Across Africa and Australia, birds are routine casualties in a chemical war against an agricultural ...

Across Africa and Australia, birds are routine casualties in a chemical war against an agricultural pest that also is a huge avian food source: locusts.

(Photo: Nature’s Wonderland Safaris, http://www.natureswonderlandsafaris.com/)

Birdwatchers in Africa may see big flocks of ibis, egrets, storks and other birds on the move toward a feast of locusts. However, farmers may also be preparing to spray the locusts from the air with deadly pesticides before swarms of insects take flight to attack agricultural fields.

During one Desert Locust upsurge in northern Africa more than $200 million and “about 15 million liters of concentrated pesticide was donated,” according to the book “New Strategies in Locust Control.”

After such massive chemical campaigns, the net effect on the locusts, especially on a long-term basis, may not be assessed. In addition, often little or no assessment of the collateral damage to natural locust predators is ever conducted.

It’s a silent, massive ecological trap, a slaughter of wildlife, usually from aerial sprays of lethal chemicals.

Authorities in Africa and Australia are now focusing on more bio-friendly or less ecologically disastrous approaches to locust control. Where the impacts of birds and other natural predators of locusts have been studied, the results have been impressive.

Researchers decades ago, before massive pesticide campaigns were initiated, “reported reductions of up to 100% of hopper bands due to the activity of predators like birds, jackals, rodents, reptiles and arthropods,” wrote a scientist with Deutsche Geselischaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), a sustainable development company based in Germany.

These ground-moving locust bands contained roughly 100,000 locusts. However, in some cases, bands can grow to 700,000 or more locusts and overwhelm natural predators to eat all the locusts.

“Birds are particularly important as a natural control factor, and hoppers were sometimes reduced to 1% of the initial population,” GTZ researchers wrote in New Strategies in Locust Control.

For example, Cream-colored Coursers, Desert Sparrows and other African birds feast on Desert Locust bands in Niger, Mauritania and other West African countries eager to promote agriculture.

Hundreds of Sphecoid wasps also pursue Desert Locusts and subdue them with powerful stings. They bury their paralyzed prey in “wasp fields” that are in the paths of future locust outbreaks.

“Birds can be effective in controlling small gregarious populations but that the sheer numbers of large gregarious populations defeat them,” D.J. Greathead, a researcher at Uganda’s Institute of Biological Control, said in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

When bird and other locust predators are reduced, their ability to blunt or eliminate locust bands declines, too. However, more wildlife sanctuaries in areas known for locust outbreaks could have large positive economic impacts on wildlife and agriculture.

The Woodland Kingfisher is one of Africa’s true grasshopper specialists. Each of these blue, noisy birds can eat 26 grasshoppers a day. The Desert Locust and equally dreaded Red Locust are eaten by the kingfisher.

This highly territorial kingfisher chases raptors, hole-nesting birds and humans from its breeding territories from South Africa to sub-Saharan countries. It migrates to within 8° of the equator in the dry season, which is when locust bands routinely appear.

In Botswana, the Woodland Kingfisher is found in woodlands near water and gardens, much more often when rainfall is abundant.

Like many “tree kingfishers,” the Woodland Kingfisher seldom takes fish, but it will occasionally dive into shallow water for them. It prefers grasshoppers and locusts, and also takes beetles and cockroaches. It is known for its beautiful wing displays.

Nature’s Wonderland Safaris leads tours throughout East and South Africa to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and other bird-rich countries in the region.

http://www.natureswonderlandsafaris.com/

I believe that the more we watch, photograph, study and enjoy Woodland Kingfishers, the better for the species, all birds, all wildlife and all humans.

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