Drone mimics predators to scare away pest birds

ProHawkUAV is an autonomous drone designed to keep pest birds at bay, using predator bird calls and distressing cries of prey birds.

Pest control manufacturers Bird-X have developed a new drone to humanely deal with bird pest problems to humans and agriculture. The US-based company’s ProHawkUAV has completed its testing phase and is now ready to take flight.

The drone is the first created specifically for bird control with fully autonomous flight, allowing the operator to set a GPS path — it could also be set to for manual operating. It repels birds using a sound system that frightens off pests using recorded predator birdcalls and the distress cries of prey birds. The silhouette of the drone also helps to mimic the look of circling predators.

The carbon fibre body is lightweight and durable, and the drone features a camera for recording footage. The ProHawkUAV could be utilized for keeping diseased birds out of public areas, protecting the area around airports from bird strikes, or for farmers and agricultural workers to scare birds away from crops.

We previously saw how drones are being used to detect infectious diseases from mosquitos before humans contract them. How else could drones be used to monitor and control pest populations?