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High Voltage Equipment and Birds Nests (1 Viewer)

kaarde

New member
Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and not very familiar with birds behaviour. I work for a company that manufactures high voltage equipment for substations. We sometimes receive comments from utilities that birds create their nests inside the "jaw" of our equipment (disconnect switch).

It is a moving equipment, where the conductor entering the "jaw" will move out and probably affect the nest.

And utilities do not bird nesting, as this can cause harm to maintenance crew when approaching the equipment.

I was wondering if we manufactured the top cover in plexiglass (transparent plastic), would birds create nests?

Refer to the attached pictures.

I understand that every bird is different and each region of the world has different birds, but I'm talking about most common birds, that will even fit inside this "jaw" (6-1/2 inch wide (162mm)).

Thank you for your help
 

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  • Jaw with stainless steel cover.jpg
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  • Jaw with plexiglass cover.jpg
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Birds like starlings and sparrows need only a couple of centimeters of an opening, and will happily nest inside electrical equipment such as street lamps. Your "jaw" would probably be a second choice for many birds as it's too open. Maybe you can solve the problem by building nest boxes nearby, tailored to whatever species is building the nests you're finding.


if we manufactured the top cover in plexiglass (transparent plastic), would birds create nests?


Worth field-testing, I think. A transparent cover would leave the nest visible to potential predators above (e.g., crows). Most birds won't like that.

Also, a transparent cover would send the temperature in the cavity soaring on a sunny summer day. In itself that probably won't stop nest-building, at least not until after several seasons. (Eventually, the population will avoid nest sites where the brood never survives.)

I don't know what material you're contemplating, but you'll want to test how long it stays clean and transparent in the field. Though you're probably doing regular maintenance on these anyway, so maybe replacing the covers every year or three is no big deal.
 
Maybe a plastic mesh might be easier to engineer to make sure there are no gaps that birds could use to find a way in, I'm assuming that a metal mesh would not be an option where high voltage is involved?
 
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