Lesson 3 – Birds in the Balance: Pest Control Services Across Crop Types
Presentation Recording
Presenters
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.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this lesson, participants will:
- Understand potential for farms to support bird populations
- Understand how farmers benefit from healthy bird populations
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Be able to describe how bird diets reflect the pest control services they provide
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Understand differences between the effects of birds in corn vs. soybean crops
Publications
- Habitat associations and conservation opportunities for priority birds on small, diversified farms in the northeastern USA by King et al.
- Crop-specific effectiveness of birds as agents of pest control by King et al.
- Pest control services on farms vary among bird species on diversified, low-intensity farms by King et al.
- Birds suppress pests in corn but release them in soybean crops within a mixed prairie/agriculture system by Garfinkel et al.
- When a pest is not a pest: Birds indirectly increase defoliation but have no effect on yield of soybean crops by Garfinkel et al.
- A neonicotinoid insecticide reduces fueling and delays migration in songbirds by Stutchbury et al. (Discussed in the webinar)