Mitigate Your Crop Loss from Nuisance Birds

With spring planting around the corner, now is the time to finalize your plan to address the threat of resident and migratory birds on your farm in order to ensure a plentiful crop season. Migration for many bird species that damage crops can begin as early as April and their presence on your farm can continue throughout the summer. These birds may be passing through on their flyway or may recognize the food source opportunity and settle in for the season, as the main goal of migration is to establish a nesting area where there is food readily available and easily accessible. Bird presence on your farm poses a threat to your crops in a variety of ways.  

How Birds Can Damage crops 

1.  Directly eating crops & seedlings – Birds can feast on crops and create damage at every growth stage, but it may not always be the same bird culprit depending on the crop growth stage.  Birds like Canada geese can eat the seeds and seedlings of sweet corn and soybeans while Red Winged Blackbirds and European Starlings affect crops like wheat and fruit by directly eating the crops when they are nearing harvesting. Oftentimes, waiting until damage becomes obvious is too late in the season to break any established habits and regain any yield lost. Once a food source is established in early spring, birds will continue to visit your site and also teach their young fledglings where the food is. As such, early prevention is critical to controlling bird damage.   

1. Indirect damage caused by eliminating natural predators: For some crops like soybeans, birds can cause damage indirectly through the food chain, by eating natural predators (spiders and predatory beetles) of other arthropods that eat soybeans. These spiders or beetles would have normally eaten the pests, and their presence would have led to less damage in soybean crops. In a study reviewed by the American Ornithological Society, when looking at areas where birds were excluded but arthropods still had access, the yield of the soybean crops increased compared to areas where birds were not excluded.  

1. Contamination of crops from fecal droppings – droppings from large migratory birds and large flocks of birds that feed on stored seed and/or animal feed can contaminate water used in irrigation systems and contribute to spreading Salmonella, E.coli and other bacterial pathogens on crops.  

How to Mitigate Crop Damages from Birds 

Identifying the proper solution for your farm requires an expert understanding of bird biology and how specific species may have positive or detrimental impacts on varying types of crops. As such, agricultural bird management cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution but requires deep knowledge of environmental science and animal science.  

With over 30 solutions and 27 years of experience helping properties manage nuisance birds, Wild Goose Chase can help farmers identify the problem and develop a farm-specific plan to minimize bird damage. For most farms, Wild Goose Chase typically recommends using high intensity lasers to remove birds from properties. These work because the key to removing birds is randomness and frightfulness. Other techniques such as noise cannons or flags may work at first, but they lose their effectiveness over time. Automated lasers are programable to occur at different times and have been proven to eliminate up to 70% of crop loss.  

Your Partner in Bird Management 

A new growing season means lots of things to check off your list. Let Wild Goose Chase take one item off your list this season, and help you reduce the negative financial impacts of crop damage due to nuisance birds. Contact us today to discuss how we can protect your farm in 2025.  

Marcus Hagberg

Marus Hagberg is the COO of Wild Goose Chase, a leading pest and nuisance bird control company serving the Midwest. With over 20 years of industry experience, he helps lead a specialized team of biologists, canine handlers, and construction experts to deliver effective, customized solutions. Marus is committed to providing strategic, research-backed bird control services that protect properties from health and safety risks.