Statutory guidance

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

Get a licence to catch alive or kill wild birds on or around your aerodrome for air safety purposes.

From:
Natural England
Published
1 January 2015
Last updated
1 January 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

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

HTML

Report action taken under this licence

PDF, 211 KB, 5 pages

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Details

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.

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2015
Last updated 1 January 2024 + show all updates

  1. There is an update to this licence for 1 January 2024.

  2. Annual licence updates, valid from 1 January 2023.

  3. Updated bird safety form.

  4. Annual licence update, valid from 1 January 2022. Replaced report form LR12 with updated version.

  5. Annual licence update. Report form updated.

  6. Accessible version of licence added - HTML.

  7. Applicant is now required to include their role in the registration email.

  8. Replaced licence and report form with new versions issued 1 January 2020

  9. Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2019

  10. Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2018

  11. Annual licence update 2017.

  12. Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2016.

  13. terms and conditions updated for clarity

  14. new version of CL12 valid from 1 January to 31 December 2015.

  15. First published.

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