United States. Department of Agriculture. Farmers' bulletin no. 54

Some Common Birds in Their Relation to Agriculture

It has long been known that birds play an important part in relation to agriculture, but there seems to be a tendency to dwell on the harm they do rather then on the good. Whether a bird is injurious or beneficial depends almost entirely upon what it eats, and in the case of species which are unusually abundant or which depend in part upon the farmer's crops for subsistence the character of the food often becomes a very practical question. If crows or blackbirds are seen in numbers about cornfields, or if woodpeckers are noticed at work in an orchard, it is perhaps not surprising that they are accused of doing harm. Careful investigation, however, often shows that they are actually destroying noxious insects, and also that even those which do harm at one season may compensate for it by eating noxious species at another. Insects are eaten at all times by the majority of land birds, and during the breeding season most kinds subsist largely and rear their young exclusively on this food. When insects are unusually plentiful, they are eaten by many birds which ordinarily do not touch them. Even birds of prey resort to this diet, and when insects are more easily obtained than other fare, the smaller hawks and owls live on them almost entirely. This was well illustrated during the recent plague of Rocky Mountain locusts in the Western States, when it was found that locusts were eaten by nearly every bird in the region, and that they formed almost the entire food of a large majority of the species. Within certain limits, birds feed upon the kind of food that is most accessible. Thus, as a rule, insectivorous birds eat the insects that are most easily obtained, provided they do not have some peculiarly disagreeable property. It is not probable that a bird habitually passes by one kind of insect to look for another which is more appetizing, and there seems little evidence in support of the theory that tire selection of food is restricted to any particular species of insect, for it is evident that a bird eats those which by its own method of seeking are most easily obtained. Thus, a ground-feeding bird eats those it finds among the dead leaves and grass; a flycatcher, watching for its prey from some vantage point, captures entirely different kinds; and the 4 woodpecker and warbler, in the tree tops, select still others. It is thus apparent that a bird's diet is likely to be quite varied, and to differ at different seasons of the year. In investigating the food habits of birds, field observation can be relied on only to a limited extent, for it is not always easy to determine what a bird really eats by watching it. In order to be positive on this point, it is necessary to examine the stomach contents. When birds are suspected of doing injury to field crops or fruit trees, a few individuals should be shot and their stomachs examined. This will show unmistakably whether or not the birds are guilty. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 62675
Author: Beal, F. E. L. (Foster Ellenborough Lascelles)
Release Date: Jul 16, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English