SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – What is the Bay Area Rapid Transit's latest effort to improve riders' experience? Hire a hawk.
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The transit agency on Friday announced they have added a hawk to their El Cerrito del Norte station to deter its growing pigeon population, officials said in a release. The hawk, and his trainer Ricky Ortiz, work for the Southern California-based small business called "Falcon Force" which offers professional bird abatement services.
BART hired the company in late May and has been using Ortiz and his hawk, Pac-Man, ever since to chase away pigeons at the East Bay platform.
Pigeons have been an issue at the above-ground station for years as they attempt to seek shelter from the elements. BART officials said pigeons are non-native, non migratory and invasive and their droppings carry bacteria, fungal agents, and ectoparasites. If left unchecked, they can roost in a single location for years.
"We brought in owl statues, we tried nets, we tried various measures with noise. We did quite a bit to see how we could gently move them along," Wahid Amiri, Project Manager for the El Cerrito del Norte Station Modernization Project, which concluded in spring, 2021, said in the release. "Nothing was successful."
Pac-Man and Ortiz patrol the Del Norte station three times a week, eight hours a day. Officials said Pac-Man’s presence alone has been enough to frighten away pigeons. Ortiz merely has to point the bird of prey in the general direction of a sitting pigeon for it to fly away.
Ortiz claimed that in the weeks since he and Pac-Man started their new job, there's been a noticeable difference in the number of pigeons.
"The first day I was here, there were pigeons everywhere," said Ortiz, who’s handled hawks for more than a decade, said. "The next week, after Pac-Man showed up, there were way fewer."
The agency hopes that the hawk's presence will be a permanent solution as pigeons learn that the station is Pac-Man's territory.
In addition, Ortiz said that Pac-Man is unbothered by the commotion of the station and that hawks are "used to hustle and bustle."
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