B524W 



United States Department of Agriculture 

 Bureau of Biological Survey 



TTildlife Research and Management Leaflet BS-64 



Washington, D. C- 



September 1936 



PROTECTING- CROPS ¥ROU DAMAG-E BY HORKED lARKS IH CALIFORITIA 



By Johnson A. Neff , Assistant Biologist, Section of Food Habits 

 Division of ITildlife Research 



Contents 



Page 



Introduction . 1 



Crops damaged 2 



Nature of damage 3 



Season of damage 3 



Severity of damage 4 



.Control methods 5 



Methods of preventing damage. . 5 



Noise-making devices 5 



Shooting or herding-off ... 5 



Page 

 Methods of prevention — Continued. 



Attracting v^altures .5 



Scarecrorrs 6 



paper confetti 6 



Papers on the ground 6 



Stakes and flags 6 



Continuous string fla-gging. . 7 

 Estimate of costs of continous . 

 string flagging 9 



Introductio n 



In certain parts of California the horned lark has "become a serious 

 crop destroyer. The damage occurs mostly in the interior valleys from 

 Sacramento south to the Imperial Yalley, and alor^ the coastal strip from 

 San Francisco south to San Diego. The race of lark Involved throughout most 

 of the area is the California horned lark ( otocoris alpestris axtia ) . There 

 are a few recorded instances near Sacramento of damage by the ruddy horned 

 lark ( otocoris alpestris ruhea ) . Certain attacks in the Mojave Desert region, 

 the Imperial Valley, and other desert valleys in southeastern CaJifornia vreve 

 pro"bably committed by other and as yet undetermined suhspccies. 



A bird fond of deserts, prairies, ajid fallovr fields, in general, the 

 horned lark ranges from the snow line to sandy beaches, wherever there is 

 open country. After wintering in great nuar.bers on the valley floors, most of 

 these birds leave the farming sections early in spring and migrate into the 

 foothills or into the dry grasslands and deserts ■ Here the season of nesting 

 and. rearing the young is spent . 



There is a moderately constant population of horned larks resident in 

 stuhlDle, grass, and fallow fields in the cropped area, but the mass of the 

 birds live in the wide expanses of the deserts, rolling mesas, foothills, 



