoring exercise to date. In addition to providing observations of interactions with specific bird species, we recommend procedures for flight planning, safe flying and avoidance. This paper also provides a basis for a number of critical and emerging areas of research into bird-drone interactions, most notably, territorial breeding birds, safety around large raptors, and the effect of drones on the behaviour of birds in large breeding colonies.

Using flight initiation distance to evaluate responses of colonial‐nesting Great Egrets to the approach of an unmanned aerial vehicle

“…With the increased use of UAVs in recent years, determining whether UAVs act as stressors to wildlife species and quantifying their impact is critical. Assessments of the responses of animals to UAVs are limited, but the results of recent studies suggest that UAVs cause less disturbance of some species than traditional methods (Chabot et al , Borrelle and Fletcher , Lyons et al, ). UAVs may provide a less hazardous and potentially more accurate method for surveying animal populations, but additional study is needed to assess their impacts and assess platform capabilities (Drever et al , Chabot et al , Brisson‐Curadeau et al, , Afán et al ).…”

“…UAVs may provide a less hazardous and potentially more accurate method for surveying animal populations, but additional study is needed to assess their impacts and assess platform capabilities (Drever et al , Chabot et al , Brisson‐Curadeau et al, , Afán et al ). Birds may be more likely to react to a UAV than other wildlife species, being naturally threatened by aerial predators, but investigators have documented increased flush responses with a walking approach than the approach of a UAV (Mulero‐Pázmány et al , Lyons et al, ). However, little is known about the possible effects of group size and reproductive status on avian responses in nesting areas, and such information is needed to provide recommendations for best practices when conducting research with UAVs (Vas et al ).…”

Monitoring large and complex wildlife aggregations with drones

“…We launched a drone from an amphibious vehicle or canoe used to enter the colonies. Flights were conducted using parallel flight lines, at ~100 m and speed of 5-10 ms -1 (Lyons et al 2018a;Lyons et al 2019).…”

A comment on the limitations of UAVS in wildlife research – the example of colonial nesting waterbirds

“…We use UAVs across a wide range of environments in central and eastern Australia (Lyons et al 2018), including monitoring of colonies of waterbirds (ranging in size from ~15 000-100 000 breeding pairs, predominantly Strawnecked Ibis Threskiornis spinicollis and some Australian White Ibis T. moluccus). UAVs have allowed delineation of the extent of the colonies (i.e., the overall spatial size and number of birds), previously exceedingly difficult to estimate accurately with traditional methods.…”

“…Importantly, we highlight the necessity for on-ground data collection, concomitantly conducted with UAV data. We draw on our own experience of using UAVs to measure large (~15 000-100 000 breeding pairs) wading bird colonies in arid Australia (Lyons et al 2018), as well as our experience of colonial wading bird nest success measurement (Brandis et al 2011(Brandis et al , 2014. We conclude with some brief comments on considerations of UAV use in wildlife research, more broadly.…”