Finch or Quelea? Knowledge, Numbers and Pest Governance in Northern Nigeria, 1952–2026

Using unexplored primary and secondary sources, this paper traces and documents the making of the red-billed quelea (Quelea quelea), as a crop pest in northern Nigeria between 1952 and 2026. Three continuities emerge about the bird’s identification, feeding, migration, and physiology. First, local observations of the bird have repeatedly been reclassified or set aside as they passed upward through administrative and scientific hierarchies, even when they were ecologically sound. Second, the ambition to eradicate quelea has survived half a century of expert doubt about whether killing birds reduces damage at all. Third, the figures used to describe the bird problem have varied over the years. Throughout, the bird's migration, behaviour, mobility, dense colonies and dependence on rainfall have constrained intervention and knowledge. The paper argues that the present crisis over quelea, the most abundant bird pest in Africa, in Nigeria cannot be understood without this history, and that this history is utilitarian for the policies now being designed.