Simon Cherriman from Insight Ornithology researches Western Australian wedge-tailed eagles and is concerned about the increasing interaction between eagles and UAVs. He believes an eight-month-old eagle he had been tracking as part of PHD studies died recently due to injuries sustained in an aircraft collision, possibly with a drone. Mr Cherriman said there are no clear rules for avoiding eagles when using drones, but flying in the morning may help. "We know they spend a lot of time soaring with thermals and thermals are peaking late morning though to middle-late afternoon. "So if you can not operate drones around those times then that's probably going to minimise impacts." He says painting aircraft or using noisemakers will have little impact and ultimately much more research needs to be done. "I am trying to look for patterns in how they use the thermal air currents and how they actually use their air space when they are breeding. Maybe we can model our drone use around those," he said. Source - http://www.abc.net.au