The art of harassing birds: Why King County officials want to scare eagles with pyrotechnics

Eagles are majestic, mighty, and patriotic. They are also a bit dirty and have a penchant for feasting on garbage.

That’s why officials at the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill are asking the federal government for permission to shoot explosives at the nation’s bird.

It’s King County’s only landfill, located just outside of Renton. Birds flock to the site for a free meal within the trash. It’s not uncommon for them to fly away with some garbage only to litter it elsewhere. The solution: Workers have resorted to using pyrotechnics to scare them off.

But as The Seattle Times reports, eagles are a federally protected species, and a symbol of the nation. A special permit is therefore required to shoot explosives at them. About 200 eagles are estimated to be visiting the landfill. An approval could come later this year.

Shooting loud, flashy fireworks at birds, even eagles, is not a new idea. Officials at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport have been doing it for years.

“Typically it’s a screaming sound, it’s banging sound, but it’s something that is very small, so it’s not like any of the fireworks we’re used to,” Sea-Tac’s wildlife manager Steve Osmek told KUOW’s Bill Radke.

"It’s harassment, it’s an effective means of harassment,” he said. “It not only makes a bright flash when it explodes, it makes a loud noise that they are not used to. So short term anyway, they tend to move on quite quickly.”

Sea-Tac Airport doesn’t kill the eagles, though they technically have a permit for incidentally doing so. But Osmek said they have no interest in that.

They do sometimes trap birds, including eagles, and then relocate them. Using pyrotechnics is actually the third idea that officials came up with to deal with troublesome wildlife at Sea-Tac Airport.

Unlike King County’s landfill, Sea-Tac isn’t so much concerned with birds littering trash. Instead, it’s more about birds colliding with airplanes and jet engines, potentially causing crashes.

Osmek said that eagles didn’t use to be much of an issue at the airport. In 2018, Sea-Tac had its first eagle strike. After that, the collisions became more frequent as the eagle population grew.

“And some of them have caused some great damage to aircraft,” Osmek said. “So they are the bird on the top of our list with respect to aviation safety, behind Canada geese. And also, there is a bald and golden eagle protection act, so our abilities to harass and manage eagles is much different than other species that we have around the airport.”

The airport is careful not to overuse the pyrotechnics, so the birds don’t get used to them. There are about five different kinds of pyrotechnics that the airport utilizes, just to mix things up. It’s become a bit of an art– the art of harassing birds.

“Starlings are a good example,” Osmek said. “European starlings, the young birds harass and scare very easily. But [in] September, when they start forming those larger flocks, then we use 3-4 pyrotechnics launched from the same device. So now it gives a completely different scream and banging sound that makes the birds react differently.”