On NYC beaches, angry birds fight drones patrolling for sharks and struggling swimmers

Patrol drones deployed in May to New York City beaches to look for sharks and struggling swimmers are ruffling feathers. Seabirds have been attacking the drones as if they are predators, flying and swooping at the machines while vocalizing.

The birds eventually may grow habituated to the devices, which can stretch over 3 feet (nearly a meter) long and emit a loud hum as they take flight, McGill emeritus professor David Bird told the Associated Press.

But he was quick to raise a far more dire possibility: that the drones could prompt a stress response in some birds that causes them to flee the beach and abandon their eggs, as several thousand elegant terns did following a recent drone crash in San Diego.

“We don’t know a lot about what sort of distance is required to protect the birds,” he said. “But we do know there are birds on this beach that are highly endangered. If they abandon their nests because of the drones, that would be a disaster.”

Wildlife experts have identified the nests' locations and notified the authorities, but the annoyed birds remain.