Best practice guidance for recreational and professional drones near colonial breeding birds

Estefania Velilla; Nadia Hijner; Annelies van Ginkel; Maarten Zwarts; Jannes H. T. Heusinkveld; Kees Koffijberg; Kees Oosterbeek; Julia Stahl; Sjoerd Duijns; Laura L. Govers

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0332619

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Best practice guidance for recreational and professional drones near colonial breeding birds

Estefania Velilla ,

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: Estefania.velillaperdomo@wur.nl

Affiliations Marine Conservation Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University & Research, Yerseke, The Netherlands

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7678-2390

⨯
Nadia Hijner,

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation

Affiliation Marine Conservation Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
⨯
Annelies van Ginkel,

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology

Affiliation Marine Conservation Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
⨯
Maarten Zwarts,

Roles Investigation

Affiliation The Fieldwork Company, Groningen, The Netherlands
⨯
Jannes H. T. Heusinkveld,

Roles Investigation, Methodology

Affiliation The Fieldwork Company, Groningen, The Netherlands
⨯
Kees Koffijberg,

Roles Conceptualization

Affiliation Sovon, Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
⨯
Kees Oosterbeek,

Roles Conceptualization

Affiliation Sovon, Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
⨯
Julia Stahl,

Roles Conceptualization

Affiliation Sovon, Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
⨯
Sjoerd Duijns,

Roles Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Sovon, Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5158-6596

⨯
Laura L. Govers

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Marine Conservation Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, The Netherlands
⨯

Best practice guidance for recreational and professional drones near colonial breeding birds

Estefania Velilla,
Nadia Hijner,
Annelies van Ginkel,
Maarten Zwarts,
Jannes H. T. Heusinkveld,
Kees Koffijberg,
Kees Oosterbeek,
Julia Stahl,
Sjoerd Duijns,
Laura L. Govers

Published: November 5, 2025
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0332619

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