Tiny Falcons Are the New Food Safety Patrol in Cherry Orchards

Photo: American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). Photo credit: Joshua Mayer via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0. Article by Mihai Andrei. ZME Science – November 28, 2025.

Cherries are delicious. When they’re just ripe, they are sweet, succulent, and almost irresistible. But we aren’t the only ones who think so. Birds, like robins, are also drawn to the orchards. For farmers, the actual fruit the birds eat is only part of the problem. The more menacing issue comes from the foodborne pathogens carried in bird droppings. This standoff has proven difficult to solve for many fruit growers. […]

Click here to view original web page at www.zmescience.com