Birds: licence to kill or take them for air safety purposes (CL12)

This licence lets you catch alive or kill wild birds on or around your aerodrome for air safety purposes.

You can kill or take birds on your aerodrome or within a 13km radius of it if they’re:

• Canada geese
• Egyptian geese
• great black-backed gulls
• greylag geese
• herring gulls
• lesser black-backed gulls
• mallards
• ring-necked parakeets
• feral pigeons
• rooks
• starlings
• woodpigeons

You can kill or take birds on your aerodrome or within a 250 metre radius of it if they’re:

• carrion crows
• black-headed gulls
• common gulls
• jackdaws
• lapwings
• magpies

You can only kill or take these birds for the purpose of preserving air safety.

Register to use this licence

This is a class licence. You need to register with Natural England by sending an email to bird.licensing@naturalengland.org.uk with your:

• full name
• business name
• business address
• airport addresses where you intend to use this licence (if different from above)
• role (for example, airport or aerodrome manager)
• telephone number
• email address

• numbers of the following species you expect to control between your registration and 31 December of the same year:

  • herring gulls
  • lesser black-backed gulls
  • great black-backed gulls

Natural England will confirm your registration by email.

You do not need to apply for a new licence each year as long as you complete an annual report. You should check newly issued licences to see if any terms or conditions have changed.

How to report your actions

You need to complete an annual report form showing any work you did (or showing you did no work) under this licence to Natural England by 31 January each year. Doing this also renews your licence. If you do not submit an annual report, you’ll need to register again.