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Contract at Bagram is for the birds

Maybe the Air Force Academy mascot Falcons could make themselves useful in Afghanistan.

Pigeons, magpies and other birds are causing more damage to planes at Bagram Air Base as operations there pick up, and the Army is looking for a contractor to help solve the problem, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The bid request for “bird control services” does not specify how the birds should be dealt with, but does offer land and materials to build mews — the large cages used to house falcons, hawks or other birds of prey — on the base.

An 8-ounce songbird can do a lot of damage to a 60,000-pound jet if it’s sucked down the intake: Wildlife strikes cost the Air Force more than $25 million in fiscal year 2007, according to the service’s Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard team.

Some bases in the U.S. do employ falconers to help control bird hazards; others use loud noises, pyrotechnics or anti-perching devices. Langley Air Force Base, Va., encouraged the local gulls to relocate by planting grass that would give them indigestion.

Officials at Joint Base Balad, in Iraq, used more of a team approach: A “BASH militia” of off-duty soldiers and airmen were given pellet guns and shotguns and told to take aim. The base credited them with a 30 percent reduction in strikes in November 2007 from previous months.