The ornithological service at Pulkovo was created in the early 90s through the efforts of several airport employees, and eventually grew to 13 people. Three are zoological engineers, two “falconers” are specialists in birds of prey, the rest are foremen and duty officers on the runways. The situation at the St. Petersburg airport is special: it is located on one of the most powerful branches of the White Sea-Baltic flight route, and nearby there are numerous wetlands inhabited by various types birds. The most dangerous of them are herring gulls, which are sucked into aircraft nozzles, thereby causing engine failure. Their numbers were seriously reduced: the city landfill, not far from Pulkovo, which fed the birds for many years, was liquidated in July 2013, and they had to look for another place to feed.

Now on the territory of the airport you can see up to 76 species of birds: from small jays to eagle owls and finches.


The main weapon used to scare away birds is a gas gun. IN automatic mode it creates strong air pops, simulating the sounds of gunfire. It is impossible to predict when the next one will sound. The effect of surprise plays into the hands of the employees here - uninvited guests quickly get used to any constant noise and stop reacting to them. Another acoustic system is located on the sides of the runway, it emits the cries of disturbed seagulls and gun salvos. It is controlled from the engineer’s console, who can monitor the situation on the runway by special video cameras. Last year, the system was slightly modernized - the bird voices were rewritten - the previous ones turned out to be from North America and ours did not listen to them at all.

In addition to mechanical devices, they also use the most seemingly banal stuffed animals and disco balls. There are 10 of the latter located along the field - shimmering, they can scare swifts and jays with their glow. It’s true that they attract those who love everything shiny raven. Service employees are confident that none of the methods can be ideal, so they use everything in a complex, combining a sequence of techniques, shuffling them and inventing new ones themselves.


In addition to permanent employees, the unit also has a bird patrol: two peregrine falcons and a falcon. Despite their predatory nature, they only imitate an attack, hunt for a lure (the object from which they are fed), and flying seagulls think that they are chasing them and try to leave the place as quickly as possible. At night, the falcons are replaced by an eagle owl. Pulkovo is the only airport in the world that uses it for flight safety and is so far pleased with the results. To prevent the birds themselves from colliding with airplanes, they are released according to a schedule, and to prevent them from attacking their relatives, they are first well fed with chickens, quails and small rodents.


The last (but not least important) set of measures is preventive. The airport area should be as unattractive as possible for birds. To do this, employees drain wetlands, cover ponds with a special net (to discourage waterfowl), remove garbage, spray ditches and fields with substances that kill mosquito larvae - so that excess food does not grow.

The work looks productive: in 2014, only two cases of bird-plane collisions were recorded, compared to 13 in the past. The last serious incident occurred in November 2013, when a Rossiya Airlines flight departing from St. Petersburg to Hamburg was forced to land immediately after takeoff due to a seagull getting into the engine. By the way, aircraft manufacturers also think about ornithological safety. It was they who coined the somewhat artificial term “poultry resistance” and regularly conduct tests by firing at aircraft or engines that have just been released from the assembly line with bird carcasses (ordinary chicken is used). The damage should be no more a certain level, otherwise the aircraft will simply not be allowed for international operation.

Flight safety is the main thing in aviation. Be it a large airport or a local airfield.
All of them are located in open areas accessible to a certain type of “person” who does not need a pass or documents to enter the airport. Not only do these characters constantly enter restricted areas, but they also pose a threat to flight safety.

Today we will talk about birds and one day in the life of the ornithological service at Domodedovo Airport.

By colliding with the fuselage or getting into the engine of an aircraft, a bird can disrupt the operation of aircraft components. To prevent such events, Moscow Domodedovo Airport was the first in Russia, back in the early 80s, to create an Ornithological Service, whose tasks include monitoring bird populations on the territory of the airfield and within a radius of 15 kilometers from it.

What does the ornithological service do?

The tasks of the unit include ensuring ornithological safety of flights and monitoring bird populations on the territory of the airfield and within a radius of 15 kilometers from it. In 2002, Domodedovo was the first among UIA (Moscow Aviation Hub) airports to use unique falconry patrol birds to scare away those birds that could pose a threat to aircraft.

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According to the danger that birds can pose to aircraft, birds are divided by weight and size.
The greatest danger is large birds with a body weight of half a kilogram, rushing to open areas of the airfield or gathering in flocks. These are geese, cranes, swans, herons, storks, eagles, buzzards, ducks, herring gulls.

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The average ones include pigeons, rooks, black-headed and glaucous gulls, partridges, lapwings, as well as several other species. All of them weigh from 150 to 500 g.
Small bird species dangerous to aircraft include starlings, thrushes, and larks. They are dangerous because they tend to form numerous flocks.

But crows are not dangerous, since they are very smart birds and behave correctly at the airport and keep a respectful distance from aircraft.

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Birds are afraid of sharp sounds, bangs, gunshots and predators that pose a potential threat to them.
Based on this, birds are repelled on the airfield using acoustic installations that broadcast the cries of dangerous birds.

Birds are constantly moaning from this speaker.

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Birds are also repelled using propane guns that imitate the sound of a rifle shot, starting pistol or signal cartridges.
Several of these guns are installed next to the runway at Domodedovo - pictured on the right.

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Periodically, the cannon fires compressed gas, and even at a distance of hundreds of meters a blast wave is felt.

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One of the most “live” methods of combating a flying threat is birds of prey, also known as goshawks.
And yesterday, Ivan, an employee of the ornithological service, showed reporters how a hawk hunts.

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Today, to ensure ornithological safety of flights, five goshawks are used at Domodedovo Airport.
Meet Brunnhilde, a young six-month-old female hawk. For our own - Brunya.

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The use of specially trained birds of prey is the most effective and natural method of combating accumulations of birds in the take-off and landing zone and is widely used throughout the world: bird hunters work in the largest air harbors of the USA, England, Spain, Canada (in more than twenty countries in total).

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Unlike other technologies, in particular acoustic, this method causes stable avoidance reactions in birds based on deep instinctive processes developed during evolution, as a result of which the effectiveness of such influence increases markedly.

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On average, a goshawk learns and adapts within a month. The feathered guards are trained using a special methodology, which is based on the principles of training used in falconry.

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In the process of so-called “gestation,” ornithologists accustom the bird to itself, its environment, and the specific working conditions at the airfield. Main task specialist - to find contact with the bird, to gain from it trust and habituation to the equipment and personnel.

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Before the hunt begins, a helmet-eyecup is put on the bird so as not to irritate a large number lenses aimed at it - the hawk perceives camera lenses as someone's eyes and worries about how it will look on the screen.
Brunya listens to every sound and periodically scratches herself, trying to get rid of the helmet.

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Before a patrol bird is released on a patrol flight, a small transmitter is attached to its tail or paw, allowing movements to be tracked within a radius of 25 kilometers. However, this is rather a formality - a well-trained bird stays close to its owner and only in the excitement of chasing prey can it fly long distances.

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When an intruder comes into view, the hawk breaks from its perch - Ivan has a special thick leather glove on his left hand for transporting the bird.
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This time the intruder was a dove - not the easiest prey for a hawk. They seem like clumsy hulks to us, but in fact pigeons are very nimble and maneuverable when they are in open areas.

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Literally ten seconds pass and the intruder is about to end up in the clutches of Brünnhilde.

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Everything happened quite far away, so we won’t go into details.
Let me just say that Brunya did her job perfectly, and the offender became a complete hawk’s dinner.
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As Ivan said, each bird in the squad has its own character and he could not pick out a favorite from all of them.

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Brunya is still a young and impulsive girl, she still has to work on herself and hone her hunting skills.

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This is such a beauty.

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Arriving in once again for spotting in Vnukovo, we saw a young man with a bird like this near the fence.
True, at the first meeting she looked like this:

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It is clear that it was impossible to pass by such an animal without first capturing it.

The owner of the “feathered bird,” Dima, not only kindly allowed me to photograph his pet (it’s a girl), but also spoke in great detail about the ornithological service of Moscow airports in general and about falconry in particular.

Ornithological service - detachment birds of prey: hawks and golden eagles, designed to combat such problems as stray dogs and foxes on the airfield, and only to a lesser extent with birds that simply do not go where there is a predator.
It turns out that this is a really serious problem.
Yes, the airport area is fenced on all sides and, to put it mildly, is well guarded, but at the same time there are a lot of repair factories from which tramps end up on the field, and foxes simply dig through the fence.
Now let’s imagine: a plane lands, and then there’s a 15, or even 30 kilogram dog on its way - this is simply dangerous.
Game birds work both in Vnukovo and Domodedovo, only Sheremetyevo abandoned the idea of ​​an ornithological service.
There are four birds in Vnukovo.
Every day, ornithologists come to the airport several times and release their charges.
Foxes, as a rule, disappear for a long time, but with dogs it is more difficult. The fact is that a new flock will always take the place of one flock; the place will not remain empty.

Having told briefly about his work, Dima invited us to film the bird training.

We met in an “open field” near the airport.
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As evidence.

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This girl is still a chick, she is only three months old. According to Dima, his character is bad, so training is not going as quickly as we would like. Training continues every day.

In fact, when you see such a beauty on a person’s hand, it is difficult to understand that this is not a pet in the usual sense, it does not feel love for its owner, does not want to play with him, does not feel his mood.
Roughly speaking, it is the person who adapts to the bird, and she will be with him only as long as it is convenient for her.

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A bell is hung on the bird so that you can hear where it has flown, and an electronic beacon in case it gets very far away.
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When training a bird, the main thing is to teach it to return to the hand. Start with a small distance, gradually increasing it.
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The bird is called by whistling, and there is a piece of meat in the hand. They also whistle during feeding so that this sound is associated with food. Please note that the bird does not take its eyes off its prey.

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12. There is a touch!

Dima is a falconer with considerable experience, already 18 years. This is how a boy at the age of 10 saw his first bird and decided on future profession once and for all.

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In addition to returning to the hand, the bird also needs physical activity, that is, the ability to fly, and fly quickly.
To do this, they use the hunting instinct. The predator must catch up with its prey. Pigeons are often used for training; they fly very quickly, which makes it possible to develop good muscles in hawks.
But today there was no dove.

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For training" decoy“must be free, maneuverable, but at the same time remain a decoy.
Birds have two-dimensional vision, they don’t see the line, but for a hawk the hunt must be real.
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18. The enemy is defeated.

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20. Wet, but happy.

These are the feathered defenders of airfield fields!

Nika Ryzhova-Alenicheva

32 years old, aviation ornithologist at Domodedovo airport

How it began: a fledgling raven, a chick hawk and hunters

“I have been birding for over 15 years. Although I am an economist by training, I never graduated from the Faculty of Biology. The first bird - the Far Eastern big-billed crow - came to me by chance from “Grandfather Durov’s Corner”. One organization bought it for filming, and then didn’t know what to do with it, so it was given to the school’s zoo corner, where I studied and worked as a laboratory assistant after school. The crow was in terrible condition - bald, blue, with crooked lame legs, and still couldn’t fly. I decided to get out, although I didn’t know how. I didn’t have the Internet then, but I was able to find people from the Russian Songbird Club. They told how to properly keep a crow and what to prepare the mash from - this is a special porridge for insectivorous birds.

After a few months, the bird began to shine, grew feathers, and generally began to look content. But suddenly that same organization appeared and asked to return the crow - supposedly they were giving it to me for a while. The bird managed to become dear to me, I put my soul into it and understood that after the next filming it would be returned in the same terrible condition. I was very upset then.

My biology teacher, seeing how worried I was, turned to my friends. Soon one of them said that an orphaned fledgling raven was brought to the zoo (fledglings are chicks that have fallen from their nests. - Note ed.), who needs to be placed in reliable hands. This is how I got my first personal bird - Till the raven. At first he lived in the school laboratory, then he moved into my apartment.

After graduating from school, I accidentally ended up in the Moscow region visiting a bird of prey breeder and an experienced falconer. Having learned about my raven, Peter taught me how to make ammunition, how to properly tie fetters (special straps on the bird’s paws that perform the same role as a collar and leash in dogs. - Note ed.). He also asked why I didn’t get myself a hawk for hunting. Then I couldn’t even imagine that this was possible, but literally a week later, at Peter’s request, they gave me a hawk chick. I tortured Peter all summer with this hawk: for every question - and there were a lot of them - I called, went to see him from Tushino near Noginsk four times a week. Peter turned out to be very good person- not only tolerated anxiety, but always showed and told everything. He introduced me to other falconers. Seeing that I was a “poor student” who did not always have enough money for travel, they fully provided food for my bird and took us to all the events around the falcon.

Already in September, I took part in falconry competitions, where my Till caught a pheasant and received a diploma as the only crow hunter. At that time my hawk was not yet ready for such events, but at the beginning of winter he hunted successfully. At hunter competitions, I met many bird experts - not only from Moscow, but also from other cities and countries. There I also met the employees of the ornithological department of Domodedovo Airport. About six months later, on their recommendation, I was invited to the airport for an interview.


About working at the airport: mallard ducks and blunt claws

I have been a specialist in ensuring ornithological safety of flights at Domodedovo for eleven years. My main task is to scare away dangerous birds from the airport. And also prevent their appearance, identify and eliminate places of their accumulation. Dangerous birds are divided into three groups: small (for example, starlings, swifts, blackbirds), medium-sized (such as pigeons and jackdaws) and large-sized (among them - heron, goose, herring gull).

An ornithological service appeared in Domodedovo in the early 1980s, but the use of birds of prey began only in 2002. Before this, only technical means were used: pyrotechnics, bioacoustic installations with recordings of alarming calls of birds, starting pistols that scare away bright balls on reservoirs. These methods are still used today, but so far there is no equipment that could completely replace an ornithologist and a hawk. Birds quickly get used to everything and stop being afraid - just not from predators.

By international standards The area of ​​responsibility of ornithologists is 150 meters from the surface of the earth on takeoff and 60 meters on landing. But at 150 meters, hawks cannot scare away birds, and firecrackers rise no higher than 50 meters. You can't cover the sky with nets. On the ground, we inspect the territory within a radius of 15 kilometers from the airport: farms, fields, reservoirs, landfills and other places that attract birds.


Ornithologists work twelve hours a day, in shifts - two after two - and only during the daytime. The first thing I do when I come to work is look through my office mail and magazines with information about the places where birds gather, their numbers and movements during the previous shift. It is important for me to understand what happened while I was away. Then, together with my colleagues (two or three ornithologists plus a driver work per shift), we drive around the airport in a company car. Bioacoustic installations and propane cannons are placed along the entire perimeter, simulating the sound of gun shots: many birds are afraid of it. We check their condition and, if necessary, change batteries and propane. If necessary, we submit a request for equipment repair.

Also, while driving around the territory, we look at where the concentrations of birds are. Now, due to the start of agricultural work, seagulls are gathering in the fields. During the hunting seasons there are also many birds, especially partridges and mallard ducks. If we fail to scare away the birds with technical means - firecrackers or a starting pistol - we take a bird of prey. But usually in the morning there is no need for this, and with the hawk we go out on schedule - we inspect the places where partridges, waterfowl and shorebirds most often gather.

Somewhere around one o'clock in the afternoon I go with the hawk to a place of potential concentration of birds. All our hawks are trained and know the territory well. They can either simply drive the birds away by chasing them or catch them. At the same time, caught birds most often remain alive - our hawks have dull claws, as they constantly run across reinforcement and concrete surfaces. But this does not mean that you can simply take their prey away from them. If a human partner does not share the meat, the hawk sees no reason to stay with him and flies away. After all, nothing holds him back except the knowledge that for the caught prey he will receive conveniently cut pieces on the falconer’s glove.

If a person does not share the meat, the hawk sees no reason to stay with him and flies away. After all, nothing holds him back except the knowledge that for the caught prey he will receive conveniently cut pieces of meat

I always take with me a cut quail - the airport buys them for patrol birds every month - and offer it to the hawk instead of prey. My bird is already used to this and even knows how many small and large pieces of meat I have with me. If I forget to give her the last one, she immediately becomes hysterical. So hawks can count.

We release the caught birds away from the airport. We send whole flocks of partridges to nature reserves, nurseries and hunting farms for breeding. If partridges are killed with claws, we take them for food.

In addition to scaring away, ornithologists also inspect birds caught on planes. They determine their breed, draw up a report and send it to the state inspection. In fact, birds often get into airplanes - into the turbine, fuselage, wing, landing gear and engines. We have dozens of such cases a month. As a rule, this does not cause much harm to the car. And the most common damage is bent engine blades. True, birds do not survive such encounters.

People often ask whether a bird of falcon can get hit by an airplane. In principle, this can happen to any bird. But we take into account the takeoff and landing schedule and choose the right moment (if necessary, the runway may be closed for the duration of the work). We also do not release hawks in the immediate vicinity of taxiing, landing or taking off aircraft.

By the way, it is for safety reasons that now only hawks work for us - falcons are also excellent at scaring away birds, but they need to rise to a considerable height to hunt. The hawk attacks from the hand, trying to fly low to merge with the landscape.


About collaborating birds: stubborn females and a tattered hood

We take goshawks from nurseries. Now there are five of them in the state, two of which are constantly in operation, and three are in reserve. And all are females. It happened so by chance. In birds of prey, females are always larger and heavier than males, and therefore look more intimidating. They are also lazy because they are accustomed to the male bringing the prey to them and the chicks. In fact, female hawks can hunt, but prefer to take food from males. In extreme cases, during the winter lack of food, they can even eat a male that turns up under the paws - cannibalism is the order of the day among hawks. And although females are stubborn, they have a significant plus - intelligence.

Each falconer has his own bird, which he trains over the course of a month. Sometimes they don't work out. For example, I had a saker falcon with a complex character that did not suit me. It was uncomfortable to work with, so I gave him back to the nursery. Silva the hawk and I have been together for five years. Although she has a very bastard and bitchy character - she doesn’t recognize anyone but me. Apparently, she believes that I am a bird like her, only without wings, and therefore I must do everything for her. So, when Silva does not find prey and gets tired of waiting for an invitation to dinner, she quietly flies up to me from behind and hits me on the head with her paws. The hood of my winter jacket has long been torn.

Methods of training and hunting with birds of prey have remained virtually unchanged since the times of the ancient Egyptians. Judging by archaeological excavations, the ammunition used to be exactly the same as it is now. Unless they started using other materials. Plus, a radio tracking system has appeared - a special transmitter is hung on the tail or paw of a bird and allows you to track its movements within a radius of about 20 kilometers.


To maintain health, a bird of prey needs movement, a well-equipped place to live and proper nutrition. Under no circumstances should they be given meat from the store. No chicken, beef or pork! The diet should be as close to natural as possible, that is, only rodents and birds are suitable for food - quail, day-old chicks, pigeons. We feed quail - one per day for each bird. Diurnal predators have a crop: they fill it with food and spend it throughout the day.

I know how to create the appearance that Silva and I have complete mutual understanding. The fact is that I know the natural instincts of birds well and understand what, why and why they do. Over time, falconers develop the habit of seeing everything before the bird - dogs, children, cars, other birds and inappropriate people who can pull the tail. So this skill is very helpful when you accustom a hawk to the city and do not cover its eyes with a hood. True, I’m so used to monitoring the situation around me that I almost never look into the eyes of my interlocutor. Some are offended. But I can't do anything about it. But unlike ordinary people who only notice pigeons and crows on the streets, I can count about a dozen on the way from home to the metro different types birds. One day, while walking along a busy street with my eagle owl, I saw a gray heron in the sky.

All of our hawks live in enclosures, but we often take them home. Especially in the first month of training, so as not to pause in training. Silva, despite being well trained, often spends weekends at my house, where several other birds live: an eagle owl, two little owls and a great owl, tropical frogs, a bearded dragon, leopard geckos, a 17-year-old tarantula and a regular cat. There was a period when eight owls lived in my apartment: I simply collected all the cripples and abandoned chicks. But then a rehabilitation center appeared near St. Petersburg - and I started sending everyone there.”

Ornithological Service of the Moscow Kremlin, which included specially trained interceptors falcons and hawks, was replenished with another wise and skillful fighter - an eagle owl named Phil, who is more often affectionately called Filet.

The responsibilities of this unique flying squad include protecting the Kremlin cathedrals from crow, damaging the gilding on the domes and spiers of cathedrals with their claws and destroying nightingales and other songbirds on the territory of the main fortress of Russia.

In addition, winged predators drive away flocks of urban pigeons, which eat away historical buildings and monuments.

The Kremlin commandant, FSO Lieutenant General Sergei Khlebnikov told RIA Novosti that The ornithological service in the Kremlin has existed since the 1970s, and, as practice has shown, the use of natural enemies of crows is much more effective than the use of noise systems and other technical means to repel pests.
General Khlebnikov noted that: “even in ancient times, the practice of falconry existed at the princely court. And today the use of birds in the fight against crows is a tribute to those traditions that arose during the times of the ancient Russian state.”

It is interesting that falconry in Rus' was considered a subtle and refined art, and the great empresses Anna Ioannovna and Catherine II were fond of it.

Gray crows have lived on Borovitsky Hill since ancient times. Alexander Garden is a traditional roosting place for crows. The place near the Kremlin has always been the warmest in the city.
Every evening, huge flocks of crows (several thousand individuals) hung over the Kremlin towers.

Having circled over the fortress with sad cries, the birds settled for the night in the trees in the Alexander Garden. In the morning, a flock of crows left the Kremlin with unimaginable noise and most birds went to feast on country landfills.

“Feathered wolves”, as the raven was popularly called, literally overpowered priceless historical buildings, tearing precious gilding from the domes with their claws and beaks and causing much more damage than the harsh climate and city smog.

According to ornithologists, crows in their mating dances usually slide down the slopes of roofs, and the shiny and slippery golden domes attract these strong and smart birds as special entertainment.

It must be said that the appearance of flocks of gray crows and their cries in Rus' since ancient times was considered a harbinger of troubles, famine or war. Unlike the famous black ravens in the Tower of London (eng. Ravens of the Tower of London), which are a symbol of the power and invincibility of the capital and the British monarchy.

The Kremlin has been fighting hordes of crows for a long time. During the time of V.I. Lenin's guards often shot at them with rifles, which prevented the leader from working. Shooting birds on Kremlin territory is prohibited. In addition, smart and observant crows quickly learned what a safe distance from the shooter to fly away to avoid being hit by bullets.

A protracted and painful war with the crows began: they tried to poison them - the crows ignored dangerous baits; the birds were frightened by bright glares of light, but they quickly ceased to be afraid of flashes; began to use a variety of scaring noise effects, including the cries of birds of prey and the danger calls of the crows themselves, but the crows quickly learned not to associate these noises with real danger and a threat to their lives.

Then, in the Kremlin, ingenious mesh house traps with food were placed against the crows, into which the bird could fly in, but had no way to get out. But this expensive experiment did not bring desired results. There were more than 5,000 crows in the Kremlin, and huge amounts of money were spent on the constant restoration of the gilding.

The crows began to feel like real masters in the Kremlin, and during the mating season they were not afraid of anything at all and even swooped down on tourists in flocks, dirtied the cars of Politburo members and benches in the Alexander Garden.

There is even a legend that in the summer crows flew through open windows into the offices of party leaders and stole documents from the table.

That’s when the patience of the Kremlin commandant’s office finally ran out, and in the 70s it was decided to create in the Kremlin ornithological department of the special Kremlin regiment.

This task was also not at all easy - one trained fighting falcon costs about 20 thousand dollars, At the same time, birds need to be trained on the spot for about two years!

Interestingly, in nature, neither falcons nor hawks ever associate with strong and dangerous crows that can cause serious injury to them. A flock of crows can generally quickly beat a predator to death.

On the eve of the 1980 Olympics, the then Kremlin commandant Sergei Shornikov finally came up with a plan, according to which it was proposed to use falcons as birds of prey to fight the crows. Specialists came to the aid of restorers and the military, creating an entire ornithological station literally from scratch.

In the Tainitsky Garden, closed to visitors, overlooking the embankment of the Moscow River, not far from the guardhouse of the Kremlin regiment and food warehouses, two large aviary cages were built, gyrfalcons and saker falcons (the two most combat-ready species of hunting falcons, reaching a length of 60 centimeters) were placed there and began training flying fighters.

At the same time, conscript soldiers and officers of the special Kremlin regiment began to teach the intricacies of falconry.

Completely unprepared birds ended up in the Kremlin. They took a special course in hunting in the fortress using a unique methodology developed by the FSO employees themselves for feathered fighters.

Capricious and touchy falcons were patiently tamed, and punishing vindictive birds of prey was prohibited. Finally, the birds learned to take off on command and land on the falconer’s special leather mitten (gag), and then, on command, to rush at the victim.

Members of the squad say that each of the birds has its own character and communication characteristics, each has its own favorite trainer. Birds sense the nuances of a person's mood and love to be treated confidently, without fear, and with respect.

Soon, soldiers and officers of the ornithological service began to clear the Kremlin of crows, patrolling the vast territory of our country’s main fortress—28 hectares—several times a day.

This is the hard work that the precious fighters of this winged detachment are doing, however, according to experts, much more money would have been spent on cleaning the territory and ancient monuments, restoring the gilding on the domes of the Kremlin churches using other methods.

Now Moscow specialists are working to restore the population of birds of prey listed in the Red Book in natural conditions urban environment. Peregrine falcons are perfect for this. They nested in cities in ancient times, and they feel quite comfortable in modern megacities.

According to the Kultura TV channel, until 1928, falcons lived in the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, and until 1938 - in the Trinity Tower. The architecture there with a lot of all sorts of niches is very reminiscent of a mountain landscape, that is, the place where a peregrine falcon could nest today.4.8 (96.67%) 24 vote[s]