Lesson 2 – American Kestrels as Pest Control Allies on the Farm

 

Presentation Recording

Presenters

Jeanette Kelly is the Citizen Science & Education Director at Beaver Creek Reserve in Fall Creek, WI. Her path as a wildlife biologist changed the day she held an American Kestrel, sparking a career in avian conservation and citizen science. She has worked with Kestrels nationwide, from migration studies to habitat improvements through nest boxes. At Beaver Creek, Jeanette oversees a citizen science Kestrel nest box-monitoring project and trains landowners to install and monitor nest boxes on their properties.

Catherine Lindell is a faculty member in the Integrative Biology Dept. at Michigan State University (MSU), having received my Ph.D. from Harvard’s Dept. of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Her lab group at Michigan State University (MSU) studies the behavior and ecology of birds and how birds contribute to ecological functioning and ecosystem services and disservices. Their venues for this work have included agricultural and forest restoration systems in North and Central America. They investigate how to make managed landscapes more hospitable for native species that contribute significant ecosystem services and less hospitable to non-native species and those that cause ecosystem disservices. Catherine previously served the department as the Graduate Program Director and Interim Chair. She also served as Editor-in-Chief of Ornithological Applications from 2019-2024.

Learning Objectives

• Describe several avian pest control studies in the US and around the world.
• Share how avian pest control has helped to reverse the decline of birds.
• Describe the tradition of “economic ornithology”, why it lost popularity, and now has resurged.
• Share what birds need to thrive on a farm.

Publications

• Enhancing agricultural landscapes to increase crop pest reduction by vertibrates by Lindell et al.
• Beaver Creek American Kestrel Brochure
• Beaver Creek American Kestrel Habitat and Nesting Host Info

 

Nest Box Plans

• Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance American Kestrel Nest Box Plans

WFA Videos

WFA Publications

• Protecting Birds in Agricultural Landscapes
• Supporting Beneficial Birds and Managing Pest Birds