I am going to be recording video outside in another few weeks and am keenly aware of how our last time out caught a lot of birds on our audio tracks and I'd really like to find a way to keep them out of our audio.

Anyone have any practical ideas or suggestion on how to keep birds *out* of one's audio?

I had thought an air-horn might be a way to get a few seconds quiet.

Thoughts?

if you have friend with hawk that can come to the set and let him hunt - you wouldnt hear anything around
thats the nature thing - find more quit location :-)

perhaps putting silencers on you shotgun may help?

The air horn might work for a while...

Microphone placement and selection will also help - long shotguns pointed upward will pick up sounds from behind your characters (birds, road noise etc.)

If you can, try well concealed lav mic's or short shotguns above the actor, pointed down. Of course, ADR is always a possibility. Shoot nat sound, then have your actors re-speak their parts in a quiet studio and edit it in. Very time consuming and difficult to get right on a budget, but it's effective.