![]() Laughing Gulls, in particular, exhibited a significant (125%) increase in escape behaviour for surveys at 91 m. Some species were more sensitive to surveys than others. However, disturbance score increased significantly by 53% for surveys at 46 m. When compared to control periods, we found no evidence that colony-wide escape (i.e., flight) behaviour increased during drone flights, at any altitude flown. ![]() Behavioural reactions were tallied every minute and a disturbance score was calculated for each sampling period. An upper limit of 122 m was used due to local regulations prohibiting higher-altitude flights without federal authorization. Surveys of mixed-species waterbird colonies (1-6 species per colony) were flown in horizontal transects at heights of 122, 91, 61, and 46 m, which is a typical range for collecting aerial imagery and producing high-resolution mosaicked orthophotos of nesting bird sites. Disturbance was investigated by conducting aerial surveys with a consumer-grade quadcopter (DJI Phantom 3), while concurrently recording behavioural reactions on video. The popularity of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to survey colonial waterbirds has increased in the past decade, but disturbance associated with this bourgeoning technology requires further study. ![]()
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