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. In this paper we detail initial findings on these interactions for a range of waterbird, passerine and raptor species, across of a range of environments in Australia (arid, semi-arid, dunefield, floodplain, wetland, woodland, forest, heath and urban). 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. 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 also recommend procedures for flight planning, safe flying and avoidance. This paper provides a basis for a number of critical and emerging areas of research into bird-drone interactions.
Footnotes
N.B. This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the article, currently under review. It is shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license.