[TowerTalk] Birds and towers

[Lux, Jim]

On 1/24/21 11:13 AM, Andre VanWyk via TowerTalk wrote:
> I just completed installing two large Luso towers for a client and about to
> start construction on mine so will have the same issue. The problem is
> birds.  I am wondering if there is anything besides decoy owls that might be
> worth trying to keep them from sitting and attempting to nest on these
> towers. These towers are big and has lots of components that are full of
> bird poop. Components are powder coated and it looks pretty bad. Any
> suggestions (besides birdshot!) or thoughts on this subject would be
> appreciated. The decoy owls seemed to have worked for a couple of weeks but
> now seems useless.

The birds are smart and will quickly learn to ignore anything that 
doesn't move.

You might check with the companies that sell stuff for vineyards and 
orchards...

rotating things driven by the wind seem to work (you see them on top of 
billboards - a couple long rods on a pivot).  They might also work 
oriented vertically.

bird spikes (plastic things that make it hard to perch) - these work 
great and they're cheap, plastic, and UV tolerant, but kind of ugly (but 
probably not an issue on a tower application)

Rotating pinwheel things driven by the wind, or the vertical rotors.

The ribbons of shiny mylar sometimes work.


They also make owls (and other scarecrows) with a clockwork mechanism 
that rotates them periodically (solar powered, even!).

Netting

Noise makers - Around here, they play the sound of hawks screeching, to 
keep the birds away from corn and veggie crops, I don't know how well 
they work, but it screeches about every 1/2 hr to hour, semirandomly.  I 
suspect it is highly "species" dependent.