Skin's to prevent bird attacks?

[BB23]

G'day,
On this site I have seen many different methods of avoiding bird attacks but I'm curious to know if a brightly coloured or even a camo skin would scare the birds away, Thanks.

 

[MrBreez]

I guess we can start outfitting out Mavic's to look more like a scarecrow... Not sure how the straw would affect the videos and pictures.....
Predatory birds that are likely to attack drones are doing it not for food but as a protection mechanism for their young or their claimed hunting area. Not sure if anything would really stop attacks but I'm interested in hearing what others have to say about this topic. Myself have had the unfortunate encounter on two different occasions. First time I thought it was kinda funny and it only cost me two props... Second time I had to go find where the darn bird dropped it...after it had it's way with it! Violated I say... VIOLATED! LOL

 

[MavicPro83]

I had a bunch of seagulls buzzing mine the other day... to the point where the mavic topped for collision avoidance! Unusual behavior given they are not normally predatory, must have had young ones about, I opted to steer clear and fly out of the area.

 

[Cyberpower678]

I had birds circling mine once very close to the drone. I dropped the altitude fast to avoid a collision.

 

[dsd317]

How about this one:

 

[nzdrone]

Curious about this too. Had seagulls dive bomb me on two separate occasions. Maybe adding giant predator eyes. Doing research on the web and some say the giant plastic owls don't scare birds away. Another says the most effective is the sound of predator birds screeching and other birds crying in distress.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[dleasman]

Rumor has it that the orange, carbon fiber print skin is best, for keeping birds off your drone. Not sure if there is any science behind this, but it does kinda make sense. There is no known prey for a bird that is bright orange, unless you count Nutria, with their orange teeth, but I doubt those things taste good enough to eat.

 

[Tas47]

I've not tried it with a drone, but as a fruit grower I've found some of the most effective bird scarers are marked with large eyeballs. The background colour doesn't seem to matter as long as it has strong contrast.
E.G.

 

[4wd]

I've not tried it with a drone, but as a fruit grower I've found some of the most effective bird scarers are marked with large eyeballs. The background colour doesn't seem to matter as long as it has strong contrast.
E.G.

Agree with this, we used to keep birds off soft fruit by using cardboard pictures of cat faces just lying flat on the ground - it's the eyes they don't like.
Plenty of options for eye stickers out there.

 

[stratos]

In order to avoid bird attacks do the following:


1) Print a picture of yourself.
2) Stick it on top of your Mavic
3) Enjoy scaring the **** out of the birds

 

[Chris23]

3 out of 4 pilots care about bird attacks:

As for your actual Mavic, I have no idea....

 

[BB23]

Haha!! The suggestions are awesome, girlfriend isn't too pleased with the idea of the cat skin drone though dsd317, interestingly, although the birds of prey here in Australia are quite large, I've mostly had issues with the smaller birds in previous flights, maybe the orange skin would be best.

 

[Tas47]

the birds of prey here in Australia are quite large, I've mostly had issues with the smaller birds in previous flights,

Lucky you, I'm about 1km from a Wedge Tail eagle nest. They haven't been a problem with smaller quads (<300mm), but when I flew my XK X500 they went nuts. I was worried both about losing the drone and injuring/killing an eagle.
So far they've only shown the usual curiosity when I've flown the Mavic. I'd like to get an airborne pic of one, but so far they only circle above the quad

 

[bakerboy]

Fluro yellow reflective tape works a treat on our fixed wing plans to avoid bird strike on site, could give that a shot?

Also, climb don't dive, they can't change direction as quick as you can ascend

 

[GreatScott]

I am still working out the calcs on how to mount this baby. BUT I think it will work.

 

[stratos]

Lucky you, I'm about 1km from a Wedge Tail eagle nest. They haven't been a problem with smaller quads (<300mm), but when I flew my XK X500 they went nuts. I was worried both about losing the drone and injuring/killing an eagle.
So far they've only shown the usual curiosity when I've flown the Mavic. I'd like to get an airborne pic of one, but so far they only circle above the quad

In Australia, Eagle eat crocs for breakfast.
So Mavics are not as tempting

 

[stratos]

This are the mods anti birds that will do to the mavic.

 

[CactusJackSlade]

I had a bunch of seagulls buzzing mine the other day... to the point where the mavic topped for collision avoidance! Unusual behavior given they are not normally predatory, must have had young ones about, I opted to steer clear and fly out of the area.

Same here... they (segulls again) were not buzzing me, but the swarm I cam upon near the river was pretty dense and my obstacle avoidance kicked in a couple times! Scary watching the video just how close they do come.... seemingly without concern. I was flying a fair amount slower than they were...

 

[CactusJackSlade]

I've not tried it with a drone, but as a fruit grower I've found some of the most effective bird scarers are marked with large eyeballs. The background colour doesn't seem to matter as long as it has strong contrast.
E.G.

I like this idea

 

[BB23]

Lucky you, I'm about 1km from a Wedge Tail eagle nest. They haven't been a problem with smaller quads (<300mm), but when I flew my XK X500 they went nuts. I was worried both about losing the drone and injuring/killing an eagle.
So far they've only shown the usual curiosity when I've flown the Mavic. I'd like to get an airborne pic of one, but so far they only circle above the quad

Haha!! I'm up in Darwin so the skies filled with Galahs and Wedgetails, they get close but don't attack, little Peewee's (like mini Magpies) are the real issue, had one take out of Parrot A.R a few months ago.