Falconer activities as a bird dispersal tool at Deblin Airfield (E Poland)

Birds comprise a very serious threat to air traffic. In the area of the Deblin Military Airfield (East Poland), studies were made whose goal was to effectively use trained raptors led by the falconer to disperse the most numerous species of birds found there. When the frequency of the presence of particular species of birds at the airport was calculated, the best outcome was presented by the trained raptors of the European starlings and the Northern lapwings. In the case of evaluating the change in the number of birds present at the airport, the effects of the falconer’s activity was most strongly seen in the rooks and the jackdaw. Despite the high efficiency of the effects of the impact trained raptors on the other birds present at the airport, their work ought to be completed by other bird dispersal techniques.