Whether you’re a captain or just a small vessel owner who loves boat adventures, you probably know that birds can settle down along and be among your main guests for the entire trip. In other words, dealing with bird droppings, nasty mess and serious damages on your deck and canvas can ruin your entire day and sailing experience.
However, there’s a way to frighten and keep birds away without harming them, especially when your boat is unattended in marinas or at anchor – bird deterrents. But as much as these devices can be ultimately effective, the truth is that there is a plethora of different types packed with different features. Let’s get to know them and a couple of things about them.
Air Bird Deterrents
If you’re not in the mood for experimenting and want to pick something that was shown to be very effective, don’t hesitate to explore air seagull deterrents for boats. These deterrents work by spinning, bouncing, waving or making different kinds of movements in the air, which startles birds and keeps them away from your boat.
Seagulls can be very persistent when using antennas, radars, or your boat’s lamps as their main lookout point. You can easily prevent this by getting a deterrent featuring ten rods. These deterrents are designed to move in the wind so they can keep gulls away from any device that provides your boat with signals.
On the other hand, the type of deterrent featuring bars can also be installed at any point of your boat, such as radar, TV antenna, lamp post, marine installations etc… where shorebirds are most likely to settle down. These convenient bird deterrents for boats are also motioned by the wind, regardless of whether it’s very strong or just a light breeze. On top of that, they’re very easy to install and mount off if you change your mind later.
However, keep in mind that after chasing shorebirds away from these spots, they tend to spread into the mast tops as their next destination point. And you can also easily prevent this by mounting a circular marine scarer. These deterrents work by making circular motions together with the wind to chase shorebirds away from your boat permanently.
Visual Bird Deterrents
Visual deterrents have been shown as a very effective method to scare away intruders. In fact, they’re widely used by farmers to keep birds away from their fields. The good news is that they’re also applicable to boats, as shorebirds will for sure get startled by their predators such as falcons, peregrines, and owls with scary yellow eyes.
However, be careful when choosing visual predator boat bird deterrents. To achieve the best effect, it’s recommended to pick something sturdy and of high quality, such as the ones made from aeronautical fabrics of high strength that won’t get destroyed by blasting winds.
Also, sewed predators should be able to perform chopped flights at least 10m in height, even when there isn’t a strong wind blasting. At the end of the day, shorebirds such as seagulls are smart, and they may realize that the predator is fake if it isn’t moving around.
Bird Deterring Devices
Except for air and visual seagull deterrents for boats, there are also many types of devices that can come in handy to keep intruders away from your deck. The most common types are audio and touch devices.
Audio Devices
If there’s something that will scare away shorebirds more than bars and rods waving around and their predators “chasing” them, that’s undoubtedly a piercing shriek an audio device can produce. Luckily for us, as the technology comes a long way, audio devices for scaring shorebirds away at large open spaces can be a great addition to any other bird deterring gear.
And talking about using technology for deterring shorebirds away, audio devices feature over 20 predator sounds that actually sound very genuine. These sounds are adjustable in different intervals to get to nearby intruders, make them feel distressed and wake up their natural instinct to leave the area.
Such audio bird scarers for boats work best on species such as pigeons, seagulls, crows, and starlings. Hence, make sure you provide your vessel with one of these when sailing in areas where these birds are authentic.
Touch Devices
As their name states, touch or electric bird deterrents use low voltage power that scares away birds once they get in touch with them. And as much as many captains are oppressed to using these devices, know that they aren’t harmful to shorebirds at all. In fact, these devices are designed to teach birds to avoid some critical areas of your boat where they’re most likely to make a mess and cause damage.
In fact, when a bird lands nearby this type of seagull deterrents for boats, it will immediately start producing small electric shocks. These shocks have the purpose to present a powerful psychological barrier or the “consequences” of landing at a specific area, instead of a physical one. These devices are completely legal as they’re designed to make birds flee the area and 100% proven not to kill or harm them.
Now that you learned about the most common deterrents and their main features, it’s time to hit the market and pick the most suitable one for your boat, depending on your needs, budget, preferences and the area you’re sailing at.
