[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: "Rice-birds"?



They are Bobolink.  Bobolink historically descended on the rice plantations in the southeast and south in great numbers during fall migration (prior to the decline in neo-tropical migrants).  At times the numbers of birds were so heavy rice farmers would create smoke screens using "smoke pots" or fire guns to scare the birds off of the valuable crops.  Bobolink are still often found in marsh areas during migration, although most of the rice plantations are gone.  There is a nice little interpretive exhibit on "rice birds" at Hampton Plantation State Park in SC, just below the Santee River off 17.

Steve Shultz

-----Original Message-----
From: Ritch Lilly [mailto:scbeachbums@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 8:58 AM
To: Carolinabirds
Subject: "Rice-birds"?


I met a fellow yesterday at a catfish farm in Dillon County, SC (Thanks
Steve!).  I told him a was looking for birds.  He told me they often had
snipe on the property.  He then went on to explain that he would also see
several hundred "rice-birds" on the power lines each fall over a field of
sunflowers that he plants every year.  I told him I was unfamiliar with
"rice-birds".  He gave me a confused look as if to ask, "What kind of birder
are you anyway if you don't even know a "rice-bird" when you see one?".  He
said the folks around there had always called them "rice-birds".
Nevertheless, I asked him several questions about the bird he spoke of yet I
was able to get little else from him in the way of a description.  He could
tell me that the bird had "more white on it than the snipe" and that its
"bib" (bill?) was alot shorter than the snipe's.

I'm wondering if anyone on the list could enlighten me as to the true
identity of a "rice-bird".

Thanks,
Ritch Lilly
Myrtle Beach, SC
scbeachbums@hotmail.com