Life Sciences Commons^™

Investigating The Impact Of Land Use On Avian Diversity And Abundance In Areas Surrounding Mabamba Swamp, Uganda, Sydney Marie Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of wetland-adjacent land use on avian species richness and abundance areas surrounding Mabamba Swamp, Uganda. Four types of land use were investigated: Eucalyptus plantations, wetland-edge agricultural fields, residential areas, and mature secondary forests. A total of 40-morning point counts were conducted for ten days in late November and late December of 2021. One-way ANOVA tests and Tukey’s HSD tests revealed significant differences in mean avian richness and abundance between all sites except residential areas and Nkima Forest. Additionally, Nkima Forest was found to contain the most number of specialist …

Seasonal Plumage Condition Variation And The Thermal Value Of The Feather Coats Of House Sparrows (Passer Domesticus), Jordana Mf Graveley, Margaret Rubega, Kevin R. Burgio

Honors Scholar Theses

Feathers are critical to how birds thermoregulate, and thus their total energy balance. The feather coat insulates birds by trapping air next to the skin and acting as a physical barrier to heat loss. Despite previous work studying thermal balance in birds, relatively few studies have focused on the thermal contribution of the feather coat alone; most studies have focused on physiological and behavioral responses. Moreover, to our knowledge, no studies have directly measured the effect of feather wear through the annual cycle on the thermal performance of the feather coat. To address this, we used a thermal camera to …

Blue Jay Call Profile In Disparate Environments, Daniel A. Gesualdi

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Many species of birds have been observed to develop higher-pitched calls in urban environments; however local Blue Jays are unstudied (Mockford and Marshall, 2009). The urban environment's high noise pollution imposes a significant fitness challenge; then, the urban Jay calls will be different (higher) than rural Jay(Parris and Schneider, 2009). A series of recordings were taken in rural and urban environments; it was clear that there is a significant increase in maximum and minimum kHz in urban jays than rural jays. These results suggest that blue jays alter their calls to accommodate the environmental factors in urban settings similar to …

Paul Johnsgard: Comprehensive Vita And Bibliography, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

A current curriculum vitae and comprehensive bibliography for Paul A. Johnsgard, Foundation Regents Professor Emeritus at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Johnsgard has been the author of (at least) 91 books, 140 journal articles or chapters, 100 reviews or popular articles; the subject of 7 profile articles; and the director for 12 Ph.D. dissertations and 12 M.S. theses—all listed here. Dates covered are 1953 through 2020. Dr. Johnsgard is also an illustrator and photographer.

Updated January 2021.

Relationships Among Biodiversity Dimensions Of Birds In Nebraska, Nadejda Mirochnitchenko

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is a multi-dimensional concept that can be decomposed to measure information about taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional variation within communities. Although the dimensions of biodiversity are interrelated, the assumption that measuring one dimension of diversity can inform about patterns in another dimension does not necessarily follow from theory or empirical study. The relationships among biodiversity dimensions is not well understood, nor how differences among dimensions could influence conservation decision making. Using the avian community as a study system, we explored the relationships of breadth metrics from the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions among each other and across …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 94, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Stable Isotopes Reveal Opportunistic Foraging In A Spatiotemporally Heterogeneous Environment: Bird Assemblages In Mangrove Forests, Christina Buelow, April Reside, Ronald Baker, Marcus Sheaves

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Environmental heterogeneity can foster opportunistic foraging by mobile species, resulting in generalized resource and habitat use. Determining species’ food web roles is important to fully understand how ecosystems function, and stable isotopes can provide insight into the foraging ecology of bird assemblages. We investigated flexibility of food choice in mangrove bird assemblages of northeast Australia by determining whether species’ carbon and nitrogen isotopic values corresponded to foraging group classification described in the literature, such as groups of species that are omnivorous or insectivorous. Subsequently, we evaluated foraging group isotopic niche size, overlap, degree of individual specialization, and the probable proportions …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 94, No. 3), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 94, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Bulletin No. 43: Birds Of The Connecticut College Arboretum: Eighty Years Of Change, Robert Askins

Bulletins

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 94, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

0841: Mary Lois Garrett Collection, 1941-1954, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection spans the years 1941-1954, with the bulk of the research covering the years 1950-1954. File contents were maintained in the way in which they were originally received, but folders have been arranged in a more chronological order. Some notes are entirely handwritten, while logs and records consist of typed templates which have been filled-in by hand. Notes contain illustrations of birds and nests, graphs of bird activity during observance, and descriptions of bird behavior. Nesting logs have mostly been filled out by Mary Lois Garrett, but other authors contributed, including Twila Hessin, Ruth Geib, and an unspecified ornithology …

The Role Of Song In Reproductive Isolation In A New Secondary Contact Zone Of White-Crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia Leucophrys), William Brooks

Summer Research

Within the past thirty years, two formerly isolated subspecies of white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) have formed an overlap in geographic range. This creates a natural experiment in speciation and reproductive isolation. Understanding how song acts as a reproductive barrier in this overlap can contribute to our understanding of behavioral isolation. We preformed playback experiments on territorial males to measure subspecific vocal discrimination. Additionally, we looked to see if hybridization was occurring. In the playback experiments we found that Z. l. pugetensis discriminates more strongly between songs, while Z. l. gambelii demonstrates little to no difference in response. We …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 93, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 93, No. 3), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 93, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 93, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 92, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 92, No. 3), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 92, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Linking Vital Rates Of Landbirds On A Tropical Island To Rainfall And Vegetation Greenness, James F. Saracco, Paul Radley, Peter Pyle, Erin Rowan, Ron Taylor, Lauren Helton

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Remote tropical oceanic islands are of high conservation priority, and they are exemplified by range-restricted species with small global populations. Spatial and temporal patterns in rainfall and plant productivity may be important in driving dynamics of these species. Yet, little is known about environmental influences on population dynamics for most islands and species. Here we leveraged avian capture-recapture, rainfall, and remote-sensed habitat data (enhanced vegetation index [EVI]) to assess relationships between rainfall, vegetation greenness, and demographic rates (productivity, adult apparent survival) of three native bird species on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands: rufous fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons), bridled white-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus), and …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 91, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 91, No. 3), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Competition And Habitat Quality Influence Age And Sex Distribution In Wintering Rusty Blackbirds, Claudia Mettke-Hofmann, Paul B. Hamel, Gerhard Hoffman, Theodore J. Zenzal Jr., Anne Pellegrini, Jennifer Malpass, Megan Garfinkel, Nathan Schiff, Russell Greenberg

Faculty Publications

Bird habitat quality is often inferred from species abundance measures during the breeding and non-breeding season and used for conservation management decisions. However, during the non-breeding season age and sex classes often occupy different habitats which suggest a need for more habitat-specific data. Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a forested wetland specialist wintering in bottomland hardwood forests in the south-eastern U. S. and belongs to the most steeply declining songbirds in the U.S. Little information is available to support priority birds such as the Rusty Blackbird wintering in this threatened habitat. We assessed age and sex distribution and …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 91, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 91, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collection

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 90, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 90, No. 3), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 90, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 90, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.