Lesson 3 – Birds in the Balance: Pest Control Services Across Crop Types

Presenters: David King, University of Massachusetts & Megan Garfinkel, Chicago State University

Start Time is 11:00 AM Central Time

Once you RSVP, a Zoom link will arrive in the confirmation email.

Continued Education Credits: We are offering 1 CCA credit from American Society of Agronomy

Upon successfully completing this lesson, participants will:

• Understand potential for farms to support bird populations
• Understand how farmers benefit from healthy bird populations
• Be able to describe how bird diets reflect the pest control services they provide
• Understand differences between the effects of birds in corn vs. soybean crops

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Dave King received his BS in Wildlife Management from Humboldt University and his MS and PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He served as a Research Wildlife Biologist with the US Forest Service Northern Research Station for 26 years, and continues his appointment as adjunct faculty at the University of Massachusetts. His specialty is bird habitat and conservation, including the impacts of forestry on birds, winter habitat conservation for Neotropical migrants, and currently the ecosystem services provided by birds to farmers on New England vegetable farms and Central American coffee farms.

Dr. Megan Garfinkel obtained her MS degree at Humboldt State University, where she studied pest control services provided by birds on small organic farms. She went on to complete her PhD at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she asked similar research questions, but this time in large midwest corn and soybean agricultural systems. She is currently an assistant professor of biology at Chicago State University, where she has begun to examine the effects of birds in urban agriculture. 

Header photo: Song Sparrow by Cory Seeman