Bird and Wildlife Management Plans

Ecosure’s Bird and Wildlife Management Plans for airports conform to the national template developed by the Australian Airports Association (AAA). The development of management plans involve:

  • A site visit to assess habitat and species present on and off airport
  • An audit of bird and wildlife management practices
  • An appraisal of bird and wildlife reporting procedures
  • A review of strike data including production of charts and tables to allow ease of interpretation
  • The ranking of species according to risk posed to aircraft
  • The development of prioritised recommendations for improving bird management
  • The production of individual management plans for each of the most hazardous species
  • Developing action plans for areas on and off airports that contribute most to bird strike risk

Bird and Wildlife Risk Assessment

Most aspects of the air transport industry are subjected to detailed risk analysis requiring the probabilities of a particular adverse event to be carefully calculated. Bird and wildlife risk assessment has not been a priority in the past but is now emerging as a necessary part of airport risk management. Ecosure is one of a small handful of organisations in the Asia-Pacific region with the experience and capacity to perform industry endorsed bird and wildlife risk assessments.

Bird and Wildlife Management Committees

Ecosure supplies technical expertise to bird and wildlife management committees and can guide or chair such committees in order to achieve optimal results. Ecosure’s committee involvement has proven very effective for:

  • Ensuring a collaborative rather than adversarial approach to wildlife management which, by its nature, requires an integrated approach involving multiple stakeholders
  • Informing stakeholders of the need for suitable data collection through good strike reporting procedures
  • Alerting stakeholders to their responsibilities within the bird and wildlife management program

Strike Databases

Ecosure develops databases for storage and analysis of bird and wildlife strike and count data. These allow for periodically updated charts and tables to be produced showing:

  • Yearly, seasonal and time of day trends
  • Species struck and those causing damage to aircraft
  • Species involved in strikes where more than one individual is struck
  • Height, phase of flight runway usage when struck
  • Species most frequently observed on and transiting the airport
  • Maps indicating locations and bird densities on-airport

Bird Management Training Workshops

Training of personnel involved in the bird and wildlife management program is essential to ensure cutting edge results. Ecosure has developed a training program which is designed to provide airport operations personnel with the knowledge required to effectively manage bird and other wildlife hazards in the airport environment. Training packages are presented in a series of units which cover the following essential areas:

  • Background to bird strikes
  • The Australian context
  • Review of airport statistics
  • Bird identification
  • Strike reporting
  • Monitoring
  • Dispersal and culling
  • Habitat management
  • Off-airport hazards
  • International minimum best practice standards

Bird Manuals

To assist with bird identification and understanding of birds and their management, Ecosure produces Bird Manuals which are customised for each airport. These are presented in a tough laminated production with high quality colour photographs and explanatory text for use by airport staff in operations vehicles.

Airside Bird Management

We provide innovative approaches to dispersing birds at airports. These programs can be used to supplement existing operations by Airport Safety Officers, or can be tailored to create a specialist bird management unit. Ecosure will actively disperse birds on a scheduled basis or opportunistically when particularly persistent flocks present a hazard. Ecosure staff are fully trained. They are familiar with airside operations and hold ASICS, Radio COPs and appropriate weapons licenses. Senior staff have completed the Aerodrome Reporting Officers course.

Bird Surveys

Most large Australian airports require professional bird surveys to be conducted in order to monitor bird population trends and assess the effectiveness of management actions. These surveys derive information not normally collected by Safety Officers such as precise location of bird species on-airport, numbers, behaviour, habitat preference, time of day and year, transit routes and heights. Ecosure’s Managing Director has developed a risk assessment model based on quality survey data that is becoming the benchmark for risk assessments at Australian Airports.