The tiny kestrel is patrolling Leelanau’s cherry orchards!

via today’s Michigan in Pictures…

MyNorth shares that northern Michigan cherry farmers are turning to the tiny American kestrel to protect orchards from pests:

In 2010, Dr. Catherine Lindell, an avian ecologist and associate professor at Michigan State University, began hearing that Michigan fruit farmers struggled to manage the birds that fed on their crops. “Because American kestrels search for already-existing cavities to nest in, it’s possible to lure them to specific places in the landscape, like orchards, by putting up nest boxes,” Lindell explains. A small wooden box, properly placed, can reshape an ecosystem.

In Leelanau County, farmers have installed these nestboxes along the orchard’s edges for more than a decade. The idea is simple: Give this native bird of prey a home, and it will manage the smaller birds, mice and voles that peck and spoil ripening fruit. Cherries define summer in NoMI—from farm stands along M-22 to slices of pie cooling on windowsills. When damage drops, profits rise. Protecting the fruit protects a way of life.

Read on for lots more from MyNorth. Photo by MSU AgBioResearch

PS: If you want to learn more about the American Kestrel aka the Sparrowhawk, there’s a Michigan in Pictures for that!