A successful crop establishment is crucial for sunflower yield. French farmers consider bird damage as an important issue affecting the sunflower establishment. We assessed, through field investigations, the frequency and severity of bird damage symptoms at sunflower emergence. The investigations were carried out across four situations (region x year). The density of viable seedlings at the field level did not meet the thresholds recommended by advisory services, with median values below or above agronomic standards in 3 out of 4 cases. Post-emergence losses at the field level, based on plants with symptoms attributable to wood pigeons (Columba palumbus), followed a log-normal like distribution. Overall, 98% of the fields showed seedlings with symptoms attributable to birds while 9.7% of the field had >20% of seedlings destruction. The spatial and temporal variations of the damage remain to be analysed, to determine if the processes behind the observed patterns can be controlled by individual farmers.

成功的作物种植对于向日葵产量至关重要。法国农民认为鸟害是影响向日葵种植的一个重要问题。我们通过实地调查评估了向日葵出现时鸟类损害症状的频率和严重程度。调查是在四种情况下进行的（地区 x 年）。田间成活幼苗密度未达到咨询服务建议的阈值，4 例中有 3 例中值低于或高于农艺标准。田间出苗后损失，基于具有可归因于木鸽（Columba palumbus）症状的植物)，服从对数正态分布。总体而言，98% 的田地表现出可归因于鸟类症状的幼苗，而 9.7% 的田地有超过 20% 的幼苗被破坏。损害的空间和时间变化仍有待分析，以确定观察到的模式背后的过程是否可以由个体农民控制。