Article written by Stoyan Nikolov, Phd – Project Manager at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), BirdLife’s Partner in Bulgaria. The article was originally published on BSPB’s website here. All pictures’ credits are BSPB.
Conflicts between people and wildlife are often seen as inevitable. Yet, the “High & Safe” campaign, implemented in 2025 within the LIFE for Falcons project, shows that cooperation, trust and innovation can offer practical solutions that benefit both people and nature. The campaign focused on a rarely addressed but sensitive conservation issue: the conflict between pigeon fanciers and birds of prey, particularly falcons and hawks. High-flying pigeons, bred and trained to spend hours soaring at great heights, are especially vulnerable to raptor attacks. Losses can be emotionally and financially significant for pigeon fanciers, while illegal persecution of raptors remains a serious conservation concern.
Testing coexistence in real conditions
In close collaboration with the Bulgarian Federation of High-Flying Pigeon Fanciers and with technical support from the Slovenian company AviRings, BSPB worked directly with pigeon breeders to test non-lethal, science-based prevention methods under real field conditions. Over the summer of 2025, 13 high-flying pigeon flights were carried out across four regions of Bulgaria, involving 140 pigeons and 11 pigeon fanciers
All pigeons were marked using simple visual deterrents — eye-spots on wings, contrasting bars, or reflective tail spray — designed to reduce the likelihood of successful raptor attacks. During the monitored flights, 33 birds of prey from eight species were recorded. Although attacks were observed, no pigeons were killed, and only two resulted in minor injuries. These results demonstrate that coexistence is possible, even in areas with high raptor activity.
Read more about the science behind this method in our peer-reviewed study here.
Equally important was the campaign’s strong focus on communication and trust-building. By engaging pigeon fanciers as partners rather than opponents, the project reached hundreds of people within a traditionally hard-to-access stakeholder group. Monitoring of social media showed that in 2025 more than twice as many pigeon fanciers adopted the preventive methods compared to the previous year — a clear sign of growing acceptance and behavioural change. Short documentary videos, in which pigeon fanciers speak openly about their passion, challenges and collaboration with BSPB, became the most watched videos on the BSPB YouTube channel in 2025.
The “High & Safe” campaign demonstrates that human–wildlife conflicts can be reduced through dialogue, shared responsibility and practical solutions. By protecting pigeons without harming birds of prey, the initiative contributes not only to raptor conservation, including the recovery of the globally threatened Saker Falcon, but also to a broader culture of coexistence between people and nature. As conservation challenges grow more complex, initiatives like this remind us that lasting solutions are often built together — through win-win approaches.
Watch the stories behind “High & Safe” here:
High and safe with Dimitar and Rosen Ivanov
High and safe with Boyan Subevski
High and safe with Tosho Georgiev
The full technical report, including methodology and detailed results of the campaign, is available here.
