Before pesticides, birds were a farmer's best defense against bugs. And the government’s economic ornithologists could tell you exactly how much each bird was worth.
Note that nearly all of the diet data from these late 19th and early 20th c. Biological Survey studies have been entered and summarized (along with other more recent data) in the Avian Diet Database which can be explored here: https://aviandiet.unc.edu/.
Note that nearly all of the diet data from these late 19th and early 20th c. Biological Survey studies have been entered and summarized (along with other more recent data) in the Avian Diet Database which can be explored here: https://aviandiet.unc.edu/.
Do you know in which archive the original data and reports live?
You can see a bibliography of all of the reports by Beal here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-021-01049-9
They can all be found as pdfs by simple google search.
Yet again, learned something new! Excellent information, thanks ‼️
Thanks