Ask Maine Audubon: So many factors can cause birds to flee their nests
Your wildlife questions are answered by Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox.
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Every year I have a pair of great crested flycatchers that construct a nest in a nest box I put up for them in my yard. They build a nest and then leave until the next summer when I see them again. They have done this for four years, and I was hoping you might know why. Thanks.
– Tucker Frank, Farmington (14 years old)
Putting up bird houses is a great way to be able to watch and study birds. It is always a thrill to see birds investigating a box you’ve put up, and even better when nesting material is brought in. But what a letdown when the nests are abandoned. I can imagine Tucker’s four years of watching (if you’re 14, four years is a long time) has been especially deflating. It is hard to always know the exact cause, but typically, abandonment is caused by some disturbance, so let’s think about what it c
Documenting wildlife: NY photographer, eagle enthusiast captures what few can see
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Student-led bird banding innovation spearheads continuation of data collection despite COVID-19
March 16, 2021
Two fisheries and wildlife undergraduate students, Hannah Landwerlen and Evan Griffis, designed and built a box that allows bird banding to be performed safely during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Jen Owen, associate professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
As the novel coronavirus pandemic began shuttering many business operations worldwide in March 2020, uncertainties abounded. There were more questions than answers, from personal and community health concerns to navigating new restrictions in the workplace.
Like many scientists, Jen Owen, an associate professor in the Michigan State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, endeavored to continue her research uninterrupted. She wondered how it could be done safely to avoid data gaps.
Albatrossity
Because I take way too many pictures of hawks, I sometimes get contacted by hawk researchers to get more details about some of the bird images I post on FaceBook or on eBird. This is a great way for me to learn more about the birds and the folks who study them.
One of those contacts led to a small adventure in late February, when I had the privilege of accompanying Bryce Robinson and Luke Decicco, of the Red-tailed Hawk Project, on an expedition to trap, tag, and perhaps put transmitters on some of our winter-resident dark hawks. Bryce is a graduate student at Cornell, and Luke is a graduate student at the University of Kansas, just down the river from my town of Manhattan KS. They are interested, like lots of others, in the multitude of plumage variations in Red-tailed Hawks, and are working to figure out the summer breeding locations for some of the dark redtails who winter here on the Great Plains. You can read more about the project here.
Saw-Whet Owl Research Gives Students Hands-On Experience With Wildlife
A professor and two students stood around a small object tangled in a thin, barely visible net in the cool November night air.
“How about the scissors first. Come in here and snip that thread first,” Dr. Gene Sattler, professor of biology at Liberty, said. “Now take the crochet hook and catch those few threads and go the other way, up here, and we are going to take it right off the wing.”
After a few minutes of meticulous pulling, cutting, twisting and turning, a saw-whet owl emerged from the net, wide-eyed and beak snapping in defense. Another student came in to hold the owl, gripping the legs right at the body. The owl flapped its wings a few times before settling into its new perch.
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