Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) and European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) cause significant damage to sweet corn (Zea mays). Even minor damage can render ears unmarketable and the need to sort out damaged ears during packing increases costs for growers. Propane cannons and pyrotechnics have long been the preferred methods for preventing birds from damaging corn, but both methods create noise pollution and conflicts with farm neighbors. Automated laser scarecrows and automated recordings of bird distress and predator calls are two newer technologies for deterring birds from crops. We tested both technologies on a research farm in Kingston, Rhode Island and in commercial processing sweet corn fields in western New York in 2022 and 2023. All experiments used naturally occurring flocks of wild birds; flock size and species makeup varied between fields and over time. The automated laser scarecrows (LS) were designed and built by the URI Laser Scarecrow Project; they utilized a 50 mW 532 nm green laser with a beam diameter of 14 mm at the aperture and a dispersion of 4 mrad. Vertical and horizontal movement of the beam was randomized by a microcontroller. Bird Gard Super Pro units (BG) randomly played digital recordings of distress and alarm calls of red-winged blackbirds and European starlings and hunting calls of hawks and falcons. Data were collected as counts of damaged ears and converted to percentage of total ears for analysis. In Rhode Island the effect of laser scarecrow alone was compared to the effect of the laser scarecrow combined with the bird distress calls. In New York the two deterrent treatments were also compared to an unprotected control. In Rhode Island in 2022 bird damage averaged 20.7% with just LS and 7.1% with LS BG; the difference was significant at P
