A Ford Plant Had a Pigeon Problem. So They Hired El Charro.

Ford’s newest hire works short shifts, eats before clocking in and has wings. His name is El Charro, and he’s a hawk that scares away pesky pigeons.

At its Hermosillo assembly plant, which builds more than 300,000 trucks and SUVs a year, pigeons had become a costly nuisance, the Wall Street Journal reports. They pooped on freshly painted vehicles, got into equipment and even waited for doors to open so they could fly inside. Ford tried blasting recordings of bigger birds and even hung replicas of “predator eyes.” But the pigeons weren’t fooled.

So managers hired a falconer. The first hawk, Chalino, flew off with another hawk and never returned. His replacement, El Charro, arrived in July 2025.

He patrols for two to three hours a day, chasing off pigeons and leading staff to nests. Ford says he has logged more than 300 flights and cut signs of bird activity by roughly 80% in monitored areas.

There’s no end date for El Charro’s gig. As one plant manager put it, “El Charro has to ride every day here.”

Ford’s newest hire works short shifts, eats before clocking in and has wings. His name is El Charro, and he’s a hawk that scares away pesky pigeons.

At its Hermosillo assembly plant, which builds more than 300,000 trucks and SUVs a year, pigeons had become a costly nuisance, the Wall Street Journal reports. They pooped on freshly painted vehicles, got into equipment and even waited for doors to open so they could fly inside. Ford tried blasting recordings of bigger birds and even hung replicas of “predator eyes.” But the pigeons weren’t fooled.

So managers hired a falconer. The first hawk, Chalino, flew off with another hawk and never returned. His replacement, El Charro, arrived in July 2025.

He patrols for two to three hours a day, chasing off pigeons and leading staff to nests. Ford says he has logged more than 300 flights and cut signs of bird activity by roughly 80% in monitored areas.

There’s no end date for El Charro’s gig. As one plant manager put it, “El Charro has to ride every day here.”