Partnerships between California Dairy Farmers and Conservationists Save 60,000 Rare Tricolored Blackbirds

Environmental Quality Incentives Program provided assistance to farmers who delayed silage harvest to help the rare birds.

Source: USDA-NRCS news release

USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Audubon California have released final 2012 results on the status of the rare Tricolored Blackbird, a California Bird Species of Special Concern, found in California's Central Valley.

Results show the species is having a good year, thanks in large part to four farmers who have agreed to partner with the conservation agencies. Together the farmers and biologists protected 60,000 breeding birds -- one-fifth of the species’ entire global population -- after farmers agreed to delay their harvest schedule and allow the birds to fledge safely.

“I have never seen so many Tricolored Blackbirds as I have this year,” said Rick Gorzeman, a dairy farmer in Tulare County. “At first we didn’t know what to do but then I heard of a sign-up program with the NRCS. This allowed me to let my wheat grow in the field longer while the birds’ eggs hatched.”

The program Gorzeman is referring to, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), provided technical and financial assistance to the four farmers from Kern, Merced and Tulare counties who participated in saving the birds. All birds successfully fledged in late May.

Keiller Kyle, a Tricolored Blackbird expert with Audubon California, monitors the rare birds’ location patterns and development stages in areas throughout the Central Valley. With Kyle’s expertise and the help of NRCS biologist, Jesse Bahm, conservationists were able to target their efforts and develop the right harvesting schedule to protect the birds and worked with the farmers to assess the impact a harvest delay would have on crop quality and quantity.

“We are pleased that these farmers are willing to help protect this native California bird, and a lot of that has to do with reaching out to them with a strategy that considered the needs of both the birds and the farmers,” said Kyle. “NRCS is a crucial partner for outreach and funding that makes this program successful. This is a powerful partnership of private landowners, nonprofit conservation organizations, and public agencies working to protect a unique species in a working landscape.”

Every spring, Tricolored Blackbirds build large colonies of nests in the Central Valley’s marshy areas and also in areas that were historically marshland but are now cropland. The birds have adapted to the change in vegetation, and now more than 40% of the birds build their nests in silage fields such as triticale and wheat. Unfortunately, the nesting schedule of the species conflicts with the harvesting schedule of the farmers. The species is now federally listed as a Bird of Conservation Concern, a California Bird Species of Special Concern, and are also protected under the provisions of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Farmers with nesting Tricolored Blackbirds can help the species by delaying their harvesting until the birds are fully fledged. However, this also delays summer planting, can disrupt the equipment and labor schedules the farmers have negotiated in advance, and also results in a loss of quality to the silage fields hosting the birds. The voluntary steps taken by these four farmers ensured that the birds were protected and fully fledged.

“We found that when farmers understood the situation they wanted to do what they could to help the birds,” says Jennifer Cavanaugh, Wetlands Biologist with NRCS. “It was really satisfying to work with the farmers and Audubon California to find a win-win plan for helping wildlife while allowing farmers to continue to provide feed for their livestock.”

“The people from NRCS and Audubon CA came out after I was accepted into their program and explained everything to me,” said Gorzeman. “They compensated me for the extra irrigation I put on my wheat and for the tonnage lost on my summer crop. They were very helpful and friendly and we were able to protect the birds,” he said.

More information is available at www.ca.audubon.org and at www.ca.nrcs.usda.gov. Also see images and hear Tricolored Blackbirds at YouTube.