A preliminary study on major bird species of bird trouble and ecological technique for bird prevention in rice-crab co-culture pond of Chongming Island

Abstract:

Rice-crab co-culture is an important agricultural industry in Chongming Island.During the past twenty years, because of the improvement of environmental quality and enhancement of bird conservation, the number of bird species and population increased significantly in Chongming Island.However, this increasing number of birds brings a certain trouble to rice-crab co-culture pond as many birds generally feed on crab and rice.Therefore the current study was firstly conducted to investigate the major species of bird trouble, and to identify the influence time and major trouble birds for two rice-crab co-culture models, furthermore, to evaluate the input and output of two ecological methods for bird prevention.The results showed that, (1) there were 13 major bird species in the rice-crab co-culture area, and the most common speices are egrets with six species found in our investigation.(2) the major trouble birds were egret species for crab culture ponds and the major trouble periods were winter and spring; the major trouble birds were egrets, sparrows and magpies for rice-crab co-culture ponds while sparrows and magpies were the main trouble for the rice crop during the periods of seeding, filling and maturation.(3) the method of nylon wire prevention was cheaper than the combination of nylon wire and anti-bird net; however, the combination method is suitable for rice-crab co-culture ponds.In conclusion, the combination method of nylon wire and anti-bird net, together with visual bird prevention such as scarecrow, had the significant effects in the control of bird trouble for rice-crab co-culture ponds, which will eventually lead to the good results of bird prevention, economic benefit and ecological effect for both the rice-crab co-culture and bird protection in Chongming Island.