A programmable moving laser dot to frighten away avian intruders and drastically reduce bird damage across the vineyard.
When a flock of wood pigeons left her Chardonnay grapes looking “as if a machine harvester had gone through”, vineyard manager Alex Valsecchi knew it was time to act.
Alex, who looks after the vines at Albury Organic Vineyard, near Guildford, which is owned by Nick Wenman, estimated that the migrating birds ate close to four tonnes of fruit when they tore through the harvest in 2024.
“We were putting boxes out to pick on the Monday, we were offsite on the Tuesday, we came in on the Wednesday to pick and nearly four tonnes of fruit was stripped, gone, and they just left the stalks – as if a machine harvester had gone through,” she recalled.
The Albury team already had bird scaring systems, including kites, and had used gas bangers in the past, but after losing 20% of the crop in that one attack they turned to Integrated Bird Management, the sole UK and Ireland importers of the Avix Autonomic Mk II bird scarer.
The Avix Autonomic is a high tech but affordable system that uses a programmable moving laser dot to frighten away avian intruders and drastically reduce bird damage across the vineyard.
The result at Albury was impressive. While the harvest was earlier the following year, which meant wood pigeon numbers were lower, the amount of bird damage to the crop was “negligible to zero”, according to Sean Byne, who set up Integrated Bird Management in 2024 but has worked with the system since 2016.
It was a similar story at nearby Chilworth Valley Vineyard, where the system virtually eliminated any bird activity across the site in 2025. “While 2024 again saw high numbers of wood pigeons at Chilworth, the team counted about ten across the whole site last year after introducing our laser deterrent,” said Sean.
Explaining that it worked by “simply scaring the birds away”, he added: “They see it as a green stick coming towards them.” He went on: “It doesn’t harm the birds or any other animals, and it has been shown to reduce bird numbers by at least 70% on average. The other benefit is that birds don’t get used to the lasers as they can do with gas bangers and other approaches.”
The silent, neighbour-friendly system is programmed and controlled by a smartphone app, while Integrated Bird Management installs the equipment and provides comprehensive training. Specific zones, or the whole system, can be shut down quickly and easily to allow workers to access the vines whenever necessary.
Alex, who said the system was easy to use and safe, added: “The birds see this moving object and they think ‘Oh, we’re going to get hit and they move out of the way’.”
Depending on the level of losses normally caused by bird damage, the Avix Autonomic can pay for itself in one or two seasons and can be used for other high value soft fruits and other crops. “A grower who needed to protect, for instance, cherries during blossom time as well as grapes at harvest time could move the system between seasons,” Sean pointed out.
The Dutch technology is designed to cope with UK weather and has been used by growers around the world since 2014. The unit offers 360-degree coverage, with one laser able to protect up to 12 acres. “It works 24/7 and is effective for all kinds of bird,” said Sean. “It’s much quicker and less labour intensive than netting the crop, and has no impact on other wildlife.”
The Avix Autonomic can also be used to keep birds off barn roofs and starlings out of cattle barns in the winter, and it has been used by poultry farmers to keep wild birds away from their flocks.
Vineyards, though, is a clear area for growth, as Sean explained: “Grapes are a high value crop and its easy for a large flock of migrating wood pigeons to do a lot of damage in a short space of time, as they did at Albury. This system is easy to install, easy to control and monitor and, quite simply, just does the job efficiently and cost effectively.”
