Grain-eating birds

heads and seed-tops picked clean — stripped, empty or half-eaten grain heads, loose grain spilt on the ground beneath them, and stalks bent or snapped where heavy flocks perched. It shows up first along the field edge facing the roost and in the field closest to reeds, thornbush or cane.

the red-billed quelea is small — about the size of a sparrow (a finger-length, around 12 cm) — brown and streaky like a weaver, the male with a bright red beak and a black face mask. You rarely notice one bird: you see thousands at once, a dense flock that wheels and rolls over the field like a cloud of smoke or a swarm of bees and settles all together on the ripe heads.

flocks feed at dawn and again in the late afternoon, flying in from the same direction each day — and that direction points straight back to their roost (the reedbed, thornbush or cane patch where they gather to sleep in enormous numbers).

a few doves or sparrows feed on the ground in small groups and don't clear standing heads — quelea arrive as a swirling cloud and empty the heads while they still stand. Rats also strip heads, but they work at night, leave droppings and gnawed grain, and cut whole heads off at the base — birds work in daylight and leave the bare head-stalk behind. Wind can bend stalks but never carries the grain away.

The milk stage is the start of grain-filling — squeeze a grain and a milky juice comes out; this is when soft, sweet grain first pulls the flocks in, and the danger runs on through ripening until you cut. Watch hardest at dawn and in the late afternoon, when flocks travel between roost and field.

, because that is where the flock touches down and where the damage begins. Check the seed-heads for stripped or empty grain and scan the ground for fresh spilt grain. Note the flock size and the direction they arrive from and leave to — that line points to the roost you will want dealt with.

The moment even one flock lands and settles on your milking heads, or you find fresh stripped heads and spilt grain along an edge, they have found your field. Start scaring that same day, and keep at it all day — a flock left to feed undisturbed for even one day strips a great deal and comes back bigger the next.

Plant in one big block together with your neighbours and sow at the same time, so the whole area ripens together and no single field is the only food left standing. Avoid planting late, or off on your own near a roost — a lone late field becomes a magnet. Choose early or even-maturing varieties so your grain is never the last still in the ground.

Plant goose-necked sorghum (the ripe head bends over and hangs down, so birds can't perch and feed on it), tight compact heads, and bitter, high-tannin varieties whose taste birds dislike. Where you have the choice, site fields well away from reedbeds, thornbush and cane where quelea roost — damage is always worst closest to the roost.

From dawn to dusk have someone in the field making noise — bangers, tins, clappers, shouting, a sling or catapult — so no flock ever settles and feeds in peace. Add moving, shiny scares: reflective tape, hanging foil or old discs, flags and scarecrows — but move and change them often, because birds quickly learn that a scare which never moves is harmless. Over a small plot, a net is the surest guard of all.

Don't kill hawks, falcons and other birds of prey: they hunt quelea, so leave a few perch trees for them. When a huge quelea invasion — a roost of many thousands to millions — settles in your area, it is beyond any one farm; report it to your agricultural extension officer or plant-protection authorities so that control at the roost can be coordinated across the whole area. Never spread poison or home-made bait to kill birds yourself — unregistered poisons also kill other birds, wild animals, bees and livestock, and can poison people; leave any roost spraying to trained officials.

one farmer's scaring only shoves the flock onto the next field, so pull the whole community and your extension officer together — guard as one block and get the shared roost dealt with. When a field is nearly stripped and the grain has already gone hard, cut your losses and harvest early: get what is left off the field before the flocks finish it. A slightly early harvest beats handing the birds your whole crop.