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.

Counting Mixed Breeding Aggregations of Animal Species Using Drones: Lessons from Waterbirds on Semi-Automation

“…Methods which can rapidly collect data over large areas and process these data quickly are important for understanding systems and in providing timely data analyses to managers and the public. Drones are becoming increasingly powerful tools for the collection of such data on a range of organisms [25,47,48], given that they can capture imagery over inaccessible and sometimes dangerous areas. This is only half the process: the imagery needs to be analysed to provide estimates of organisms.…”

“…We collected imagery over the colony (15-20 ha) using a DJI Phantom 3 Professional multi-rotor drone, again with the stock standard camera and an additional neutral density filter (4000 × 3000 image size, lens FOV 94 • 20 mm). We flew at 5-10 ms −1 aiming to acquire imagery with~70% forward and lateral overlap, along parallel flight lines at 90 • [3,25]. We processed the imagery using the commercial software Pix4DMapper (v4.19,166 Pix4D SA), with a photogrammetry technique called 'structure from motion', which identified points in overlapping images, building a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud reconstruction of the landscape, and finally, generating a digital surface model and an orthorectified image mosaic ( Figure 2, Step 1).…”

“…They can, however, disturb some animal populations, requiring careful consideration of appropriateness when surveying [22]. As a result of such time and cost savings, drones are increasingly used to monitor bird communities [23][24][25].…”

Fright or Flight? Behavioural Responses of Kangaroos to Drone-Based Monitoring

“…While many are utilising drones to monitor and count [2] terrestrial [3] and marine wildlife, few studies have assessed the impact of this type of monitoring on the behaviour of terrestrial mammals [4]. To date, most studies assessing behavioural responses of wildlife to drones have focused on marine vertebrates [5][6][7][8] and birds [9][10][11][12].…”

Methodological Ambiguity and Inconsistency Constrain Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as A Silver Bullet for Monitoring Ecological Restoration

“…Their application appears most suitable for the covert observation and recording of ecological, behavioural and demographic data from fauna communities in poorly accessible habitats [59][60][61], and UAV-derived count data can be up to twice as accurate than ground-based counts [62,63]. Although the ontogenetic and species-specific responses of fauna to UAVs remain unknown [64,65], particularly in regard to behavioural responses of fauna following interactions with UAVs [66][67][68], it seems likely that UAV-use in fauna monitoring will rapidly expand as technology improves and costs decline [42]. For example, many GPS units attached to animals for research are accessed by remote download, and UAVs may facilitate both target location via VHF signal and remote download of GPS data without the need to approach, or disturb, the animal.…”