Drought-struck SA fruit growers face significant losses as birds swarm orchards
By Selina Green
By Cassandra Hough
SA Country Hour
Topic:Fruit Growing
9m ago9 minutes agoTue 18 Mar 2025 at 1:47am
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In short:
Adelaide Hills fruit growers have been battling increased bird damage in their orchards over summer and into autumn.
A bird expert says the drought is a factor, but the numbers of lorikeets has doubled in the Adelaide area in recent years.
What's next?
Tonnes of produce has been lost to damage and the drought is yet to break, but growers are reporting good volumes and quality of fruit.
South Australian producers have lost potentially thousands of tonnes of fruit as a lack of rain drives hungry birds into orchards.
Apple, cherry and fig producers are among those dealing with unprecedented crop damage in areas gripped by some of the driest conditions on record.
Adelaide Hills fig producer Willa Wauchope said his trees had inadvertently provided a "smorgasbord" for lorikeets in recent weeks.
A bearded man in a hat stands on high ground overlooking a fig orchard.
Fig grower Willa Wauchope says it has been an exceptionally dry year. (Supplied)
"We have a loquat tree that is a really strong indicator of what bird pressure is going to be like — it fruits a bit earlier than the figs," he said.
"At the beginning of the season it was literally torn apart in minutes — the birds came and absolutely destroyed it.
"That's kind of a canary in the in the coal mine for me, so I was really, deeply worried about bird pressure.
"I'm probably seeing it worse now at the tail-end of the season when other people's fruit in the area have been pulled off, so we're scrambling a bit at the moment to try and mitigate that risk and keep the birds away."
A middle-aged man with short grey hair stands in an apple tree in an orchard.
Birds and bats have been feasting on Mark Filsell's produce. (Supplied: Mark Filsell)
Serious pest problems
Adelaide Hills grower Mark Filsell said his orchards were teeming with lorikeets and bats during what was one of his earliest ever harvests in summer.
"They were literally taking half the crop within two or three days," he said.
"There's thousands upon thousands of lorikeets and musk lorikeets swarming the district."
Rows of apples trees in an orchard. Most of them are covered by nets.
Netting protects many of the apple trees in the Adelaide Hills. (Supplied: Plummers Pick Your Own)
Apple and cherry grower Gavin Plummer said birds had wiped out anything not under nets at his "pick your own" operation — especially the early and sweetest varieties.
"I did miss [netting] one row of galas — they probably took at least 90 per cent of the apples off that row," Mr Plummer said.
"They just crucified it. It's really sad to see what they do to it."
Despite the damage and lack of rain, both growers said this year's apple crop was "exceptional".
"We've got really nice numbers of fruit this year — everything's looking really good, surprisingly … it's such a dry year, so I'm really happy," Mr Plummer said.
A hand holds an apple that has been pecked at by birds.
Birds are able to decimate entire rows of apples in a very short time. (ABC Rural: Olivia Garnett)
Fruit Producers SA executive officer Grant Piggott said birds had been responsible for some "dramatic" impacts on apple and cherry harvests.
"We feel that's probably because of the lack of other options for them, so they've concentrated more on the apples," he said.
"It's potentially in the thousands of tonnes across the Adelaide Hills zone … so it's not insignificant.
"That said, the apples of the state are on pretty good form, so it is still relatively positive."
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Drought driving activity
Sean Dooley from Birdlife Australia said it was likely that the proliferation of birds was linked to the drought and an overall increase in rainbow lorikeet numbers in the Adelaide Hills.
"It might be drought-related to the extent that some of the street trees that would normally flower in the Adelaide suburbs didn't flower in 2024 to the same extent that they normally would, so more rainbow lorikeets might have been forced to travel further than they normally would," he said.
"The dry period may have some influence, but it might have supercharged what already seems to be a regular annual occurrence.
"The conditions in the Adelaide suburbs are perfect for bold, aggressive, nectar-feeding birds like rainbow lorikeets and, as their numbers build up, they're going out and seeking more food from elsewhere at certain times of year."
Mr Dooley said monitoring had shown the number of both lorikeet species had almost doubled in the Adelaide Hills in the past 25 years.
"It may be that growers now have to start factoring six months out from when the apples are on the tree whether they will need to use more netting than usual," he said.
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Posted9m ago9 minutes agoTue 18 Mar 2025 at 1:47am
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