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Every year, Portlanders gather at Chapman Elementary for Swift Watch, witnessing flocks of Vaux’s swifts soar into the school’s chimney to roost. But on Friday, Sept. 8, the birds were joined by an unwelcome visitor: a drone.
“Many thousands of swifts use that chimney every fall,” Joe Liebezeit, Portland’s Audubon’s statewide conservation assistant director, tells WW. “[Drones] could have a big impact on their survival.”
On Friday, an Audubon volunteer observed a drone causing the swifts to break formation and try to chase it away. ”Birds often perceive drones as a type of predator, like a hawk,” Liebezeit says.
Drones can be far more than an irritation to birds. They have been known to induce stress and, in an extreme cases, cause birds to abandon their eggs. This is particularly concerning with regard to the swifts, who are declining in some areas.
Does Portland Audubon have plans to protect the swifts from future drone activity? “Educating the public is really important,” Liebezeit says. “There are also regulations.” That includes the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protects native wildlife from harassment.
While airborne drones are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, Oregon State Parks have the power to determine where they can take off and land, although that doesn’t apply to Chapman, which is not a state park.
(Liebezeit did says that Portland Audubon will work with Oregon State Parks on the separate issue of drone use in state parks.)
As for the swifts, you have until Oct. 15 to watch their migration into the chimney (which protects them from extreme temperatures and approximates the pre-industrial hollowed-out trees where they once sought refuge).