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Starlings Were Recorded Less Often Near Point Cook Runways During Three Years of Hazing

Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) holding prey in its bill
Conservation · Management

Common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were recorded less often in runway-critical areas over three years of non-lethal hazing at Point Cook RAAF Base in Victoria, Australia. The study, published on 6 August 2026, analysed routine wildlife-management records from December 2015 to December 2018. Starlings were one of eight focal species with enough records for species-level analysis.

Staff used escalating deterrents to move wildlife away from the areas closest to aircraft during take-off and landing. They began with low-intensity cues, such as approaching in a vehicle, and increased the intensity only when the animals did not move. For starlings, the records covered 590 hazing events and 33,202 birds. These were recorded birds, not 33,202 known individuals, because the same individuals or flocks could appear in more than one event.

Starlings were recorded less often near the runways

As the programme progressed, starling hazing events became less likely to occur in the runway-critical areas. Across the airport as a whole, wildlife use of these areas also declined while total wildlife numbers remained broadly stable. The authors therefore interpret the pattern as a local shift in space use rather than a general decline in wildlife using the airfield.

They reacted earlier, but were harder to move

Starling behaviour changed in two directions. Over time, the birds began responding to an approaching management vehicle from greater distances, suggesting that they became less tolerant of the approach. At the same time, common starlings were the one focal species for which stronger deterrent cues were increasingly needed to make them move. They therefore reacted to the approach earlier, but did not become progressively easier to displace once hazing began.

Only four wildlife–aircraft collisions were recorded at the base during the study period, too few to test whether collision rates changed. The researchers therefore used wildlife location and behavioural responses as indirect measures of exposure to collision risk. For starlings, the clearest result is that a smaller share of records came from the areas closest to active runways, while their responses to repeated hazing changed in different directions.

Sources and image credit

  1. Linley, G. D., & Weston, M. A. (2026). Proxies for success: Targeted hazing reduces wildlife use of runway-adjacent areas and management effort at an airport. Journal of Applied Ecology, 63, e70517.Open-access primary study first published 6 August 2026. At Point Cook RAAF Base in Victoria, common starlings accounted for 590 hazing events and 33,202 recorded birds. The probability of a starling hazing event occurring in runway-critical areas declined over time; starlings responded to approaching personnel from greater distances but required stronger deterrent cues to be displaced. Birds were not individually marked, so repeated records of the same individuals or flocks were possible.

Image: Paweł Więcek (hedera.baltica) — common starling (Sturnus vulgaris), photographed 2 May 2024; originally published on Flickr and available via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Representative species image; not a bird from the Point Cook study. · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source

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