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Home » News, Videos

Sea-Tac Airport First To Use Bird Tracking Radar

Submitted by on January 15, 2010 – 1:43 am5 Comments
Steve Osmet at SeaTac Airport by Patrick Robinson

Steve Osmet at SeaTac Airport by Patrick Robinson

This week the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport become the first airport in the United States to use a real time bird tracking radar system.

The system uses Accipiter Avian Radar to detect individual birds from small sparrows to large Canada Geese up to approximately two miles away. The bird activity is then displayed in real time on a Google Earth map. Airport officials can take these maps with them on a laptop.

Once birds are detected, pilots can be warned and the birds scared off using noise making guns.

Hopefully more airports start using radar systems like this instead of just killing the birds.


  • http://walkthewilderness.net/ Thomas

    That's a cool initiative. Its safe for both birds and humans

  • robertahynes

    Finally,someone with a common sense approach!

  • W Williams

    Wow … what an achievement! After three years of 'research' and spending several hundred thousand of taxpayer dollars this bird radar finally has real-time data, but still cannot tell you the size of the bird, automatically assess the risk to aircraft, or give accurate altitude information. Meanwhile, the US made systems used by the USAF, RAF, NASA and overseas airports have been doing these things successfully since 2003 (see http://www.geo-marine.com/wrst/radar.htm and http://www.detect-inc.com/merlin.html).

  • http://www.burdr.com Andrew

    Thanks a lot for the links!

  • http://www.burdr.com Andrew

    Thanks a lot for the links!