Aberdeen have told fans the club "cannot fly birds of prey during games" as they defended their approach to a seagull problem.

The club employ a hawk to frighten the birds up to an hour before matches, but fans registered their unhappiness about the seagulls following their Europa League draw with Rijeka on Thursday night, which set up a third qualifying round trip to Kazakhstan to face Kairat Almaty.

A club statement read: "Aberdeen FC has adopted a strong policy regarding the city-wide problem with seagulls. The club has employed for the past few seasons now a fully-licensed company who specialise in eradicating and controlling these birds. This company have been taking care of the nests and eggs three times a week to keep the birds controlled.

"Currently Aberdeen FC has no nesting in and around the actual stadium buildings, however we cannot control this outwith our boundary and birds are nesting in and around the flats around the stadium.

"We continue to have a hawk flying during the week at Pittodrie and also an hour before doors open on match days.

"In addition to this, last year we installed an automatic audible warning system which distributes various distress calls from different birds to act as a deterrent. For obvious reasons we cannot fly birds of prey during games.

"Seagulls are very intelligent birds and will always gather where a large crowd of people are and where food is consumed so we would urge all fans to take care and use the bins provided for unwanted food which will assist in controlling the seagulls."

The Dons meet Brighton – nicknamed The Seagulls – in Jamie Langfield's testimonial tomorrow.