The Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) on Tuesday said it would continue working to avoid bird strikes at the airport after reporting a decline in such incidents.
Bird strikes at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport dropped from 37 in 2017 to 23 in 2018, the airport operator said, adding that none were recorded in the first quarter of this year.
Birds are one of the important factors affecting aviation safety, and there has yet to be an effective solution that can completely stop them from happening, TIAC senior vice president Jerry Dann (但昭璧) said.
The only thing airports can do is do whatever they can to reduce the incidence, he said.
One of the most significant incidents was the forced landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River on Jan.15, 2009, after the aircraft encountered a flock of Canadian geese 100 seconds after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York, disabling both engines, Dann said.
All 155 passengers on board and crew members survived the water landing, he said.
The airport in Taoyuan is different in that there are few large birds in the vicinity, Dann said.
Birds frequently seen around the airport are barn swallows, nightingales and Eurasian skylarks. There are also bats. Except for the nightingale, which weighs about 80g, the other three weigh less than 20g each, so they would not cause much damage if they were to come in contact with an aircraft.
By contrast, a Canadian male goose weighs about 6.5kg, while a female goose weighs about 5.5kg, he added.
Having worked at the airport for 11 years, Dann said that the largest bird that he had seen — and only once — was an Indian spot-billed duck, which weighs about 1.6kg.
Birds seen around this time of the year at the airport are mainly cattle egrets and barn swallows, he said.
Cattle egrets, which weigh about 250g, usually appear in April to May, and between August and October, he said.
Rather than driving away the birds by using buzzers or killing them with shotguns, most countries now opt to destroy their habitats.
Birds would not linger around airports much longer if they have no place to build their nests or cannot find food to eat, he said.
The company has installed bird nets at the rivers near the airport, and removed perennial ryegrasses and tree groves to discourage them from staying, he said.
“We have also built a database to familiarize ourselves with the types and sizes of birds that would appear at the Taoyuan airport. The database shows the season when they appear and their frequency,” he said.
The information is posted on the airport’s Aeronautical Information Publication, which can be viewed by pilots and airlines.
The company has also formed a team comprising experts from the Wild Bird Society of Taoyuan and university professors to prevent wildelife from venturing into the runways, taxiways and tarmac.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
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