A New Home For Israeli Raptors Benefits Farmers and Birds

By Catherine Walsh Best Friends Volunteer International Writer

With the support of the Global Owl Project in Israel, led by Motti Charter, a researcher from Tel Aviv
University, farmers are realizing that the use of toxic chemicals is not their only option when it comes
to pest control. The pesticides used in the fields were killing more than the rodents, the charity
Birdlife International reports on their web site. Hundreds of predatory birds were killed in Israels
Bet-Shean and Hulas Valleys in 1997 after consuming rodents killed by chemical pesticides.

Initiated in 1983, when a few nest boxes were built in the Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the Bet-Shean
Valley, near the Sea of Galilee, the construction of boxes has grown throughout the country as
farmers have seen a drop in the rodent population as the predatory birds began to move in to their
new homes.

We have been reaching out to farmers, to encourage them to reduce their use of rodenticides and
install nest boxes instead, said Charter. In the years following the initial construction of owl nesting
boxes, similar boxes for kestrels have been added, allowing 24-hour a day pest control in some fields.
Kestrels hunt during the day and the barn owls at night, said Mr. Charter.

The project has expanded through the years with the support of Motti Charters research with Tel
Aviv University, some of this is funded by the World Owl Trust. According to Dan Alon, Director of the
Israel Ornithological Center and SPNI, at present we have 1,480 nesting boxes located throughout
Israel, with approximately 600 pairs of nesting barn owls, as reported on the BirdLife International
website. The density of the boxes can be much higher than those in Europe, as well, due to the Israeli
sub-species of barn owl being less territorial than the European, allowing for a large population of
raptors covering each field.

The popularity of the project is expanding. Tony Warburton, Honoray President of the World Owl
Trust reports Jordan recently came on board to take part in the scheme, so the project is really
bringing people together. According to the Birdlife International website, there are now 37 nest
boxes in the Jordanian fields east of the Jordan River, and the Palestine Wildlife Society, with Director
Imat Atrash (PWLS; BirdLife in Palestine), has built 10 nest boxes in the Jericho fields in the
Palestinian Authority.

Dan Alon of the Israel Ornihthological Center reports on the International website that they are
venturing forward to create a project inclusive of the Palestinians and Jordanians and beyond: We
hope in the future to extend the project even further afield to African countries, thus developing a
cross-continental environmental concept that will drastically diminish the harm to local and
migrating birds.

Published on Best Friends Animal Society News Network May 2009