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WELLFLEET — Federal scientists will try to protect piping plovers on local beaches by fooling the predator crows with fake nests and deadly hens eggs.

The Cape Cod National Seashore will work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture from March through May to create fake nests at Duck Harbor and Bound Brook beaches. The scientists will inject the avicide DRC-1339 into hard-boiled chicken eggs and place them in the "nests," according to the plan. The tainted egg sites, which will be fenced in, are designed to look like the fenced enclosures that Seashore officials use now to protect plover nests.

DRC-1339 is registered with the Environmental Protection Agency for control of several species of birds considered pests, such as crows and gulls, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The chemical can kill a crow within 12 to 72 hours, according to the Seashore.

The Seashore will hold public information meetings about the plan Feb. 25 in Eastham and March 3 in Provincetown.

Crows and coyotes are primary predators of piping plovers, least terns and other shorebirds nesting in the Seashore, according to Seashore records.

Crows, particularly, are known for intelligence and adaptability — and their increasing population, said Seashore shorebird biologist Mary Hake yesterday.

"Crows are our number one egg predator," Hake said.

Most national parks along the East Coast that have rare shorebird populations use tools such as deadly chemicals to manage predators, Hake said. The Seashore wants to consider that option as well for helping maintain plover populations, she said.

Hake characterized the plan as a pilot project that is still being finalized.

Eliminating crows would also allow the Seashore to reduce its protection of plovers at certain overcrowded beaches in exchange for an overall increase in plover pairs throughout the park, Hake said.

The Atlantic Coast population of piping plovers is listed as threatened at both the state and federal levels. Massachusetts has the largest breeding population of piping plovers along the coast.

In 2009, there were about 87 pairs of nesting plovers in the Seashore, according to Seashore records.

The two-mile stretch of Wellfleet beach within the Seashore was chosen because of its population of plovers and crows, and because it is close to a parking lot for workers involved in the pilot, Hake said.

She estimated that a handful of crows would be killed during the three-month project.

At Crane Beach in Ipswich, DRC-1339 is used to selectively kill crows on a four-mile stretch of shoreline, said regional ecologist Franz Ingelfinger of The Trustees of Reservations.

The program has been in place for two years, Ingelfinger said. During that time, five crow carcasses have been found, but Ingelfinger said he estimates that 20 to 45 crows have been killed overall.

The alternative would be to shoot crows by luring them with methods that would likely attract more than just those in the beach neighborhood, Ingelfinger said.

"It's a very small proportion of the (crow) population," Ingelfinger said. "We feel that it is warranted. This was a means of last resort. It's very selective. It's proven effective."

Scientists at the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary have only recently learned about the Seashore's plan and hope to find out more soon, sanctuary director Robert Prescott said yesterday.

The sanctuary has a policy that allows for the use of lethal methods to protect piping plovers, but that policy has never been used, Prescott said. "Every situation has to be evaluated on its own merits," he said.

Biology and animal behavior professor Peter Auger of Centerville urged Seashore officials yesterday to consider an alternative. Given crows' intelligence and social order, he suggested teaching them to stay away from plover eggs through the use of a vomit-inducing substance.

"In the long run, that's about the only thing that can work," said Auger, who teaches at Wheaton College in Norton and Boston College. "That will be communicated to other members of the same species. What you're doing, with their sophisticated social system, is using it against them."