Track 4: Designing a Farm to Be Bird Friendly

Lesson 8: Farmscape and Landscape Features

Presenters: Dr. Megan Garfinkel - University of Illinois at Chicago & Dr. Daniel Karp - UC Davis

Megan is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Chicago. She studies ecosystem services (such as pest control) that birds provide in agricultural landscapes. Her previous research has focused on a variety of types of agriculture, including small organic farms, large conventional corn and soybean farms, and coffee farms.

Daniel is an associate professor in the department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of California at Davis. His work focuses on identifying strategies to co-manage agricultural landscapes for conservation, agricultural production, and food safety. For example, Karp has explored how farming practices, and surrounding landscapes, affect the bird diversity on California farms as well as their benefits (and harms) to agricultural production.

Continued Education Credits/Units Approved:

Learning Objectives

• Explain how farming practices and surrounding landscapes affect birds on farms, as well as their impacts on crop production.
• Articulate how non-crop vegetation management, both on and off the farm, affects on-farm food-safety risks.
• Identify strategies that would likely help farmers simultaneously conserve birds, bolster crop production, and ensure food-safety.

Presentation Recording

Videos

WFA Publications

• Supporting Beneficial Birds and Managing Pest Birds

Articles

• Net effects of birds on strawberries:
  • Press release: https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/natural-habitat-around-farms-a-win-for-strawberry-growers-birds-and-consumers
  • Associated article: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/eap.2115
• Birds and food safety risks:
  • Press release: https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/researchers-pinpoint-which-birds-species-pose-food-safety-risk-produce-crops
  • Associated article: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/eap.2523
• Multiple roles of birds on strawberry farms:
  • Press release: https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/bringing-out-best-wild-birds-farms
  • Associated article: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14124
• Pest control by birds in corn/soybeans:
  • Press release: https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/birds-from-the-prairie-eat-pests-from-the-farm
  • Associated article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ibi.12994
  • Associated article: https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/122/2/duaa009/5788601