U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

 

Date of this Version

January 2008

Comments

Published in National Sunflower Association Research Forum Papers 2008.
The annual NSA Research Forum is highly regarded as the premier conference at which private and public researchers present the results of their latest sunflower research. For a quarter of a century, the National Sunflower Association has produced the workshop as a forum for sunflower research to be shared with the public.
The 30th annual NSA Research Forum, held in January 2008, was another successful event where researchers from around the country came together to share their knowledge.
Online at http://www.sunflowernsa.com/research/default.asp?contentID=70

Abstract

The Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus), and Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) are the three most abundant blackbird species (Icteridae) found in North Dakota and comprise almost 10% of its avian population (Stewart and Kantrud 1972). Blackbird abundance combined with their food habitats make them significant agricultural pests on sunflower. Cost estimates for blackbird damage to sunflower in the North Dakota are likely over $10 million dollars annually (Kleingartner, pers. comm). Because of this economic impact blackbirds have on agriculture, it is important to understand land use and climatic factors influencing blackbird abundance. This study will compare route-level and finer-scale summaries of stop-level resolution to determine which scale is most effective for creating blackbird abundance models from land use and climate data. This additional resolution of analysis will potentially improve the fit of blackbird abundance models by providing additional information that may be missed in larger scale analyses.

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