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Comment by Fiahil | Hacker News Reader

Spikes and other stuff like these never work. You know what does ? This : https://www.amazon.com/Hausse-Scarecrow-Sculpture-Deterrents...

It's also cheaper, looks better and protect a much larger area.

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I went to university by the sea in a town known for its pterodactyl-like seagulls. Not only were the sculptures ineffective the real hawks they hired to scare the gulls apparently got turfed out by them!

You could always tell who the freshers were on sight, they were the only people who didn't know you don't eat outside without suitable cover.

It doesn't take a lot of effort to research potential predator/competitors for seagulls and then hold trials on what works. There's a lot of options, and if the gang doesn't seem intimidated by your choice of predators, invent one.

I'm sure this would be a very interesting project for any student!

Unless you're reintroducing a native species to the area or providing habitat for existing-but-endangered species, you're probably going to raise the wrong kind of eyebrows with that kind of research.

These researchers say they're rooting for the birds after all.

Humans have a long history of solving small problems by introducing bigger problems re: introducing non native species.

I was thinking about little resin sculptures of birds. Not living creatures.

I'm rooting for the birds too, but I'd also like humans to stop putting metal spikes on stuff.

Dinosaurs never really went away, they just Moore's law'd themselves.

> real hawks they hired to scare the gulls apparently got turfed out by them

Lots of raptors, especially falcons, are essentially specialised sprint predators and won't pick a fight with another bird any more than a cheetah would try to fight a hyena.

Pigeons are rats of the air and seagulls are hyenas of the air. Sounds about right. And Canada geese are cobra chickens.

Interestingly, pigeons fly fast and in a straight race can outfly many falcons. The falcons rely on a very fast stoop from above, slamming talons-first into the target bird hard enough to break its neck or even decapitate it.

My city has these kite-like predatory bird -resembling bird-scare things on some buildings. Hawk-shaped kite tied on a length of string to a building roof. When the wind picks up, it animates the kite to look like a predatory bird hovering. Very effective.

Right up until they realize it never moves?

A friend of mine got a pond with fishes in his garden, that longed acted (unfortunately for the fishes) as a food store for herons migrating. He then used a fake heron that worked pretty well the first year, but not the second. Next years he moved the plastic heron every couple weeks during the period he knows they comes and apparently this works.

He’s from Europe and use his own experience but apparently this site may help for US residents

https://explorer.audubon.org/explore/species/1387/great-blue...

Looks better? Highly subjective. I have some kind of birds that build nests in a corner of my front porch that's about ~18ft above ground. I'm not sure a plastic own hanging out up there would be the most welcoming.

There is a grocery store near me with a dove nesting on a light fixture directly above the entry. A fake owl is two feet away. The dove doesn't care.

Oh, those are the statues the pigeons sat on and pooped on at my last company’s patio.

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