Quelea report

Name: Moira Cronje     

Date: 14 June 2011

Topic: Red billed Quelea

About the Red billed Quelea:

The Red-billed Quelea  (Quelea quelea) is the world's most abundant wild bird species, with an estimated adult breeding population of 1.5 billion. Some estimates of the overall population have been as large as 10 billion. It is a small passerine bird of the weaver family Ploceidae, native  to sub-Saharan Africa. Red-billed Quelea live and breed in huge flocks which can take up to 5 hours to fly past. Their life expectancy is two to three years. They have been classified as pests.

Breeding is localized and erratic but often colonies include tens of thousands to millions of pairs. The female lays two to four light blue eggs, and incubates them for twelve days. After the chicks hatch, they are nourished for some days with caterpillars and protein-rich insects.  After this time parents change to mainly feeding seeds.

The problems it causes:

By planting the crops in the way we do we give them a feast on a platter and now we want to kill them for it??

The food of the Red-billed Quelea consists of annual grasses, seeds and grain. As soon as the sun comes up, they come together in their huge flocks and co-operate in finding a suitable feeding place. After a successful search, they settle rapidly and can cause serious damage to crops. They are regarded as pests by farmers because they can eliminate fields in a short period of time. Due to the numbers and localized decimation of cereal crops, control actions have been undertaken. As many as 150-180 million birds have been killed but this appeared to have no effect on the overall Quelea population and only temporary relief from crop damage. Unfortunately, many non-target birds appeared to have also been killed in these control operations and may have had severe population deprivations as a result. Breeding colonies attract scavengers like horn bills, owls, rollers, kingfishers and crows. When these birds fly they look like a big cloud.  They attack the fields in groups.  Once these birds entered the fields’ means the whole crop will be eaten by them and not a single seed is left behind.

Control methods:

As many as 150-180 million birds have been killed but this appeared to have no effect on the overall Quelea population and only temporary relief from crop damage. Efforts to control quelea populations with poisons, napalm, pathogens, and electronic devices have had poor success; but dynamiting the dense colonies, which may contain more than two million pairs in less than 50 hectares (125 acres), has achieved local control. Aside from the fact that poisons and other bird pest control measure have failed to reduce the numbers of Africa’s most hated pest bird, there are other issues with these methods—other species of birds as well as crustaceans, insect species, and other animals are also killed, and toxic poisons are added to the environment. But current methods of dealing with the birds - spraying them with chemicals or blowing up their roosts with a mix of diesel and petrol - are harmful to the environment.

On 12 March 1999, we observed that many nests had Armored Bush Crickets (also known as Armored Ground Crickets, Corn Crickets or Koringkrieke), Acanthoplus discoidalis (Walker),on them. Closer inspection revealed that many of these insects were entering the nests or were already inside. Several nestlings in these nests were bleeding. We were thus able to confirm a report by Mr Kekopamang Mbwe, a scout of the Division of Plant Protection, Ministry of Agriculture, Botswana, that the crickets attack Quelea nestlings.

Solutions:

Weekly forecasts now warn pest managers in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe where and when to expect bird pests. They can then take action to control them and tip off farmers to protect their crops. The Red-billed Quelea devastates millet and sorghum crops throughout southern Africa. The birds migrate long distances to feed on grass seeds, so their migrations follow rains with a predictable time lag. Every week, a map posted on the internet shows where the bird pest season hasn't yet begun, where there's been enough rain to prompt the first migrations, where Queleas could breed and where the season is ending. These forecasts have proved so successful that national crop protection teams all over southern Africa now use them. Farmers can also spend a little more money to protect their crops and build a cover over their crops. It’s either spend a little more money to save you more money or it’s lose everything and take millions of lives.

International Journal of Pest Management: Volume 30, Issue 2, 1984, Pages 148 - 150

Authors: S. Manikowski^a; F. Billiet^a

Colored flags protect ripening rice against Que/ea quelea.

During incubation -- Removal of one parent during the incubation period resulted in the failure of the eggs to hatch. In very few cases, when the capture was made only a day or two before hatching occurred, some eggs did hatch but the young were not cared for and died.