This little hawk protects cherry crops

IIf you’re a farmer, you know how much of a threat birds can be to your crops: they eat fruit, damage leaves, and poop on plants. Bird droppings are not only an eyesore; this is a food safety issue. Birds carry pathogens that can harm humans, such as bacteria Salmonella And E.coliwhich continue to raise food safety concerns. A study published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology offers a gentler way to combat winged threats to crops than netting or spraying.

Scientists at Michigan State University conducted research on a small hawk, the American kestrel (A hawk), like a living scarecrow for biological control. As the smallest bird of prey in the United States, the American kestrel feeds primarily on insects, but will occasionally take down a bird or small mammal. The researchers therefore wondered whether roosting kestrels could act as a deterrent to crop-damaging birds, such as blackbirds, starlings and grackles.

The study was conducted in 16 northern Michigan cherry orchards, half of which contained kestrel nest boxes and half of which did not. By observing birds, bird droppings, and crop damage along transects in orchards, the researchers compared fields with kestrels to those without them. Using thin nets to capture nuisance birds, they collected fresh fecal samples, which were analyzed for the presence of bacteria. The researchers focused on the most common foodborne pathogen carried by birds, Campylobacter spp., which causes diarrhea in humans.

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Orchards with active kestrel nest boxes had significantly fewer pest birds and a three-fold reduction in bird droppings than sites without them. Kestrels apparently make good scarecrows. “They are really effective at reducing the amount of droppings,” study author and agroecologist Olivia Smith said in a statement.

About 10 percent of the fecal samples analyzed by scientists contained Campylobacter spp. While this does not guarantee that the bacteria would have been transmitted to humans during the cherry harvest, it does highlight a safety risk that warrants keeping birds away from crops. Maintaining kestrel boxes could be a win-win for farmers and hawks as American kestrel populations decline, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“Our results suggest that promoting birds of prey using nest boxes could be a way for growers to conserve a declining species, reduce crop damage, and reduce fecal contamination in the field that could cause foodborne illness,” the study authors wrote.

Increased food security with a cherry on the cake: the conservation of raptors.

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Main image: Geoffrey Kuchera / Shutterstock

• Devin Reese

  Published on November 27, 2025

  Devin Reese is the editor-in-chief of Natural history and a science writer based in Alexandria, Virginia.