Birds - benefit or burden?

While discussing sensors and how to protect them against vandalism or theft for our experimental setup at the University Twente, my colleague mentioned the sensors also face damages by birds. Now I have been familiar with this from my previous research on a micro-grid in Japan, where birds were attracted to the tree like structure of solar irradiation measurement and satellite dish devices on the roof next to solar panels. Imagine my surprise when this is also the case for her setup, which is mobile!

 

Pictures from the National Institute for Materials Science NANO-Green Building in Tsukuba, Japan (my own photos).

My colleague's setup is on a bicycle! See the full paper by Monica Pena Costa here and the bicycle with measurement equipment below. Birds like this despite it being a bicycle.

While we definitely want to attract more fauna to the green roofs and walls, the sensors ideally should not suffer from this. Her advice was to apply dishwasher soap to the equipment (not the sensors themselves of course) to deter the birds. I am still debating on how to deal with this in practice. The solution is very practical and effective and would ensure consistent measurements, but it could also diminish the effect we ultimately want to achieve by polluting the green roofs/walls.