When I Read Or Hear The Word Locust,

I think of these,

photographs above and below Reuters/BBC insects that appear in biblical plagues,

looking like this,

photograph Lip Kee/Flickr I did not expect to find locust birds, but here they are, the red-billed quelea, (Quelea quelea), the people of African countries like  Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, the red-billed quelea is popularly known as Africa’s feathered locust. This small, adorable bird eats about four grams of plant seeds per day, which doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider that it feeds in flocks of millions of individuals, the math starts to get pretty scary for farmers and those who depend on their crops,

annual plagues of red-billed queleas have historically been one of the reasons that prevented several African countries from achieving self-wheat sufficiency,

experts estimate that queleas cause over $80 million worth of damage to grain crops around Africa, despite farmers’ best efforts to protect their lands. The cost of actively keeping these voracious birds at bay significantly raises the cost of production and has a serious impact on food availability in Africa,

bird locust, I had no idea they existed, but they do.