Efforts to protect the threatened tricolored blackbird are proving so successful that conservationists are devising ways to get the creatures to move on from the dairy farms that they have commandeered.
In 2014, the population of the species had dropped to just 145,000 from 2 million to 3 million, the National Audubon Society reported. To prevent the birds' extinction, Audubon California partnered with other groups to pay farmers with grain fields to postpone their harvests.
That's because newborn chicks were being killed by the thousands, powerless to escape oncoming combines. This conservation program, which has since been bolstered by matching state funds, has kept these horrifying mass-casualty events from happening for three years.
And the striking birds — breeding males have bright red patches on their shoulders underscored by white stripes — have rebounded.
With financing from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the program has protected more than half a million chicks, according to the Audubon Society. Last year, 235,000 adults in the San Joaquin Valley were beneficiaries of the program.
"We've been a lot better at protecting colonies, ensuring that they're found early," Audubon California Working Lands Program director Xerónimo Castañeda told the outlet. "We've been able to protect more colonies and more birds, and the population is starting to see a little uptick."
Farmers received about $800 per affected acre a few years ago, but that stipend has doubled, getting farmers "closer to full compensation," as Diamond J Dairy co-owner Luciana Jonkman told the Audubon Society.
Still, the domino effect of delaying harvests is rough. Farmers can't feed their cows with dried-out grain, and the planting of other crops, such as corn, is delayed. That means buying supplementary feed and increasing irrigation.
So, postponing harvests and paying farmers to do so is a temporary solution. Biologist Ian Souza-Cole, a senior coordinator with the Working Lands Program, tried this year to use decoys and recordings of the blackbirds' call to lure the animals from dairy farms.
It was unsuccessful, so he'll make changes and try again next year with the hope that the birds will take leave from what has become a preferred habitat to make homes in natural areas. It's a tall order since dairy farms, vineyards, and orchards have replaced much of the grassland and marsh where the "trikes" once flocked.
"Nobody's really interested in that fight," Souza-Cole told the Audubon Society. "It's preferable to create a system where everybody wins."
In that case, we may need to reduce our reliance on commercialfarms, which takes up vast tracts of land and squanders resources that could be saved for native wildlife and other important uses. Replacing milk and other animal products with plant-based options is not only better for the environment, but it's also better for our personal health.
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