Bird habitat value and management priorities of the California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program

Flooding rice (Oryza sativa) agricultural fields during winter to facilitate rice straw decomposition has mitigated the loss of some of the natural wetlands in California’s Central Valley. We conducted bird surveys in 253 rice checks (2,158 ha) within 177 rice fields in the Sacramento Valley during the fall and winter of 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 to evaluate factors influencing bird use of winter-flooded, post-harvest rice fields enrolled in the California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program. We counted 143,932 birds from 57 species, including dabbling ducks (86.4%), geese (8.0%), shorebirds (0.9%), wading birds (0.7%), and other birds (4.0%). Extrapolating from the lowest densities observed in rice fields during the 70-day mandatory flooding period, we estimated that properties enrolled in this public-private partnership provided habitat for at least 271,312 birds day-1 (16,248 ha; 2021-2022) and 147,315 birds day-1 (8,448 ha; 2022-2023), totaling >10 million bird-use-days each winter. Water depth had the greatest influence on bird abundance and diversity. Relatively shallow water depths (≤13 cm) had greater abundance of shorebirds, wading birds, and geese, and higher diversity, whereas intermediate depths (~23 cm) resulted in the greatest dabbling duck abundance. Duck, goose, and wading bird abundances were greatest and species richness and family diversity were highest 8 days after the onset of flooding in rice fields (typically late October), followed by a decline in bird use until 65-87 days post flooding, after which bird use increased slightly. Bird abundance and species diversity were lowest in rice fields with the greatest hunting intensity (≥3 days week-1). We identified several habitat variables that could be managed and prioritized by landowner incentive programs to increase bird use of winter-flooded rice, including water depth, variation in emergent vegetation height, mudflat habitat availability, rice check shape, hunting intensity, and post-harvest treatment of residual rice straw.