Sonic Broadcast Unit for Bird Control in Vineyards

Many wine grape growers experience bird damage in their vineyards. The potential economic loss provides considerable incentive for growers to invest in successful control strategies. Broadcast alarm and distress calls have gained recent interest because technological advancements have made these sounds easier and less expensive to reproduce. The objectives of this research were to develop a broadcast unit for use in vineyards with multiple bird species and to test the performance of the unit under commercial conditions. A digital audio circuit was designed with a 4-MiB flash memory, 8-bit resolution, and a 7.5-W audio power amplifier. The circuit had a bandwidth of 10 kHz, was light activated, and a microcontroller was used to control circuit operation. The interval between broadcasts was varied throughout the day, and a different call was selected at each broadcast event to maximize the amount of time before habituation occurred.