Licences relating to birds are issued by Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage for certain specific purposes defined in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended).
Application forms and guidance notes for a licence for one of the purposes for which the Scottish Government are the appropriate authority may be obtained from this website.
Please note that the Scottish Government cannot issue a licence to control wild birds unless it can be established that there is no satisfactory alternative. This means that there should be evidence in your application that non-lethal methods, such as scaring, proofing of buildings and other steps to deter the birds causing the problem have been attempted unsuccessfully, or that there is good reason to believe that they would not be effective.
The information on this page describes the licensing arrangements for all bird species, except birds covered by the General Licences and gamebirds. There is more detailed information on fish-eating birds, geese, ravens and falconry on separate pages on this website.