Washington, D.C. ? The U.S. Air Force, a high-tech wonder of precision missiles and pilotless surveillance drones, is looking for a few good falcons.

Live falcons, that is, ones with feathers and talons, the kind that hunt mice and small birds.

U.S. aircraft at the sprawling Bagram air base in Afghanistan are coming under increasing attack – not from al-Qaida or Taliban fighters, but from “many small songbirds, pigeons, magpies, hawks and black kites,” according to a bid request for a “bird control services” contract issued by the Army last month.

Prior attempts at controlling the birds have failed. There were more than 100 bird strikes against aircraft taking off, landing or taxiing at Bagram from January to August, a sharp increase from the 60 recorded in the same period last year, according to the contract solicitation.

Although the contractor can choose its own strategy for suppressing the avian insurgents, it is clear that falconry is among the favored techniques. The Army’s contract notice says that “each bird must be capable of airfield operations and each falconer must demonstrate falconry skills and bird control capability using birds of prey.”