Will 4.99mW Laser Scare Birds In A Daylight?

I want to scare away birds but only in a daylight.
Will 4.99mW laser help?

I know they will in daylight, if they see a bright light sweeping at them, even if the line of the beam is not visible, they will probably fly even at that power. Have to be careful though, too much power in the eye of a bird (or bystander) is bad news, if much power or too close the beam really needs to have a lot of divergence (at distance) or be unfocused a great amount to keep from harming them at some power, I don't know what is safe for birds in these regards at what distance.

Edit: I know they don't like 450 nm, just sweeping through the air with a higher power one in their direction without even getting close to hitting them (below) and they scatter. Their eyes are sensitive into UV, so 450 nm is not dim for them, just need to be careful and limit the power.

That said, here's some good info: http://www.laserpointersafety.com/tips/tips-birds.html

knowing from my own experience (was bored and did it once)
they will fly away whatsoever with a 300 mw 532nm laser
but with a 1W+ 445nm laser they don't always fly away

Large Alaskan Ravens hate 450 nm.

You can read more about scaring birds with lasers here: https://bird-x.com/bird-products/laser/

Seems a combination of red and green lasers are most effective.

There are plenty of cheap red/green projectors out there. They use low power 532nm and 650nm lasers and a couple diffraction gratings. I have seen these for as little as $15.00.

paul1598419 said:

There are plenty of cheap red/green projectors out there. They use low power 532nm and 650nm lasers and a couple diffraction gratings. I have seen these for as little as $15.00.

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Excellent point and probably a good choice for residential bird problems.

JetLasers makes some professional units designed for airport use however they are expensive, they run $5000 to $14000 and are all 532nm units.
See Bird Phazers: https://www.jetlasers.org/42-bird-phazer-laser-pl-e-pro-series

I was surprised these big Alaskan ravens could see 450 nm in daylight so well, too bright to see the beam in the air and when I swept near a trash can they were sitting on and pulling apart in my yard, they all seemed to react like "WTF!!!" and flew away in a hurry.

Encap said:

Excellent point and probably a good choice for residential bird problems.

JetLasers makes some professional units designed for airport use however they are expensive, they run $5000 to $14000 and are all 532nm units.
See Bird Phazers: https://www.jetlasers.org/42-bird-phazer-laser-pl-e-pro-series

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Jet Lasers has always been expensive, but these 1 watt bird phazers for $14,000 are way over the top. I suppose if you are running an airport and have bird problems that only a laser will solve, price is no object. But, for your back yard or something similar, I would try the cheap red/green projectors. At least if they don't work you are out much money. I got one back when Jmillerdoc had the package of laser stuff that rotated among members here. I ended up giving it to my daughter.

a cheap plastic owl decoy works better than any laser--most get used to it very fast and then ignore--100mW shined into their eyes does not phase black birds _ ( one was inside grocery store over my head in thier deli(booth) ) at first I was able to make it move on but it came back and around the 3rd try it began to ignore. only then did i shine near its eyes.. had no effect.

a search would have led the OP to lots of posts/threads here on this-- don't really know why so many do not search.
== JL.org BTW does sell lots of their 'bird lasers'-- more $$ made at JL on those than on portables sez JL.

An excellent bird deterrent is provided by falconers and their hawks. IIRC big geese are the main problem--

hak

4.99/5mw in daylight, not so much unless directly in the eye. I raise chickens and quail on my property. In daylight, they only react to my higher power 80mw green or 1.7mw blue! Actually use a 10mw greeen to heard the chickens back into the coop in the low light evening hours. The quail just chase it like a bug! In the lower light conditions, doesn't matter the color, red, green, blue or 405, the chickens freak! Again, the qualis just think it's something to eat! As far as wild birds, only seems to bother them in low light, unless the higher power is used.

20mw is safest bet and the usual go-to power for astronomy. It's also a legal limit in some countries.

I scared away big flocks of birds with my 800mw 450nm laser easily. Not sure if a 5mW laser would do the job.

I made fresh dinner with a synrad 60w CO2. Fell from the sky ready to eat.....just kidding.

Another approach is a loud bang. Set up something so when the come near it puts off an air horn. Like anything though they do eventual get use to any of this. VAriety is best.

Have the owl animatronic so the head spins around and spits pea soup.

kecked said:

I made fresh dinner with a synrad 60w CO2. Fell from the sky ready to eat.....just kidding.

Another approach is a loud bang. Set up something so when the come near it puts off an air horn. Like anything though they do eventual get use to any of this. VAriety is best.

Have the owl animatronic so the head spins around and spits pea soup.

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THAT ^^^ REMINDED me- some sounds I read being ones we hardly or never hear- are by nature alaming to animals-- just like the deer warn one another with a 'snort' the make by exhaling thru their noses-- if you imitate that any deer that hears goes 'heads-up' mode(ears and head alerting in 360 ). (I know from caring for a dozen in Fl)

I got a stun/glare/strobe personal device from JL- the Yamataka-
and the snap from the stun feature is loud and very 'sharp' and one we do not normally hear.

-- to test that- I took it to a (24hr) McDs- late nite only one other geek on PC using McDs free wifi== two teenage girls working the counter and chatting a lot etc.
So from under the table I sparked the stun very briefly-AND it 'started' both of them- sayin' 'WHAT was THAT??'
I never looked up...

later 3AM - I was alone there and repeated the experiment and once again they were instantly 'alerted'

later while researching stun guns I saw a video demo-- a lone walker going down a country lane between some falling down buildings & shacks and two loose barking dogs off to one side and another on the right. also barking- but not really advancing much.
the 'walker' then just sparks his stungun and all 3 dogs turned tail and retreated..... he walks on some more and new dog begins to bark- and one zap mage that one back=up.
this guy was never any nearer than ~10 meteds away.

then he turns back--& in a bit a cat comes out of a shack-- the guy snapped his stun-- the cat does a 360 and heads up a smallish tree so fast it ran out of tree and fell!!

Of course-- stunning the birds by hand would work well-- or just that sound. lol jk\

its (the 'Yama') is also a 520 laser ( w/ the 600mW $700)and LED strobe w/ more options than one can learn without some studying and LOTS of practice (in the dark) OR you will shock yourself and trust me it was not pleasant either time!!
___________________
from JL.org

https://www.jetlasers.org/yamataka-series/38-non-lethal-dazzler-laser-500-1000mw-532nm.html#/50-battery-no/49-goggles-no/120-power_levels-532nm_600mw
>>>>>>>>>>

and
https://www.jetlasers.org/yamataka-series/38-non-lethal-dazzler-laser-500-1000mw-532nm.html
And the 'spendy' PHAZERS for birds--
https://www.jetlasers.org/42-bird-phazer-laser-pl-e-pro-series

and more
[URL="https://www.jetlasers.org/42-bird-phazer-laser-pl-e-pro-series"]https://www.jetlasers.org/42-bird-phazer-laser-pl-e-pro-series[/URL]
btw dogs like border collies are good bird chasers too


I still say a plastic owl or two may be the best option..

5mW is not enough, especially during daylight.

But some 60-100mW 520-532nm pointer does the job well, even during daylight, in distances of few hundred meters.
Much depends on the focus as well.

I am able to make move big bird flocks with my 520nm/80mW greenie @500m distance during sunset with focus set to infinity.