{"id":3835,"date":"2021-08-26T16:35:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/munews.mansfield.edu\/?p=3835"},"modified":"2021-08-26T16:39:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:39:36","slug":"northeast-integrating-faculty-collaborating-on-tree-swallow-nesting-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munews.mansfield.edu\/?p=3835","title":{"rendered":"Northeast Integrating Faculty Collaborating on Tree Swallow Nesting Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Story by Tom McGuire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLOOMSBURG\/MANSFIELD – Anyone out walking in their yard or on a hiking trail has come across a bird\u2019s nest and marveled at its construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloomsburg University professor of biology Lauri Green is\ncollecting the nests of Tree Swallows to evaluate nest construction to\ndetermine if there are any patterns to their construction. She has put together\na group to assist her in the work. That team includes Leslie Clifford, a Mansfield\nUniversity faculty member. Mansfield is one of the three universities in the\nNortheast part of Pennsylvania which are integrating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, working with Green is seasonal ranger Lydia Mohn from\nthe US Army Corps of Engineers at Blue Marsh Lake in Berks County; Rhinannon\nSummers from the Department of Natural Resources at Ricketts Glen, BU graduate\nstudents Eric Moeller, Mitchell Liddick, and Michael Facella; and Gabby\nLeonard, an undergraduate. New for the Fall 2021 semester will be BU undergrads\nRebecca Burlingame and Savannah Scherer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTree Swallows and other species use the feathers of other\nspecies to construct their nests and form a \u2018nest cup\u2019 (where the eggs are laid\nand chicks are hatched),\u201d said Green.\u00a0\n\u201cThe literature suggests that feather linings help with temperature\nregulation and maybe as a parasite barrier for chicks. Though a few studies\nnoted the number of feathers that Tree Swallows use in their nests, largely\nabsent was any quantification of the feather sizes or types.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the nests are collected is when the real work starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Spring 2021, Leonard quantified the feathers used in\nTree Swallow nests at my field sites,\u201d Green said. \u201cShe meticulously counted,\ntraced, and identified each feather. Tracing the feathers in a digitizing\nprogram tells us how big each feather was. She found that Tree Swallows seem to\nuse different types of feathers at each site (some used large flight feathers,\nsome used contour feathers). Interestingly, the total feather area for each\nnest (the sum of all the feather areas in each nest) was not significantly\ndifferent across the sites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clifford and Green first met as part of a discussion of\nfaculty from the three universities interested in natural history. They soon\nfound out they were both working on Tree Swallow research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI’m really excited to involve Mansfield University undergraduate\nstudents in this project because it will allow them to actually do science\nthemselves and not just learn about the results of scientific investigations by\nothers,\u201d said Clifford.\u00a0\u201cIt’s much more exciting to be able to discover\npatterns and answer original questions for yourself than it is to be told what\nthe answer is. We generally learn best by doing something, so this hands-on\nresearch experience will provide students with a wonderful learning opportunity\nthat will enhance their education.\u00a0 My hope is that once my students learn\nthe Tree Swallow system and begin to answer the questions that Lauri (Green)\nand I have posed, they will start to come up with their own original questions\nabout tree swallow nests and pursue them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going to repeat the study for the 2021 field\nseason,\u201d said Green. \u201cDr. Clifford is working with her undergraduate students\nto count, measure and identify the feathers used in her Tree Swallow boxes. I\nwill begin the analysis of our nests soon. Anecdotally, Dr. Clifford\u2019s nest\nboxes are smaller, so the sizes of the feathers appear to be smaller. \u00a0Up\nat Blue Marsh Lake, they also have small nest boxes, but many of the feathers\nused in the nests appear quite large.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green\u2019s work, she hopes, will answer a variety of questions\nabout the construction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n