BIRD DAMAGE TO PEANUTS AND METHODS FOR ALLEVIATING THE PROBLEM

Authors

Donald F. Mott, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Wildlife Research Center, Denver, Colorado
Jerome F. Besser, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Wildlife Research Center, Denver, Colorado
Richard R. West, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Wildlife Research Center, Denver, Colorado
John W. DeGrazio, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Wildlife Research Center, Denver, Colorado

Date of this Version

March 1972

Abstract

Investigations from 1969 through 1971 of bird damage to peanuts in south-central Oklahoma have shown that losses are caused mainly by common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula). These losses, as high as $36 per acre, have been reduced primarily through the use of exploders and early harvesting of the crop. A fright-producing chemical, 4-aminopyridine, was also effective in scaring grackles from windrowed peanut fields. Banding has shown that many of these grackles breed in western Nebraska and Kansas and winter in northeastern Texas.