Forget Scarecrows—Falcons Protect This Farm | National Geographic

We're kind of like security guards. We arrived before the sugar content of the fruit starts going up. As the foods ripen, the birds are more and more attracted to it, so we stand guard ten hours a day in that field until basically the fruit is harvested. Birds damage anywhere from five to ten percent of our crops, especially blueberries, cherries, and apples.

So we were looking at ecological and more sustainable ways to control it. Birds that come into our orchard, she likes your job. We're using the natural predator-prey relationship of raptors and other birds of prey against pest species like starlings, pigeons, and seagulls. We prefer our birds to chase them but break off on command and come back and be fed.

Because these birds are weight managed, they're like Olympic athletes. They have a very set weight for which they perform their best. So when we're protecting the cherries and blueberries, we get it first thing in the morning. We want to get out here right before the, you know, all the problem birds come in. We really don't want them to get their meal, achieve their meal, so we try to block that, so they'll be forced to go somewhere else.

When we do that, we typically will stay here all day long. We use the dogs to flush birds on the ground between the canopy of trees. Very often, we'll run in with a cowbell, and they're going up and down the rows scaring off birds while we have a falcon up above waiting.

Sometimes they've got a mind of their own, are able to get in a thermal, they'll go up, and then they drift off and cross mountains and stuff. We have radio transmitters on them, we can go retrieve them. The birds are not pets; they're companions. We work with them seven days a week, long, long hours, 14 hours a day. We take really good care of them; they're very dear to us.