Spur-winged plovers at Marlborough Airport are to be culled for safety reasons as their numbers grow.

The hunt is on to find a crack shot to cull birds at a busy regional airport.

Bosses at Marlborough Airport, near Blenheim, are trying to find a suitable candidate with a gun licence and a good aim.

Native spur-winged plovers, also known as the masked lapwing, were once a protected species, but an increase in numbers around the airport has prompted the move for a cull to help prevent potential bird strikes.

Marlborough Airport operations manager Steve Holtrum says bird strike is a major concern for airports everywhere and passenger safety is always a top priority.

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"Every day there's wildlife to be scared away and we do that with blank noise-makers such as the ones used on vineyards or run vehicles up and down the runway.

RICKY WILSON/STUFF Applications for the Airport Wildlife Officer (Bird Culling) job at Marlborough Airport closed last week.

"This happens at airports across the world. Some have kangaroos or even elephants to chase off so in that respect we're lucky," he says.

Applications for the vacancy of Airport Wildlife Officer (Bird Culling) closed last week but a decision has yet to be made on who will be awarded the role.

The job will mainly involve work on a "casual basis", Holtrum says.

STUFF Sounds Air and Air New Zealand planes on the tarmac at Marlborough Airport where passenger safety is top priority. (File photo)

An advert for the position, which featured on the Marlborough Airport website, called for "a competent shot with a valid firearms licence".

The successful applicant will make a "significant contribution" to airport safety, Holtrum says.

In the 80 years since the first breeding record, the stocky birds with a distinctive yellow bill have gone from a fully protected native to having that protection removed in 2010.

"We carry out statistical counting to count numbers every day and reckon there are around 100 too many," Holtrum says. "As part of our compliance we inspect the runway several times every day.

"At airports every day there are near misses with strikes and we want to be proactive by working on this before it becomes a problem."

Culling is done on top of landscaping measures at the airport to deter birds.

Bird strikes tend to happen between 15 metres and 240m during takeoff and landing phases.

Holtrum says there are also plans to lower the amount of insects at the airport, as a way of "attacking" the birds' food source.