As researchers and wildlife enthusiasts increasingly use drones to watch birds, a new study has come out with guidelines for best drone operating practices that minimize disturbance. 

“This study represents an important first step in understanding wildlife responses to drones and promoting ethical considerations in the use of new technologies in wildlife monitoring,” Meredith Palmer, conservation scientist at the Yale Center of Biodiversity and Global Change, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay. 

To arrive at their recommendations, researchers analyzed 149 studies, mostly from Antarctica, the U.S. and Australia, where drones have been used to monitor birds. They examined various factors related to drone usage, including the types of drones used, how far they took off from the birds, how fast they approached the birds, what bird species the drones observed, and whether the birds showed any adverse response to the machines. The study mainly focused on the flushing, or flight response, of birds due to its “detrimental effects on breeding success, energy budgets, and even survival.”

The researchers found that faster drones like fixed-wing drones that resemble and maneuver like traditional airplanes, caused birds to react more negatively than slower drones, mostly rotary-wing types that can hover in place. This is “likely because higher speeds are usually associated with predatory attacks,” the authors write. The researchers also recommend that bent-wing drones shaped like predatory birds should be avoided.

Drone distance and speed also matters. For instance, the researchers found that large breeding birds like penguins or pelicans usually don’t try to flee if a drone approaches them at distances of 30 meters (98 feet) or more. For medium-sized birds such as gulls, ducks and herons, the “safe” distance increases to 50 m (164 ft), while for small birds such as terns, shorebirds and passerines, it’s recommended that drones stay at least 70 m (230 ft) away.

The researchers also found that “individuals that are incubating an egg or a chick tend to be less skittish than off-nest or non-breeding birds [around drones], because they are highly protective of their offspring.” 

Palmer said the lack of fleeing response in nesting birds doesn’t mean drones don’t stress them out. “I imagine there is a huge physiological stress response in individuals choosing between avoiding threats and protecting their young,” she said. “There could be additional costs from drone usage near nesting birds not captured in this study, such as future nest abandonment.” 

“What this paper does do is a great job of is highlighting areas for future research,” Palmer added. “A critical follow-up [needed] is rigorously evaluating these recommendations in practice and conducting new studies to fill identified gaps in our current knowledge. Another key next step [is] considering how we would get these guidelines implemented in practice, particularly given the variety of use cases for flying drones near birds and other wildlife.”

Banner image of a drone by Potushaft via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).