Agriculture bird pests in the Lake zone.

AGRICULTURAL BIRD PEST

The agricultural bird pests are all bird species which attacks and affects the human crops either severely or at tolerant level. There are several bird pests which have been found in Tanzania and other countries in the world.

Most of the societies which are found at the Lake Zone regions of Tanzania (Tabora, Shinyanga and Mwanza regions) like Sukuma (Mwanza and Shinyanga), Nyamwezi (Tabora), Jita and Kerewe (Mwanza) are characterized by small scale agricultural system. These societies mostly perform the subsistence farming, and the most cultivated crops includes maize, rice, beans, millets, sorghum, groundnuts, cassava, and even fruits like oranges, mango, and pawpaw.

There are several agricultural bird pests which are found in Lake Zone regions in Tanzania which attacks the cereals, seeds and even the leaves of many agricultural plants like maize, rice, millet, sorghum, and even variety of fruits.

The following seven birds are the most common and most destructive in Lake Zone in Tanzania; Red billed quelea, Scaly francolin, Speke’s weavers, House sparrow, Speckled Mouse bird, Common bulbul, Duck and Guinea fowls.                                

1: RED BILLED QUELEA,                                 

Classification

Common name;           Red billed Quelea

Species name;              Quelea quelea

Fig : Red billed quelea

Local (Swahili) name;  Kwelea-kwelea

      The crops which are mostly affected by these birds includes the cereals like rice, millet, sorghum, and maize seeds.

      Level of damage by these birds is always severe, they cause critical damage because they always attack in large flocks of about 2 million birds, and each individual of quelea can consume about 18g of grains per day. It is not unusual exploitation, so a flock of 2 million birds can eat up to 50 tons of grain in a day, or 1500 tons within 30 days.

      These birds used to feed on ungerminated seeds and the mature and immature seeds in the fields.

There are several methods which have been used to minimize the effects of the Quelea attacking. These includes the traditional ways and the modern means.

Traditional means includes

·         Chasing them physically when they come to attack either by throwing the stones or making noises.

·         Use of cassette tape threads, tying them around the field which produces the scary noises to birds when they are blown by wind.

·         Use of warning flags to scary them.

·         Use of scary toys which resembles like a man.

·         Also the use of catapults.

Modern ways includes

·         Chemical means, use of pesticides.

2. SCALY FLANCOLIN.

Classification                                                         

Common name;   Scaly francolin

Species name;      Pternistis squamatus

Local (Swahili) name; Kware

Fig 2: Scaly francolin

      The scaly francolin are nut crackers which lives in a small group of family level which includes parents and young, their impacts are moderate as compared to the Quelea quelea this is due to the group size.

      Scaly francolin affects mostly maize, they have double effect because they start to affect the ungerminated seeds then they come to affect the matured corns of maize.

      The damages always occur from the period of planting up to the harvesting period, i.e. (it ranges from October to June).

There are several traditional methods which have been used to minimize the effects of the scaly francolin attacking.

Traditional means includes

·         Chasing them from farms physically sometimes by using dogs.

·         Also the use of catapults.

3. SPEKE’S WEAVERS

Classification

Common name; Speke’s weavers

Scientific name; Ploceus spekei

Local name;     Jinsole (Jita)

Figure 3; a Speke’s weaver

      These birds are always live in groups of large flocks which attack the field in large or medium group of hundreds to thousands of individuals. Their level of damage is moderate which can be tolerated.

      These birds mostly attacks the immature maize corns as well as rice farms.

      Their attacking season are mostly near harvesting period i.e. from November to June.

The methods which have been used to minimize the effects of these weaver attacking includes the traditional ways and the modern means.

Traditional means includes

·         Chasing them physically when they come to attack either by throwing the stones or making noises.

·         Use of tape thread, tying them around the field which produces the scary noises to birds when they are blown by wind.

·         Use of warning flags to scary them.

·         Use of scary toys which resembles like a man.

·         Also the use of catapults.

Modern ways includes

·         Chemical means, use of pesticides.

4. HOUSE SPARROW

Classification

Common name;       house sparrow

Scientific name;      Passer domestica

Local name;              Jorowe (Sukuma)

Figure 4; house sparrows

      These birds lives mostly in small flocks and they affects mostly the grains like seeds of maize, ground nuts, sorghum and millet.

      Their damage level is moderate, that they can be tolerated.

      The level of damage rises at harvesting period due to the fact that it is a time which they reproduce hence they need to feed their young (nestling), otherwise they consume on seeds throughout the year.

Local ways of reducing the effects includes

·         Chasing them physically when they come to attack either by throwing the stones or making noises.

·         Also the use of catapults.

No any modern method is identified to reduce the damage

5. SPECKLED MOUSE BIRD

Classification

Common name;  speckled mouse bird

Scientific name; Colius striatus

Local name;         Suludi (Sukuma in Mwanza),

Figure 5; a speckled mouse bird

      Crops affected by the bird are Fruits like ripen pawpaw and mangoes.

      Level of damage; the damage caused by these birds is relatively low this is due to fact that they do not depend in one kind of food thus can be tolerated.

      The damage occurs through out of the year since the fruits do ripe all over the year in the areas around the lake zone but the level of damage increases in December during the rainy season when most of fruits ripen in these areas around Lake Victoria.

Local ways of reducing the effects includes

·         Chasing them physically when they come to attack either by throwing the stones or making noises.

·         Also the use of catapults.

No any modern method is identified to reduce the damage.

6. COMMON BULBUL

Classification

Common name;      Common bulbul

Scientific name;     Pycnonotus barbatus

Local name;             Magulye (Jita) or Gwengere (in Sukuma) in Mwanza

   

Fig 6: Common bulbul

Crops affected by the species includes fruits like pawpaw, mangoes and tomatoes, Grains like maize, rice, sorghum and millets, as well as insects.

      Level of damage; the damage caused by these birds is relatively low this is due to fact that they do not depend in one kind of food thus can be tolerated.

      The damage occurs through out of the year since the fruits do ripe all over the year in the areas around the lake zone but the level of damage increases in December during the rainy season when most of fruits ripen in these areas around Lake Victoria.

Local ways of reducing the effects includes

·         Chasing them physically when they come to attack either by throwing the stones or making noises.

·         Also the use of catapults.

No any modern method is identified to reduce the damage.

7. DOMESTIC DUCKS AND HELMETED GUINEA FOWLS

Figure 7: Helmeted guinea fowls

Fig 8:Domestic duck

Classification

Common names;         Ducks and Helmeted guinea fowls

Scientific names;         Ducks (Anas spp), Helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris).

Local names;               Ducks (Bata) and helmeted guinea fowl (Kanga) all are in Swahili language.

      Crops affected by this species are Seedlings, Cereals like maize groundnuts, Sorghum, Millets, and Rice. They also feed on the leaves of some crops like Cassava, Banana, Maize, Beans and Vegetables.

      The season in which the crops are damaged differs depending on the kind of crop damaged as shown below

ü  Seedlings are damaged during the rainy season soon after germination begins (from September - January).

ü  Cereals are highly damaged during the harvesting season but the seeds may be continuously damaged even after the harvesting period for instance when the seeds are being dried, the level of damage is high in February to July.

ü  The leaves are destructed through out of the year.

Local ways of reducing the effects includes

·         Chasing them physically when they come to attack either by throwing the stones or making noises.

·         Also the use of catapults.

No any modern method is identified to reduce the damage.