Birds

Credits: Biovision-Infonet

**Red-Billed Quelae Bird** This bird is one of them most dangerous of all agricultural pests in Africa, and causes food shortages in many countries.
(c) Courtesy EcoPort (http://www.ecoport.org) : C.Elliott.

A flock of Red-billed Quelea birds
(c) Alastair Rae, wikipedia

**Red-Billed Quelae Bird Nest** The nest is made in the form of a pouch with a roof and an entrance near the top. The male is responsible for the construction which is completed by a remarkable technique of weaving strips of grass back and forth to form a mesh-like structure. This is why the quelea bird is called a ‘weaver bird’. If the nest is accepted by a female, she will enter and in due course produce a clutch of three eggs.
(c) Courtesy EcoPort (http://www.ecoport.org) : C.Elliott

Birds are one of the most important pests of sorghum. They are capable of causing heavy losses.

In Africa the most notorious species is Quelea quelea and is found in the Sahel region, from Senegal in West Africa through to Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Southern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and South Africa.

What to do:

Damaging birds are mainly controlled by scaring them away from the sorghum fields and attacking their nesting sites. But not all birds are harmful. Some are also important predators and prey on insect pests of crops.

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