Audubon Goes Into Emergency Mode to Save Bird Species Today

by Chris Clarke
on April 3, 2014 10:47 AM

As much as a sixth of the total population of an emblematic California bird species faces harm this week, and a prestigious group has gone into emergency mode to prevent a tragedy.

According to Audubon California, between 25,000 and 50,000 tricolored blackbirds are currently nesting in a field in Madera County that is slated for harvest as early as today, and the group is feverishly working with the farm owner to delay that harvest until the baby blackbirds have left their nests.

Fewer than 300,000 tricolored blackbirds remain in the world, which means losing 50,000 could be a serious blow to the species. But though such stories often play out in conflict between wildlife advocates and landowners, this one has a twist: the farmer's also looking for a way out that doesn't hurt the birds.


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Central California farmers save 65,000 rare, tricolored blackbirds

By Louis Sahagun

June 14, 2013, 1:00 p.m.

An estimated 65,000 rare, tricolored blackbirds — roughly one-fifth of the species’ entire global population — were saved this year when six Central California dairy farmers were paid to delay harvesting their silage crops through the nesting season.

With help from Audubon California and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Tulare and Kern County farmers were paid about $393 per acre for the resulting disruptions to their labor schedules and drop in the quality of grain.

The voluntary program made the farmers about two weeks later than usual in harvesting their crops. However, the birds, which tend to nest in farmlands that resemble the marshlands of their historic range, successfully fledged by the end of May.

“It’s not an ultimate solution,” said Anita Brown, spokesperson for the USDA. “But by working together, farmers are going forward so that we can eat, and birds are nesting for the survival of their species.”

Tricolored blackbirds once numbered in the millions. Today, the population, which has one of the smallest ranges of any bird in North America, has declined to about 400,000.

The species is listed as a federal bird of conservation concern and a California state species of special concern.

Continued: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-farmers-save-blackbirds20130614,0,4866890.story