Hello LPF from St. Louis!

[fiveliter8]

*EDIT* Just want to make it clear my intent is not to kill anything, despite it being recommended by the Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA). European House Sparrows and European Starlings are the pest birds I mention in the OP. *EDIT*

I've been lurking here for the past year learning a lot about lasers and how to spec one out for my project. I am building a laser "cannon" to ward off invasive pest species of bird as I am a purple martin "landlord" and said pests kill adults and young for their nesting space. I'm in a suburban area, so traditional methods have proven ineffective. Wound up getting a 2W laser from sanwu and will be mounting it to a stock along with a scope that will have the appropriate protective filters on the sight glass. So far it has proven effective making the targets very uncomfortable when spotting them with the beam. Since I haven't built a rig yet, my shaky, unsteady hands are getting the job done. Thank you for all the great info!

 

[paul1598419]

I personally have a problem with people using lasers to kill off animals they don't want around. I hope you don't just do these kinds of projects because lasers are used for many worthwhile projects, none of which have anything to do with killing any animals. I got into lasers back in 1980 in order to make holograms. Since then I have made many lasers that are of different wavelengths to add to my collection.

 

[Eidetical]

Your "shaky, unsteady hands" are waaay safer for the birds and probably more effective as the light appears to them to be flashing. Keep the beam wiggling.

 

[fiveliter8]

I personally have a problem with people using lasers to kill off animals they don't want around. I hope you don't just do these kinds of projects because lasers are used for many worthwhile projects, none of which have anything to do with killing any animals. I got into lasers back in 1980 in order to make holograms. Since then I have made many lasers that are of different wavelengths to add to my collection.

I am not killing anything. The range is about 25-30 feet and I've tried using a green spot, but the pest birds just stare at it, probably thinking it's food. Trapping is ineffective because all the neighbors around me have bird feeders and my traps go ignored. As I originally posted, the intent is to make them uncomfortable. Lasers are great for many things, most of the ones I've worked with being for laser marking, shaping tooling measurements, and tooling alignment. Personally, I've only done one project with a laser, during college, that modulated with sound input via microphone that bounced around the classrooms landing at a detector/amplifier for the distant end to hear. I'm also working on a project resurrecting a SLA 3D printer that has a smoked diode. I'm learning a lot being here and appreciate all the help I've gotten so far. Hope this eases things up a bit.

 

[paul1598419]

If I got your intent wrong I apologize as it seemed that you were trying to at least injure birds with your laser. Be aware that lasers can also blind animals basically doing the same thing as outright killing them.

 

[RedCowboy]

New Study Shows the Effectiveness of Lasers for Bird Management - WGC

Learn about how our bird control service has great success in humanely monitoring and managing pest birds with lasers such as the AVIX system

www.wildgoosechasers.com