ARC Raiders: How to Lay the Bird Trap for Avian Alarm – Exact Buoy Location

The Avian Alarm objective tells you to “lay a bird trap next to the buoys along the Seabed,” and most players burn their first raid hunting their inventory or crafting menu for a trap item that does not exist. It is a location-based interaction, not a scavenging job.

The short version

• Where: the northeast seabed on Riven Tides, by the large red buoy near the Port Authority Building side of the wave breaker.
• What to do: walk up to the buoy and use the on-screen placement prompt. No trap item is required in your inventory.
• When it counts: the objective completes the moment you place it — no birds to wait for, no defend phase, no extract step.
• Where it starts: the Avian Alarm project is opened from the Projects page in Speranza.

Where the bird trap goes on Riven Tides

The placement spot is on the northeast section of Riven Tides, out on the dried-up seabed near the Port Authority Building. Head for the shoreline edge by the wave breaker and look for a large red buoy sticking out of the sand. That buoy is your anchor.

The prompt appears on the seabed around the buoy, not on the Port Authority Building itself. Treat the building as a landmark only — if you run inside it, climb its exterior, or sweep the port yard first, you are wasting raid time. The interaction surface is the sand beside the buoy.

• Map: Riven Tides
• Zone: northeast seabed
• Landmark: large red buoy in the sand
• Reference point: Port Authority Building and the wave breaker
• Action: walk to the buoy and use the placement prompt

How to place it once you reach the buoy

Drop straight onto the coastline and the dried sand flats rather than the port building interior. At the buoy, look for the interaction prompt at ground level and hold the placement button to confirm. The control binding differs between PC and console, so watch for the prompt itself rather than a fixed key.

That is the entire step. You are not waiting on a trap timer, escorting anything, or collecting a trapped bird later in the match. The placement is the completion trigger. If you expected a second phase in the field, that is exactly what causes the confusion.

Because the seabed is open and exposed, place it quickly and move on. Turning a five-second interaction into a firefight in the open is the easiest way to lose a clean objective run.

If the prompt is not showing up

• Check the landmark. You want the big red buoy on the seabed, not a structure inside the port.
• Stay on the sand by the buoy. Approach it from the seabed side of the wave breaker, not from inside the Port Authority Building.
• Confirm the project step. Open the Avian Alarm project on the Projects page in Speranza and make sure the bird-trap step is the active one before you load back in.
• Do not look for an item. There is no bird trap to carry into the raid.
• Do not wait for an animation. Placement itself completes the objective.

What happens after you place it

Placing the trap clears the field step and opens the rest of the Avian Alarm chain. Back in Speranza, the next stages are resource donations, not more hidden placements. The reported requirement is 7 Tick Pod, 20 Canister, 12 Moss, and 5 Twilight Compass Ship Models. Live project requirements can change between updates, so check the project page for the exact current numbers.

Twilight Compass is one of the Ship Models that spawns on Riven Tides, so line the donation up with your next run — see how to get Ship Models fast on Riven Tides before you turn the project in.

Bundle it with other Riven Tides objectives

The buoy sits near the Stacking Yard, a Riven Tides POI where Ship Models spawn on control panels and tower cranes — so a single trip can clear the trap and start farming the Twilight Compass models the next stage needs. Hit the buoy first while you are fresh, then rotate into your wider sweep. If the match gets messy afterward, the project step is already banked. It also chains cleanly into a broader route like the Battening Down Riven Tides route.

Common mistakes

• Searching your inventory, crafting menu, or stash for a “bird trap” item — there isn’t one.
• Climbing or looting the Port Authority Building instead of staying on the seabed beside the buoy.
• Waiting around after placement for birds, a timer, or an extract step that never comes.
• Loading in without confirming the bird-trap step is your active Avian Alarm objective in Speranza.
• Fighting on the open seabed instead of placing fast and leaving.

The practical takeaway

Stop searching menus. Go to Riven Tides, head for the northeast seabed by the Port Authority Building, find the large red buoy by the wave breaker, and use the placement prompt at ground level. The objective completes on placement — then return to the Projects page in Speranza to start the donation stages (7 Tick Pod, 20 Canister, 12 Moss, 5 Twilight Compass Ship Models). If you want the whole Riven Tides loop in one read, follow the Line in the Sand exact route.