{"id":11097,"date":"2022-03-29t16:00:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-29t16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/can-laser-pointers-help-solve-a-citys-crow-problem\/"},"modified":"2022-03-29t16:00:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29t16:00:11","slug":"can-laser-pointers-help-solve-a-citys-crow-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/can-laser-pointers-help-solve-a-citys-crow-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"can laser pointers help solve a city\u2019s crow problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.audubon.org\/news\/can-laser-pointers-help-solve-citys-crow-problem\">originally published<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/news\">audubon magazine online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">each night as the sun sinks, thousands of crows descend on sunnyvale, california.&nbsp;the birds overwhelm the downtown, raising a ruckus as they alight in tree tops to roost for the night. though welcomed by some, the daily spectacle has become a source of frustration for many of the city\u2019s business owners and locals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cthe crows are very noisy, and their droppings and feathers have created quite a mess,\u201d says jennifer garnett, sunnyvale\u2019s communications officer. \u201cour council members have received many complaints from residents and businesses. we also have had to increase our frequency of pressure washing both areas.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">most of the birds gather at sunnyvale\u2019s plaza de sol, an open area bordered by trees and mixed-use buildings at the heart of the city. the 1.6-acre urban oasis boasts an amphitheater for summer outdoor concerts and sits adjacent to historic murphy avenue\u2014a tree-lined street that hosts&nbsp;many restaurants and businesses. the plaza has always attracted crows, but the pandemic-fueled&nbsp;increase in outdoor dining\u2014and the food scraps that comes with it\u2014led to record numbers, garnett says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">in an unsuccessful attempt to deter the birds, the town first tried hazing them with trained hawks and falcons. reflectors meant to confuse the flocks have also seen limited success. so, last month,&nbsp;sunnyvale turned&nbsp;to a $20 tool found at any office: a laser pointer. every weeknight for three weeks, beginning in later january, a trained city employee wielded a handheld green laser purchased on amazon.&nbsp;for 30 minutes at dusk, the staff person would shine&nbsp;the laser pointer into the plaza treeline where crows are beginning to settle in for the evening. the goal was to startle them each night until they&nbsp;eventually scatter for good.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">so far, sunnyvale is seeing success. \u201cthe laser pointer does seem to be working, \u201c garnett says. \u201chowever, we know that the crows are very smart and are likely to return when the deterrent goes away.\u201d sunnyvale ceased the pilot program the week of february 14 and has not said whether it will resume the initiative if the birds return.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">sunnyvale is not alone in its corvid&nbsp;conundrum. urban populations of crows have been increasing in recent decades, and as a result, more&nbsp;cities and towns have tried to discourage them and other prolific species like canada geese using a variety of methods, including lasers.&nbsp;green has&nbsp;been found to be&nbsp;most effective&nbsp;laser color for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aphis.usda.gov\/wildlife_damage\/reports\/wildlife%20damage%20management%20technical%20series\/bird-dispersal-techniques-wdm-technical-series.pdf\">evening hours<\/a>\u2014the light scatters in the atmosphere and produces a stronger beam that is more visible in the sky.&nbsp;the beams are also considered to be a safe deterrent.&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/digitalcommons.unl.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1141&amp;context=icwdm_usdanwrc\">2002 study&nbsp;<\/a>conducted by the u.s. department of agriculture\u2019s national wildlife research&nbsp;center found that low-to-moderate power, long wavelength lasers can disperse birds&nbsp;in low-light conditions&nbsp;while presenting \u201cno threat to the animal or the environment.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">green lasers create \u201cflashing movements\u201d that are foreign to crows\u2019 natural environment, says kevin mcgowan, instructor&nbsp;and crow expert at the cornell lab of ornithology. \u201cthere\u2019s nothing magic about lasers, just that the small tool has an effect across a great distance.\u201d lasers also aren\u2019t a one-and-done solution, mcgowan says, noting that the approach isn&#8217;t&nbsp;foolproof and works best in combination with other hazing methods.<\/p>\n<h4>timing can&nbsp;be important for success, experts say.&nbsp;<\/h4>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">as an example, he points to several cities in new york that have had varying success with lasers. in 2005, auburn spent $14,000 on a hazing program spearheaded by the united states department of agriculture\u2019s wildlife services. at the time,&nbsp;auburn&#8217;s crow population of roughly 64,000 birds outnumbered humans more than two-to-one. a mixed-use approach of lasers, pyrotechnics, and speakers blasting recordings of calls from distressed crows drove almost half of the population out of the city in just one week. yet, many simply relocated to nearby cortland or geneva. and 17 years later, auburn\u2019s crow problem persists to enough of a degree that local&nbsp;artists recently embraced the city\u2019s divisive mascot with fluorescent mosaics.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">timing can be important for success, experts say. lasers are most effective at the beginning of the winter season, within a few days of the crows\u2019 establishment, says john griffin, senior director, urban wildlife programs at the humane society of the united states. crows are intelligent creatures, and griffin notes that it gets \u201charder [to drive them away] the longer they\u2019re there.\u201d by the time spring rolls around, the birds will migrate elsewhere\u2014but many&nbsp;return to the same city blocks winter after winter, only growing in numbers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">even if cities like sunnyvale manage to temporarily drive out downtown roosts, the crows will likely&nbsp;return unless they can find another suitable habitat. for this reason, matthew dodder, executive director of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/scvas.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">santa clara valley audubon society<\/a>, thinks that the best solution in sunnyvale is to learn to live with the birds. \u201cfrom my point of view, it seems like not much can be done to change the situation,\u201d he says. \u201cso we should adapt to accept it, and appreciate it, and work around it.\u201d dodder offers up ideas like covering dining areas and being better about trash management to help mitigate the impacts of the birds around the plaza.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">bigger picture, dodder hopes to see more changes in the development of urban and suburban spaces that would contribute to a more harmonious coexistence between bird and man. \u201cif we can create new green spaces, that might just work,\u201d he says. mcgowan agrees, recalling that he and his colleagues considered creating a designated \u201ccrow oasis\u201d for the auburn flocks decades ago. but the city stuck to its ongoing hazing strategy instead.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">another solution&nbsp;is cultural\u2014teaching people to appreciate crows and other urban birds. instead of finding large flocks creepy or annoying, mcgowan says, we should see them as fascinating examples of species adaptation in an age where even&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.audubon.org\/news\/north-america-has-lost-more-1-4-birds-last-50-years-new-study-says\">the most common species&nbsp;<\/a>are disappearing.&nbsp;\u201cthey&#8217;ve been doing this for thousands of years,&#8221; he says. &#8220;it\u2019s actually a spectacle.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>sunnyvale, california recently began using lasers&nbsp;to deter large flocks of roosting crows. the effectiveness of these tools, however, can vary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9941,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4905,4933],"tags":[985,732,4737,591],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adaptation","category-storyfest-2022","tag-adaptation","tag-birds","tag-crows","tag-storyfest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>can laser pointers help solve a city\u2019s crow problem? - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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