2019. Birdwatching not just for old people: An analytical study of foreign objects on behavior of Avifauna
December 04, 2019
Open gallery
The Birdwatching group of young people saw that the addition of props to the outside of the birdfeeders influenced the feeding patterns and amount that the birds spent at the feeders, concluding that birds are deterred when a foreign object which is a unknown threat is present until it is properly assessed.
By Dane Kranjac and Dakota Crowley
Kim, Anton, Zach and Matt studied the behavioral effects of props on scavenging patterns at feeding sites on campus. They came to the conclusion that at feeders props consistently influenced bird activity throughout the study. Props deterred activity around the feeder site compared to when there were no props present. Most activity occurred towards ends of test periods indicating that the birds were used to props overtime after assessing the threat properly. The main conclusion that the group came to was that props and objects influence bird behavior when present at feeder sites, the hardest part of the project was variable bird activity during testing periods as well as location disturbances and trackability of birds. To further study their hypothesis they recommended longer trials at higher frequencies, better equipment, props and location as well as usage of trail cameras to monitor activity in the long term with more ease over 24-hour time and to remove human disturbances from the test site.