Pilot project with raptors to disperse new pigeon colonies in Les Corts
In an effort to quickly disperse new communities of pigeons, a pilot project began on Wednesday to get raptors flying in the area around the Camp Nou stadium, the Jardins de Bacardí and the Jardins de la Maternitat, in the district of Les Corts. This practice of using raptors to disperse birds is carried out by handlers specialised in falconry and will initially last six weeks.
A Harris’s hawk with its wings open perches on the arm of a handler from the fauna control company Soma. Photo by Elena Pastor
The project has been jointly developed by the District of Les Corts and the Department for Animal Welfare, with information provided for local people and FC Barcelona about the two stages of the pilot plan, part of the municipal strategy to control and reduce the growth of pigeon communities, based on three key aspects:
- Reducing and eliminating food that people give to pigeons.
- Reducing fertility, with strategies such as the provision of contraceptive bird food.
- Limiting, reducing and eliminating the structures that facilitate rest and nesting possibilities for pigeons, with the installation of dissuasive elements.
Pilot project in two stages
The first stage lasts two weeks and will see raptors in flight every day between 8 am and 4 pm to regularly disperse areas identified by specialists where pigeons concentrate in numbers. In the following four weeks corresponding to the second stage, flights will be reduced to three a week to ensure that the colonies have dispersed, as these birds reputedly return to the same spaces to feed, rest and nest.
The specialists will also gather data on the hours of pigeons, the characteristics of groups, their presence at drinking points and places where they feed and rest.
According to the results of the pilot project, there may be a proposal to continue it.
