Killing of birds by harvesting machines is under investigation

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Federal investigators are looking into claims that up to 3,000 eggs and hatchlings of a protected migratory bird were crushed under harvesting machines in one of the largest bird kills in recent California history, the Associated Press reports.

A scientist with the California Native Plant Society who was surveying rushes on a nearby plot of land in Tulare County first reported the deaths to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week.

Botanist Kate Huxster said she was surprised to see the sky fill with hundreds of white-faced ibis the afternoon of April 30. She grew more puzzled as she watched the birds dive in front of mechanized cutters rumbling through the stalks of wheat.

“My first impression was wow, I can’t believe a flock that big exists anymore,” Huxster told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Then I thought, ‘Oh my God, their nests are probably in that field.’ I started running through the harvest, and I managed to pick up a few chicks.” ...

... Huxster said she and two of her colleagues dashed into the harvesters’ path and began searching for scattered nests filled with tweeting hatchlings and pale blue eggs.

Before the machines had finished cutting the crop, Huxster said they rescued eight white-faced ibis chicks and a few eggs, which they took to a nearby wildlife specialist.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not list the ibis — a bronze-colored waterfowl with green or purple accents on its head, and a long, curved bill — as a threatened or endangered species. But the bird still has some limited federal protections under the International Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Investigators are working to determine who owns and farms the field — located about 45 miles north of Bakersfield — and whether the destruction was intentional, agency spokesman Al Donner said Wednesday.

Misdemeanor violations of the treaty — including incidental bird killings such as this case — are punishable by up to $15,000 in fines, Donner said.

“Because the ibis nest in colonies, you could lose a lot of them in a case like this,” Donner said. “This is the largest bird kill our investigators have seen in at least two years.”

California’s San Joaquin Valley is a critical stop for about 400 species of migrating birds that travel north and south along the Pacific Flyway.

White-faced ibis are one of about 200 different species — including ducks, sandhill cranes and bald eagles — that nest in the marshes and grasslands that border the historic Tulare Lake basin.

Until the 1850s, Tulare Lake was one of the most important wetlands west of the Mississippi. Over the next century, the avian resting ground was eliminated as swamps were drained and replaced with crops.

By 1976, there were fewer than 200 ibis left in the state, said David Hardt, manager of the nearby 11,000-acre Kern National Wildlife Refuge.

The population has since rebounded to between 10,000 and 15,000 after the restoration of wetlands in the region, Hardt said.