{"id":1009,"date":"2026-09-21T09:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T08:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:45:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:45:40","slug":"are-birds-really-eating-our-wine-what-three-years-in-english-vineyards-taught-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/2026\/09\/21\/are-birds-really-eating-our-wine-what-three-years-in-english-vineyards-taught-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Are birds really eating our wine? What three years in English vineyards taught me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask a vineyard manager what worries them about wildlife, and birds often top the list. Starlings stripping a row overnight; pheasants pecking ripening bunches; even green woodpeckers apparently developing a taste for grapes. It is an understandable concern. But how much fruit are birds actually taking – and does it reduce yield?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My latest paper<\/a>, published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, set out to answer those questions. During my PhD at the University of East Anglia, I explored how biodiversity is shaped by, and in turn affects, English vineyards. This final study focuses on a potential cost of wildlife: grape damage caused by birds.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a timely question. Viticulture is expanding rapidly in the UK, particularly across southern England, and many vineyards sit within diverse landscapes. Growers are increasingly interested in nature-friendly management, but until now there has been little UK-specific evidence linking bird damage to production.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Across 2021 and 2022, I worked in 16 vineyards in southern England, from small sites to vineyards spanning tens of hectares, managed both organically and conventionally. I assessed damage on over 1,500 grape bunches, used exclusion bags to separate bird and insect damage, and surveyed bird communities in each vineyard throughout the growing season.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The headline result is reassuring \u2013 the average damage by birds was 3.8% of a bunch. The pattern was also strongly spatial with damage peaking around the edges at around 20% and falling to about 5% by 40 metres into the field. Red grapes were more affected than white grapes, perhaps because they are easier to spot against the green canopy.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The likely explanation is opportunity rather than simply bird numbers. Common starlings were the most abundant grape-eaters across the study, but vineyards with more grape-eating birds did not necessarily experience more damage. Damage also varied greatly between sites and years. This suggests that a small number of birds, easy access to fruit and the availability of other foods in the landscape may matter more than the overall abundance of potential bird-pests.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Damage was higher where there was more semi-natural habitat in the surrounding landscape but that does not mean hedgerows or woodlands should be removed. These features support wider biodiversity and functions that vineyards depend on. Instead, the result points to the importance of vineyard layout and access: trees, hedgerows and even structures such as pylons or telephone wires can provide convenient perches, allowing birds to move into the vineyard and feed opportunistically on grapes. Wider grass margins between edge habitats and vine rows, for example, could provide a buffer while still supporting wildlife.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most importantly for growers, bird damage was not associated with lower yield across the study vineyards. Yield varied much more with management and between years. The certified-organic vineyards in this study produced about half the yield of non-organic vineyards, a difference likely to reflect several factors, including the difficulty of controlling disease without synthetic agrochemicals. Yield was also 27% higher in 2022 than in 2021, underlining how sensitive grape production is to annual climatic conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This does not mean that bird management has no place in every vineyard. Some sites may still experience considerable losses in particular patches or years. But the edge-focused pattern suggests a more proportionate response of target deterrents or exclusion at vulnerable boundaries, rather than netting entire vineyards or widely deterring birds. That can reduce both the economic and environmental costs of blanket protection.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the third and final paper from my PhD. Alongside earlier work showing that vineyard management shapes bird and arthropod diversity, and that birdsong improves visitors\u2019 experiences on vineyard tours, it adds to a fuller picture of biodiversity in English vineyards. Conservation does not have to come at a production cost; it can also be an asset, particularly through its contribution to vineyard tourism.<\/span><\/p>\n

My next step is to ask how vineyards can make the most of those benefits. Through DICE’s partnership with the Kent Downs National Landscape Sustainable Viticulture project, I will work with local vineyards to test how promoting ground vegetation can support both wildlife and wine.<\/span><\/p>\n

_<\/p>\n

Read the full paper in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment:<\/p>\n

Zielonka, N. B., Shutt, J. D., Butler, S. & Dicks, L. V. (2026). Bird-mediated damage in English vineyards is modest and spatially structured, with no detectable effect on yield. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 414, 110740, \u202f<\/span><\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.agee.2026.110740<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask a vineyard manager what worries them about wildlife, and birds often top the list. Starlings stripping a row overnight; pheasants pecking ripening bunches; even … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83585,"featured_media":1014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[70],"tags":[6599,303104,303110],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}