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Thoughts on Rice
This podcast is for growers, PCAs, consultants, and other industry professionals in the California rice industry. We'll primarily be focusing on the Sacramento Valley and Delta Region of California. The UCCE Rice Farm Advisors aim to deliver extension information relating to the California rice industry.
Find out more about UCCE and California rice here!
Thoughts on Rice
Blackbird damage in CA rice
Blackbirds may be small, but their impact on rice fields can be huge. We explore how and when they cause the most damage, why they target rice, and what farmers are doing to protect their crops.
Upcoming Events!
- Annual Rice Field Day on August 27
Blackbird Resources
UC Rice Blog Blackbird post (with ID photos)
Overall blackbird damage to rice crops has been estimated to >$20 million
Other Resources
Rice in the Delta
Mention of an agrichemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is the law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general purposes only. The "University of California" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.
UC ANR is an equal opportunity provider and employer
Hello and welcome to Thoughts on Rice, a podcast hosted by the University of California Cooperative Extension Rice Advisors. I'm one of your hosts, Sarah Marchionish, and I'm a rice farm advisor for Colusa and Yolo counties.
SPEAKER_00:I'm Whitney from The Forest. I'm the Cooperative Extension Rice Advisor for Sutter, Yuba, Placer, and Sacramento counties.
SPEAKER_01:My name is Luis Espino. I'm the Rice Farming Systems Advisor for Butte and Glynn counties. I'm Michelle Leinfelder-Miles. I'm a farm advisor in the Delta region. I work on all sorts of field crops, grains and forages, but one of those is rice. And the counties that I cover are San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo Solano, and Contra Costa counties.
SPEAKER_02:Together, the UCC rice farm advisors seek to provide relevant, topical, research-backed information relating to California rice production. Today we'll be continuing on a bit of a theme. in a way, continuing on from our previous podcast episode, which was with Billy Abbott talking about the bird conservation programs that are upcoming this winter. Now, today we'll also still be talking about birds, but kind of in a different vein. Today we're going to talk about blackbird damage in rice. And in case you're not familiar with it, blackbirds and rice are typically not a great combination. This episode is modified from a blog post Stay tuned to hear more about blackbirds in rice. Now, in the last few weeks, we've seen a lot of rice starting to head out, especially our earlier rice varieties. I got called out to an early rice variety, Keto Komachi, which was starting to head out. And the growers had seen some kind of damage in the field. And it was something they had seen at a level that to them was pretty unacceptable. So they called me out to get a second opinion about what was happening. Now, essentially, what they, their PCA, and I kind of all agreed on was that yeah, they were getting some pretty heavy pressure from blackbirds. And so kind of to that end, I wanted to spend some time today talking about what blackbird damage looks like in rice fields. However, I also understand that it's kind of difficult to do something like that without pictures. And since YouTube doesn't acknowledge that I'm a real person, we're not able to set up our YouTube channel just quite yet. So I'm going to talk you through this. But if you're interested in seeing more information, my blog post has a lot of pictures and more information if you're looking to see an actual visual representation about what we're talking about here. This is a pretty distinctive bird song, and it's indicative of the male red-winged blackbird. It's a pretty familiar sound to those of us who work in California's Central Valley. Now in California, the blackbirds that we are talking about are primarily red-winged blackbirds. And these birds can damage rice from planting season, seedling stage, and the ripening period. However, where the majority of our rice is water seeded, typically damage is limited to the ripening stage. At this point, blackbirds can harm the rice crop in a variety of ways. They can pinch the rice kernels, which just means squeezing each grain of rice with the beak to force milky contents into the mouth at the milk stage. They can hold the grains and eat them in the grain stage. And they can actually physically break the panicles by perching and feeding throughout the ripening period. So there's lots of different ways that blackbirds can physically injure the rice. Now, it's difficult to estimate the economic losses from blackbirds in rice fields. We don't really have that information because it's extraordinarily difficult to track how much damage is due entirely to blackbirds. However, across the entire United States, overall blackbird damage to rice crops has been estimated to be greater than$20 million. And that$20 million does not include the money that's spent on damage abatement efforts. So what that means, damage abatement efforts, that's the birds away from the sites, trying to avoid or abate the damage that these birds might cause. Losses can be high in crop fields that are close to important or historic roosting areas. And in California, especially in the areas where our race is grown, fields that border roosting habitat, which include sloughs, tules, bamboo stands, willows, etc., might be subject to increased depredation. Early heading rice fields, especially those that are surrounded by fields that may head out later, may be more susceptible to high levels of blackbird infestations. And it's not because that variety is tastier or more preferential to the birds. It's just more of a fact of availability. The birds will see a field that's starting to head out and immediately go towards it because it's essentially the only open quote unquote restaurant in the area. And so they will all congregate at the available food source instead of disseminating through the region. And since there's a high concentration of birds at a single solitary field, the damage becomes much more apparent. As far as management of blackbirds goes the most common method is to use frightening or hazing techniques. However as I'm sure any person here could tell you these techniques offer mixed results at best. Growers have used anywhere from propane guns, which are also called zon guns, bird tape or mylar tape, and other sound and visual scare devices. There's actually some really interesting work in some regions where people are using drones to attempt to frighten pest birds. And then in other areas, people are trying to use lasers in a form of laser scarecrows in order to attempt to reduce the damage affected by these birds. And I'll include links to these in the show notes. However, birds are really smart, and so the birds can actually become habituated to these disturbances as they notice over time that, okay, yeah, it might be a loud noise, but there's nothing actually harming me. So these techniques can have, at best, mostly just short-term effectiveness. In order to be effective, hazing techniques have to be implemented as soon as birds appear in the too late and the birds will just become habituated and have almost no reaction to them. An option I've seen in some of our fields around here is people will get some inflatable tube man, kind of like the big inflatable floppy guys you see outside of car dealerships. Those also have mixed results, but they're pretty cool to see out there on the side of the road. When it comes to the protections that birds have in the United States, it gets a little complicated, depending on which blackbird species you're talking about. As a group, blackbirds have some protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. However, through a federal depredation order, which is 50 CFR 21.43, which was issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, people are authorized to lethally take some blackbird species when they're federal permit. So under this order, the red-winged blackbird is allowed to be lethally taken. And here again is that call of the red-winged blackbird. However, there's another species that's pretty localized to the California Central Valley, and that species is the tricolored blackbird. And again, this is an audio medium, so it's going to be hard to tell the differences. But again, you can go and look at photos of these on our blog post, which will be linked in the show notes. Essentially, the red-winged blackbird and the tricolored blackbird look extremely similar. Breeding male tricolored blackbirds have a distinctive red shoulder patch bordered by a white band below that red patch, whereas breeding male red- blackbirds have a shorter bill with a yellow stripe below the reddish-orange patch. However, I'm looking at a picture of these two birds side by side right now, and it's pretty difficult to tell the differences between them. When it comes to the females, there's a little bit more of a distinction between the two of them. The female tricolored blackbird has a thicker body with a slender pointed bill, dark gray-brown overall with dark dark streaks on the back and belly, and most notably, a pale eyebrow. Whereas the female red-winged blackbird is stocky, more of a broad-shouldered bird with a conical bill, and a yellowish wash around the face. I'd like to note here, I didn't know this until I started researching this, but female red-winged blackbirds in California often have a more cinnamon tone to their color, so they might look a little more reddish. So why are we talking about the differences between these birds? Essentially, because these birds look so similar, the tricolored blackbird and the red-winged blackbird, even though it is allowable to lethally take the red-winged blackbird, it's really easy to get that confused with a tricolored blackbird. And those are protected and cannot be taken. And so if you are going to lethally take blackbirds that are causing damage, you've got to be really certain you've got the right species. In addition to that, it's a requirement that non-lethal methods to reduce damage by protected blackbirds must be tried each year before using lethal controls, and state laws should also be checked before acting. Now, when it comes to bird species not listed in the depredation order, and again, that's the order that allows for taking of the red-winged blackbird, a migratory bird depredation permit must be obtained from Fish and Wildlife Services, and state law should be consulted and adhered to prior to initiating actions to remove birds. For the most up-to-date information regarding the taking of birds of any type, consulting your local ag commissioner should have the most up-to-date information. Now, in the Mid-South region, LSU AgCenter research that was funded by the Louisiana Rice Farmers Checkoff actually led to federal approval of a bird repellent called AV-1011 that prevented birds from eating the rice seed once it's planted. And so essentially what this is, is this is a seed treatment that coats the seed in a really bitter flavor which then teaches the birds not to eat the rice seeds after they're planted because it tastes so bad. However, in California, we don't have as many options. While there haven't been any recent studies looking at the impact of repellents on California rice fields in terms of blackbirds, the California Rice Production Manual does state that to date, repellents have not proven to be effective in reducing blackbird damage to rice in California. And that statement can be found in section 10.2 in the Rice Production Manual. When I started researching what repellents could be used in California rice, the answer was a lot less straightforward than you might assume, because when you type in bird repellents registered for use in California rice, not a lot pops up that's applicable. Most of the research you see is based out of the Mid-South, which, as we all know, has different restrictions and regulations than we do out here in the West. Couple that with the fact that California wild rice does have products registered for use as bird repellents, but these products are not always registered for use in California rice, which is a pretty big distinction. Now, there is a chemical called methyl anthranilate, and it's sold under a variety of different chemical names. But essentially, a lot of the labels that I went through have it only labeled for use in California wild rice. However, when I went and looked even further into just the use of repellents in general most of the data does appear to say that repellents are at best only mildly effective and usually not that effective and the recommendation is actually that hazing is more effective than a chemical repellent really is. So I'm going to keep looking into this if we can find any more information I'm going to maybe post an addendum maybe add something onto a blog post but as of right now I think I think we can just leave this with, if you've got blackbirds, your best option is to keep an eye out, make sure that you see exactly when the birds start to show up in the fields, and then start using hazing techniques. We have a few upcoming events. The next upcoming event will be the annual Rice Field Day, which will take place as always on the last Wednesday of August on August 27, 2025 at the Rice Experiment Station at 955 Butte City Highway in Biggs, California. This will feature talks from breeders, talks from our UC Rice specialists and advisors, and a delicious lunch. For more information about these and other upcoming events, feel free to check out our resources, which include the UC Rice blog and the UC Agronomy Rice website. In terms of other resources you might want to take advantage of, you can also look at our newsletters, which include Rice Briefs, which covers Colussiolo, Rice Notes, which covers Yuba Sutter, Rice Leaf, which covers Butte and Thanks for listening to Thoughts on Rice, a University of California Cooperative Extension podcast from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. You can find out more about this podcast on our website, thoughtsonrice.buzzsprout.com. We'd love to hear from you, whether it's from using our text link in the show notes, a survey submission in our feedback form, also in the show notes, or in a comment or rating on your podcast streaming service of choice. Harvest is right around the corner. Remember, like the growers like to say, have a rice life. Mention of an agrochemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is the law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general purposes only. The University of California name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service. We'd like to acknowledge the bird calls that came from the All About Birds website from the Macaulay Library. Special thanks to Ed Pendelfino for his recording of the California Bicolored Song in California, April 6, 2016. Special thanks also to James Jim Holmes of the Macaulay Library for the Tricolored Blackbird Song recorded in California, March 11, 2017.
