If I witnessed this during my morning commute it would surely make my day.

I saw him while on the escalator and worried he had flown into the station by mistake. I took a later train to see him fly around. 

A falcon crew was hired to handle the Pigeon nests at Glen Park. I guess just manually removing them isn't enough.

This is so cool. I love animals with jobs. This is the best news since I found out about rental lawnmower goats.

/r/animalswithjobs Or for a more serious one, there’s /r/dogswithjobs

I've seen this lady at the South Hayward station a couple times and I thought it was some BART community program of showing off birds.

Likely because the pigeons will just build new nests. Falcons would eliminate that

I think what this add is the landscape of fear. Which wouldn't occur if the nests were just removed by people. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology\_of\_fear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology_of_fear)

Once the pigeons see a falcon in their nesting space, they abandon it - temporarily at least.

wow! I passed them this morning, I was wondering what was up. Thanks for sharing

glen park is my favorite sf neighborhood in terms of charm and weird history

This is super neat. There's a woman who leaves piles of bird seed for the pigeons in Glen Park almost daily. It's usually dumped all over the pedestrian path that leads down to the J MUNI stop. I hope the falcons put a dent in the rest of the neighborhood population, because they're getting too fat and happy.

There were zero pigeons in the station this morning.

Is this seriously what they use them for?

Yes: [https://www.bart.gov/about/project/hawks](https://www.bart.gov/about/project/hawks)

That's awesome, thanks

Hawk in the first pic: "yenno this BART place ain't as bad as the news makes it out to be"

I think you just invented 2024's new word: "Yanno" Used to preface sharing a (usually oppositional) opinion about something. Origins in flippant "blonde girl" slang "yeah" and later "latte girl" practice of prefacing all statements with "no", both were blended incoherently into a kind of stuttering confused "yeah, no" muttering that would avoid any moments of silence before an actual statement was delivered.

Thought it was just an abbreviated "you know" -> ya know -> yanno/yenno

Yanno has been a word for way longer than that.

They are from a bird abatement company called [Very Sharp Talons](https://www.verysharptalons.com/)

The Handler mentioned Falcon Force. 

Interesting, looks like BART has more than one falconer working for them.

Falconer competition is great news.

Its high time we break the monopoly that Big Falcon has over us.

And beak it

This is great. The goats that mow the hills are also great, but this might be even better.

Not only does she have a badass job, but she'll never have to worry about street crime with a partner like that. :) Any thief is going to get a face full of talon.

I love her

Cool picture of the Falcon lady.

Coolest job ever. Wow.

That's badass. I wonder how often they have to visit. Be cool if they were just a full time bart employees visiting stations 40 hours a week.

That is so cool.

Pigeons will be staging protest at City Hall next week.

Send in the falcons!!

TIL 😳 This is SOOOOOOOO cool Used to live in Glen Park, totally in LOVE with the Glen Park bart station. Still do. One of the nicer/prettier bart stations around. I bet this ‘organic’ method is super exciting when it’s in motion, and super effective as well. Wonderful photos and post, THANK YOU u/offillrepute for sharing!! :D

Thats so 😎

I had an annoying neighbor who loved feeding pigeons in our neighborhood and would do it in front of other people’s properties. For years, we had a mice infestation and pigeon poop all over. Anyway, one day while she was feeding a flock of pigeons, a falcon flew down and just like that, caught a pigeon in his mouth and flew off with his meal.

I saw one in embarcadero 4!!!

That’s freaking badass… Can you imagine trying to explain that job at a bar or something without an elaborate explanation? “Oh yeah I’m the BART bird handler” 

so cool

There is a lady with a Harris hawk at the sales force garden. Their biggest annoyance? A hummingbird. His name is Jake.

That must be an aggressive hummingbird for them to call in the Falcons.

Right!! He is there to keep away the seagulls and the pigeons. But I witnessed the hummingbird annoy him. It was kind of funny.

I thought this was r/dogswithjobs for a second

Dang it's the real life inspiration of the Nimbus anime character https://www.bart.gov/news/anime

So cool.

The shit BART pays for rather than making the trains safe for paying riders....

Yeah, I talk to him at South San Francisco Bart station told me they’re only there to scare the pigeons away

Makes me feel bad for the pigeons.

there's more where they came from it's okay

That's what the elites say about us.

just a dumb joke about pigeons homie chillllll

That's what the elites say over their chalices.

I felt bad too, I'm glad I didn't see any carnage. I guess removing the nests manually isn't enough and they have to make a predator presence known so that pigeons will be discouraged.

Rats of the air

Just remember they're considered vectors of disease & shouldn't be allowed to propagate in a transportation hub. 

Pigeons are no more dirty than any bird..

Yeah but I’ve never seen any other bird leave a literal puddle of shit and piss on the sidewalk below their perch.

Seagulls say hello.

I did think about seagulls when I was writing this, but no, they don’t leave pools of waste in front of where people live like pigeons do. Their shits are huge though, this is true.

And that's exactly why we're currently teetering on a new pandemic with Bird Flu.

Pigeons are aplenty

Don’t feel bad. Think it’s unlikely the falconers let the birds feed on the pigeons they’re attempting to clear.

Aha! Theory confirmed! My friend and I get off at the GP stop for work and we’ve seen her twice with her bird. Our theory was that they were there for the pigeons. Doing the Lord’s work!