Is it true some airports keep birds of prey near the runways to keep away regular birds?
Most all I know of utilize maximum effort aimed at keeping them away. Here’s the problem with B.O.P., a jet engine can be destroyed by one bird of prey while it can ingest 20 or 30 sparrows (and more) without damage (they’re good for up to about 4 lbs./1.8 kg of bird at a time). B.O.P.s also get extremely focused on their prey, hover, and won’t notice an airplane coming at them. I’ve seen statues of owls inside of open hangars to keep birds from nesting but, don’t know of any that keep B.O.P. around the airport (how would you even manage that?), I worked Crash-Rescue for a medium sized airport (PBIA). Our primary job was going out and chasing the Egrets away from the runways (sirens/lights), especially just after the grass was cut (a primary purpose of keeping the grass cut was to limit the amount of field mice and the like – because birds of prey would come looking for them). Most birds of prey don’t feed on other birds, they mainly catch rodents.
