Identification of Sunflower Hazardous Birds on Alstar Cultivar and Determination of their Damage Rates in West Azerbaijan

Sunflower is one of the field important crops in Western Azerbaijan and the present research was carried out in order to identify the hazardous birds and determine their damage rates on Alstar hybrid in Khoy station in 2003. Using a field binocular and a field guide book for identification of birds, two hazardous bird species, house sparrow (P.domesticus) and crow (C.corax) were identified. To estimate the damage rates of the birds, traits such as receptacle shape, bending of plant, distance between receptacle and soil surface were studied on Alstar hybrid in Khoy station. The results from the data analyses depicted the least damage rate was observed with bent plants of more receptacle angles where receptacles were concave in shape and nearer to the earth surface. The most damage rate was seen with right standing plants, easily and simply exposed to bird attacks because of the specific position of the receptacles.