Nuisance Birds May Be Showing Up Soon
The onset of fall marks the return of nuisance birds to dairy farms and feedlots in cooler climates.
Ricky Woods, USDA Wildlife Services specialist based in Nebraska, shared advice for managing the birds in a recent episode of the I-29 Moo University Dairy Podcast series.
Woods said he typically sees migratory birds like starlings returning from about late October until March. Starlings are recruiters, so they may come back to the same site year after year, with not only their offspring, but other birds that have joined the flock along the way.
Flocks ranging in size from 1,000 to 100,000 birds may travel together. Dairies and feedlots are popular destinations because of easily accessible shelter and feed sources. Sometimes, flocks will choose one site during the day, then travel to another site within a 20-mile radius at night. On some farms, flocks move in only at night to roost inside barns.
According to Woods, one starling will eat about a penny’s worth of feed per day. “That may not sound like a lot, but it can add up to huge losses when you consider thousands of birds residing on farms for several months,” he stated.
In addition to the feed loss, birds like starlings and pigeons can tear insulation out of barns, and contaminate the feed that cows consume. Woods said the feces and feathers from invasive birds can spread E. coli, salmonella, cryptosporidium and histoplasmosis to cows.
Getting rid of troublesome bird flocks can be tedious and time-consuming. Woods said pyrotechnics, noisemakers, trapping, and toxicants all have been used to accomplish the task. The choice of tactic depends on the nature and severity of the bird problem.
The goal of a bird eradication program is to make the birds so uncomfortable that they don’t want to be there. Something as simple as a hinged pair of 2X4s, clapped together, can be used to frighten birds so they don’t land. But that effort must be conducted essentially from sun-up to sundown for 7-10 consecutive days to be effective.
If birds are showing up to roost at night, pyrotechnics can be used to defend against them. The time window is shorter because the situation only needs to be addressed when birds arrive to roost in the hours just before and after sundown.
Woods said chemical toxicants like Avitrol® and DRC 1339 are Restricted Use Pesticides. While they will kill some birds, their true purpose is scare birds away.
Shooting is not an effective way to drastically reduce the bird population, but will help to frighten them. Mixing up approaches and using more than one mitigation method may be necessary. Human safety, of course, should be a primary priority in any bird mitigation effort.
If a dairy is struggling with a bird problem, Woods said the best approach is to contact a USDA
Wildlife Services representative. Their initial assessment and advice should be at no cost to the producer.
When asked why some dairies have zero bird problems while others struggle with them mightily, Woods said there really is no rhyme or reason why birds target certain farms. “Unfortunately,” he said, “it’s purely a case of bad luck.”