Birds that stray into the paths of aircraft, eat crops, or spread disease from foraging in large numbers at landfills are, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, downright dangerous. Over the years people have tried everything from scaring them away with loud noises to trapping them – all with varying results. Now a designer from the Netherlands has come up with robotic birds of prey that look and fly exactly like the real thing. Dubbed "Robirds," these flying raptor creations are the brainchild of Nico Nijenhuis from Clear Flight Solutions. The remotely controlled, realistic looking birds actually flap their wings to fly, and in a way that makes them remarkably similar to the real thing. According to the designers, this means that their artificial predator birds can fly in and around problem areas, encouraging nuisance birds to leave by exploiting the natural instinct of birds to avoid predators, particularly through silhouette and wing movement recognition. In addition,