FEEDING HABITS OF SOME BIRDS (ORDER: PASSERIFORMES) IN DIFFERENT AGRICULTURAL HABITATS

Abstract

Passerine wild birds (Order: Passeriformes) include a vast range of noxious and beneficial birds. The basic concern of the present study lies mainly in the following topics: 1- Define the passerine species of economic prevalence under different climatic conditions, food habitat, and cover crops. 2- Assess the food preference of wild birds in cages and crop damage at preharvest of sole and concomitant cultivations in the field. 3- Clarify the distributional pattern of crop damage in the standing crops at the preharvest stage by wild birds. 4- Develop an ecofriendly method to reduce the crop damage of wild birds in the field using the previous obtained information about their feeding habits and food preferences. To furnish a basic framework to safeguard the vital food crops against wild birds, an ecological survey of passerine birds was conducted to gain recognition of :1- the noxious wild birds in different two habitats, 2- the main food crops that attacked by these birds, 3- the abundance of these birds in their habitats, and 4- the impact of seasonal changes on their population numbers. The obtained results from this survey indicated that, the maximal population densities of wild birds occurred at old lands (69.8 %) followed by the reclaimed lands (30.2 %). As documented in this survey, Order Passeriformes contained house sparrow Passer domesticus (71.6 %), hooded crow Corvus corone (10.1 %), swallow Hirundo rustica (12 %), Creasted lark Galerida cristata (3.3 %) and white wagtail Motacilla alba (3 %). The noxious birds of house sparrow and hooded crow were, therefore, selected for additional study to elucidate the possible role of the seasonal changes on their population number at the old land.