Bird use of agricultural lands has been an interest of mine since I was a teenager, helping my Dad to survey shorebird use of farm fields in the north of England.  Subsequently, my PhD work focused on bird use of rice fields in California (click here), and I remain especially interested in the conservation value of rice agriculture, both in the US and elsewhere in the world.  Recent research in this area involves literature-based studies of the use of rice fields by birds at a global scale, and the use of other grain fields by waterbirds, but I’m very interested in initiation new field studies on this topic.