When you think of farming, what ingredients do you generally associate with a successful harvest? The basics certainly come to mind: fertile soil, plenty of sunlight and lots of water. But there are other variables that can also mean the difference between a crop of healthy fruits and vegetables and a large heap of organic waste. And it turns out that one of those variables is a very small hawk.
Late last year, a paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology helped to explain why. The paper described the effects that American kestrels have on cherry farms in Michigan. As the paper’s authors point out, keeping crops safe from intrusive wildlife can play a part in food safety, including the risk of contamination by “foodborne pathogens that infect humans.” Going too far, however, can have an adverse effect on the local ecosystem.
The scientists that undertook this research noted that some farmers add nest boxes to their farms to give birds of prey a place to nest. In the case of the kestrels, this seemed to be effective. The paper’s authors found that “kestrels reduced bird density in fields, which reduced contamination of crops with bird faeces and crop damage.” They went on to cite the inexpensive cost of nest boxes, arguing that they represent a cost-effective way towards better and safer crop harvests.
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A brief lesson in adaptation and evolutionWriting at Inside Climate News, K.R. Callaway spoke with some farmers who touted the benefits of working with kestrels to keep their crops safe. Brad Thatcher of April Joy Farm told Inside Climate News that he had seen a difference since he began giving these birds a place to nest over a decade ago.
“There’s very little fecal damage from small songbirds at that time of year versus the fall,” he said. Some solutions for food safety require high costs and a lot of work. Thankfully, giving kestrels somewhere to live is neither of these things.
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