Pretty much like the title says. We’ve been using scarecrows for a while now, so I was just wondering if we’ve made any amazing advances with them or if we’re still stuffing old clothes full of straw. Or if we’ve let go of scarecrows altogether in favor of something more… technical-like.
There are probably many methods of scaring animals away from crops using microchips. Whether or not they decide to refer to these methods as “scarecrows” is probably another matter. Maybe they are more worried about deer, rabbits or kangaroo. 
[sup]A scarecrow by any other name is a ???[/sup]
I don’t know if I would consider it a “technological advance” or not, but when I was out in California wine country last year I noticed that a lot of vineyards had what appeared to be long thin mylar streamers attached to the tops of some of the vines. They flap around in the wind and look sparkly and I guess they are supposed to keep the birds away, and they are definitely not as much of an eyesore as a big straw man stuck to a pole.
The ones I’ve seen are more like long sticks than ribbons, but I suppose it’s pretty much the same thing… they’re scared of the movement or something.
My roommate’s dad has a deal that ignites propane to produce very loud blasts of sound (like a shotgun firing). You can vary the interval between blasts. A little Googling turns up several examples, including this one.
On the same principle as the mylar streamers, I’ve seen several gardens with hanging strings of discarded CDs, which glitter and flash in the breeze to scare critters.
Here in India, the old-fashioned “shirt on a stick” is still very widely used by rural farmers. (Not sure why this would be considered an “eyesore”; certainly I think I’d find it less annoying than the “earsore” of explosive devices.)
Has anyone done any studies on what actually does scare crows, and other crop-raiders, most effectively? Is the flashy metallic stuff superior to the old-clothes-mimicking-live-person? Is there something about imitating an actual human form that triggers birds’ and animals’ fear of humans and inspires greater aversion than mere flash and movement?
I tried to find out by googling “bird hazing devices effectiveness scarecrows”, which turned up a lot of information but no definitive answers. AFAICT, the consensus seems to be that all bird hazing methods—broadcast distress calls, explosions and other aural frightening devices, visual frightening devices such as scarecrows or shiny things—lose their effectiveness as birds get used to them. The key to success appears to be variety: use a combination of two or more types of devices and modify them frequently so the birdies don’t get complacent.
Still would like to know if there’s something special about the effect of the human effigy, though.
Ever seen Jeepers Creepers? Scarecrows can be pretty damn scary if you can conjure up the right spirit. 
I thought the modern version of the scarecrow was something like a big yellow beach ball, with stylized black and red eye shapes painted on it. One can be seen at the bottom of this page.
I’m going to to second this one. Saw these in our Mexican manufacturing sites to keep the birds out. Idea is that the large eyes are “predator eyes”. Didn’t see any birds near by.
I’ve seen a few farms in Japan that appeared to take the rather extreme step of stringing lines, every two or three meters, across the entire length of the fields. The lines then had mylar strips hanging from them, so that wherever you (or a bird) stood, there’d be something flapping in your face.
30th Street Train Station in Phila. uses those big-eyed Mylar balloons to keep pigeons out of the station. Seems to work, too–they (the balloons, not the pigeons) are filled with helium and bob around the ceiling, owl-like.
Owl statues and blowups, some with moving heads, recorded hoots, and so on. I’ve seen artificial owls on more than one apartment building - some of them look quite realistic.
http://shops.owlpages.net/us/amazon-mode-garden-input_string-owls-locale-us.html
This “scarecrow” will take care of them. Yes it will!
In the theme parks here in Florida they have an awful time with the birds. The magpies, pigeons and a few others are terrible pests when it comes to eating outside in the theme parks. You don’t want to leave your food unguarded for more than 2 seconds, they will swoop down and be gone with your lunch before you know what happened.
I have seen a couple high-tech scarecrows in use at the theme parks. The simplest one, is they string thin wire in a pattern above the eating areas. My theory is that to the birds this appears to be a plate of glass. I have never seen a bird fly through this mesh, and there is plenty of room for them to do so.
The second type of bird deterrent is more high-tech. They have small speakers mounted above the eating area, the noise coming from the speakers is hard to describe other than sounding like a busy kitchen with plates rattling and clinking. It just sounds like background noise to the people sitting in the dining area, and for some unknown reason it does keep the birds away. I have seen a similar thing used by people in their backyard gardens. All they do is have a stick in the ground, about 3 feet tall, with an light aluminum pie tin attached to the top of the stick by a string. The breeze causes the pie tin to flutter, flash and rattle, scaring the birds away.
Geese can be a big problem too, on golf courses especially. What they have found is that an inflatable alligator beach toy placed near the lakes keeps the pesky geese looking for a less dangerous place to land.
The factory where I worked often has a big problem with birds, especially crows and starlings. There’s a big parking lot in a valley downwind of the plant, so in winter, that lot is a little warmer with calm winds. At some times of the winter, the lot is chockablock with crows milling around in a wintry stupor. If you walk into the mob, they’ll walk out of your way without spooking. Some people drive through the group, killing dozens of birds. You literally can’t walk through the lot without stepping in crow poop.
The plant has a bird cannon, a danger call, and a two-tone steam horn. They rotate them, because the birds get used to one method after a few days. The cannon is a propane thing like Tangent showed us. The danger call is a digitized approximation of starling panic cries. It doesn’t sound like a bird to me, but it spooks the birds. The steam horn makes two tones automatically every two minutes or so. The interval is like the teasing “Air-ball” cry of a basketball crowd when a shot badly misses, but the tones are lower.
If you want to make a classic scarecrow, do not use clean clothes. Get them good and sweaty, because half the effectiveness comes from the smell. It smells like you’re out there, and the birds don’t trust you. Some would even suggest that you eat chicken the day of your sweating, so your scarecrow will smell like a bird-eater. 
My dad was a scarecrow - he was outstanding in his field.
I have some reservations about that statement. Most birds supposedly have little or no sense of smell, an exception being vultures, which apparently locate carrion partially by smell. Perhaps somebody like Colibri could comment.
Of course there have been recent advances in Scarecrow technology, but Batman will always kick his ass in the final reel.
My cousins are farmers and keep the crows away by shooting a pair and hanging them up outside the barn :eek:
Just getting ready to post, when I saw your post.
Same story. A farm I jog by, has a half dozen dead crows, hanging off of six foot poles. I’ve never seen a live crow anywhere near the gardens. I’m guessing the farmer replenishes as they start to rot.
:eek: