The Laborers of Nature: Economic Ornithology and the Role of Birds as Agents of Biological Pest Control in North American Agriculture, ca. 1880–1930

Are avian predators effective biological control agents for rodent pest management in agricultural systems?

“…On occasion, agriculture has been blamed for cultivating its own pests (Evenden 1995). Agricultural expansion may result in conservation threats to native small mammals from habitat alteration, introduction of niches better suited to introduced pest species, negative impacts of introduced species and negative consequences of rodent-control measures such as indiscriminate rodenticide use.…”

What can the current debate on ecosystem services learn from the past? Lessons from economic ornithology

“…However negligible economic ornithology may seem from the modern point of view (Huettmann (2009, p. 283) called it a ''historical oddity''; Evenden (1995) -one of the ''marginal'' biological pest control techniques), it had an important influence on bird conservation and further research.…”

“…Although the services that birds provided were not questioned, their significance for agriculture was. In his review of economic ornithology, Evenden (1995) suggested four explanations for the decline of this fieldthree 'internal' and one 'external'.…”

“…Economic ornithologists joined forces with other advocates against the killing of birds for millinery, food and pleasure, and thus contributed to the development of new laws, such as the 1900 Lacey Act and the 1913 Weeks-McLean Act in the US, and the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty between the US and Canada (Boardman, 2006;Doughty, 1975;Evenden, 1995;Mastroni, 2012;Whitney, 2014). These laws were particularly important in ending illegal hunting and the feather trade in the US, and all of them referred to economic interests related to bird conservation.…”

Conservation of biodiversity within Canadian agricultural landscapes: Integrating habitat for wildlife

“…Yet, for a long period, the science dwelled not on the crop depredation problem (see the next section), but rather on the potential for birds to control insect pests in crops and forests. The historical and biological basis for what has been termed "economic ornithology" has recently been researched under contract to the Canadian Wildlife Service (Evenden, 1993a(Evenden, , 1993b and is the subject of an upcoming review (Kirk, Evenden and Mineau, in press). McFarlane (1976) concluded that birds may help bring down local outbreaks of insect pests (although much of that evidence is anecdotal-e.g., McAtee, 1922) but that their main benefit is to have a longer-term depression effect on agricultural pests when these are at low to moderate densities.…”