The importance of the crop edge compared to the mid-field, in providing invertebrate food for farmland birds.

Abstract

Numbers of 'key' invertebrate groups important in the diet of farmland bird chicks were compared between headland and mid-field sites in three winter crops over five years. All crops had significantly more of the key insect groups in the headland, as well as higher numbers of most other groups. The indirect importance of headland buffer strips with their lower pesticide inputs could therefore potentially contain significantly higher numbers of these invertebrate groups important for farmland birds. By interception of pesticide drift the strips could also be beneficial to invertebrates groups found on field edge vegetation and in the field boundary.