Tutorial 4 - Revised

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BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 Tutorial 4 Assignment 20 marks (5% of final grade) Remember to review online rubric prior to completing Tutorial Worksheet This is a “Choose Your Own Adventure” assignment. You have three options to choose from for this tutorial depending on your location, weather, skill level and accessibility. Reminder: please don’t hesitate to contact the instructors if you have questions about any of the options or would like more advice/guidance on how to approach them. You will be making observations and counting bird feeder species either in the field, from a live Cornell Lab cam or from a pre-recorded Bird Count video. You will record your observations and bird species count data. Using the counts, you can practice creating a properly formatted figure, figure caption and describe the results. Useful resources for common bird feeder species identification include:  Project FeederWatch Common Feeder Birds – poster of common species  Project FeederWatch Interactive List of Common Feeder Birds – this page allows you to select the location, feeder type, food time to narrow down the birds species.  Merlin Bird ID app which asks you to answer three questions about shape, size and location of the bird you are trying to identify and provides a list of possible matches. You can also try to identify by bird call or photo. Before completing the worksheet, make sure you have reviewed the following: 1. Tutorial 4 Content 2. Guide to Creating Figures Using Excel 3. Field Safety Rules (if going outdoors) – same as Tutorial 2 1

BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 “C HOOSE Y OUR O WN A DVENTURE ” C HOICES Adventure 1 – Collecting Data from Field Site For those that have easy and safe access to a bird feeder or a site often visited by birds and are comfortable with identifying common bird species in your area using the identification resources. If you do not have easy access to a bird feeder but would like to pursue this option, we suggest contacting your local conservation authority to enquire about local, public feeders in nature centres and community areas. You may be surprised by how many public spaces have bird feeder spaces. For example, the University of Guelph Arboretum features two bird feeder locations: right outside the front of the Arboretum Centre and the Gosling Wildlife Gardens. At your chosen site, record how many of each species is visible at one time in two 10- minute observation periods in the datasheet following the Instructions for Counting Birds below. If there are birds not listed on the datasheet, please fill them in the blank spaces or use your own data collection table. Adventure 2 – Collecting Data from Cornell Feederwatch Cam If you are not able to find a safe, accessible bird feeder to collect your own data, you can access the Live Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam at Sapsucker Woods on Youtube. Link to live stream is also posted on Courselink. Using the identification resources, record how many of each species is visible at one time for two separate 10-minute observation periods in the datasheet following the Instructions for Counting Birds below. If there are birds not listed on the datasheet, please fill them in the blank spaces or use your own data collection table. Since you are viewing it on Youtube, it’s recommended that you pause or take screen shots of the birds to give you more time for identification. You can also try using the Merlin Bird ID app on the still image. Adventure 3 – Collecting Data from Bird Count Video If you feel very unfamiliar with bird identification or are struggling with the identification, you can use the two Tutorial 4 Bird Count Videos 1 and 2 on Courselink which shows birdfeeder birds at a backyard feeder, narrated by the Arboretum’s Chris Earley . Watch the video and record how many of each species is visible at one time in the 10- minute observation period in the datasheet following the Instructions for Counting Birds below. 2

BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 I NSTRUCTIONS FOR C OUNTING B IRDS (T UTORIAL 4 C ONTENT IN C OURSELINK ) 1. Print a copy of the Feeder Birds Data Collection Sheet 2. Correctly ID the birds you see using the Project FeedWatch resources, Merlin Bird ID app, field guidebooks, etc. 3. Birds do not have be “on” the feeder, plant, etc. to be counted as long as they are within the feeder ecosystem/site (or on the screen for Adventure #2 and #3. For example, if there is a bird sitting in an adjacent tree, ground or flying within the site, those count. Predator birds like hawks count too and they are often interested in the small birds at the feeder site! 4. Don’t count birds that are simply flying overhead like a Canadian Goose. 5. Count how many birds you see at ONE TIME , not how many you saw in total for the entire time. Why? Because if you count one robin that leaves and 5 minutes later count a second robin, there is a possibility that you just counted the same robin twice. Therefore, you must see all the birds to count them. 6. If you have a first sighting of 3 chickadees then at a later time see a total of 4 chickadees at the site, do not add these numbers. Keep 4 as your latest tally as it is the highest number – think of it as getting your highest score for a specific bird! 7. Sexual dimorphism does not change how you count the birds either – if you see a male cardinal that leaves and then a female cardinal 4 minutes later, you still cannot count that as 2 cardinals because technically you only saw at most 1 cardinal at a specific time. I know you’re thinking “but I know the male and female are not the same bird!” but this is for statistical consistency. Chickadees, for example, cannot be sexed easily so you could end up counting sexually dimorphic birds in larger abundances than those that have no sexual dimorphism. 3

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BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 Part 1 - Feeder Birds Data Collection (5 Marks) ADVENTURE 02: Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam Observer Name: Hamza, Riaz Date and Time: Monday, July 03, 2023, 09:42 AM EST Location – Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam: Perched on the edge of both Sapsucker Woods & its 10-acre pond in the Treman Bird Feeding Garden, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, United States of America. Weather – (24°C - 19°C), cloudy with light rain (Expected start at 8:40AM EST) which will become thunderstorms later this afternoon (PoP 6AM-6PM EST: 80% with rain 2-4mm, PoP 6PM-6AM EST: 70% with rain 1-3mm). Wind: 6km/h, Visibility: 4.8km, UV index: 1 ( Data was gathered from “The Weather Network”). Other Observations (e.g. habitat, animal presence, behavioural interactions, etc.): - Male grackle fed a female grackle (Observation 01). - Some birds had a preferred choice of feeder where they would only exclusively feed from (mourning doves would only exclusively feed from the platform) while some did not have a preference (male/female grackles). - Grackles (mostly male) behaved more aggressively when other birds were feeding from a station of their choosing. 4

BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 Species Seen (some common birds of Eastern North America included): Bird Species Observation Period 1 (or Video 1) (9:52 AM EST) Observation Period 2 (or Video 2) (10:42 AM EST) American Crow American Goldfinch American Tree Sparrow Black-capped Chickadee Blue Jay 3 2 Brown-headed Cowbird Chipping Sparrow Common Grackle 6 5 Common Redpoll Dark-eyed Junco Downy Woodpecker European Starling 2 1 Evening Grosbeak Fox Sparrow Hairy Woodpecker 2 1 House Finch House Sparrow Mourning Dove 2 5 5

BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 Northern Cardinal Pine Siskin Purple Finch Red-breasted Nuthatch Red-winged Blackbird 3 2 Song Sparrow White-breasted Nuthatch White-crowned Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Red-bellied Woodpecker 0 1 6

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BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 Part 2 - Results and Data Analysis (9 Marks) Create a properly formatted figure in excel of the mean maximum number of individuals per species observed in the two 10-minute periods. Standard error bars should be included. Paste your figure below and include a figure caption. Blue Jay Common Grackle European Starling Hairy Woodpecker Mourning Dove Red-winged Blackbird Red-bellied Woodpecker 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bird Species M aximum number seen at the same time per 10-minu Fig. 1 The maximum number of individuals (mean ± SE) of each bird species observed at the same time per 10-minute period (n=2). Data was collected on Monday, July 03, 2023, using the Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam in Sapsucker Woods at the Treman Bird Feeding Garden, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, United States of America. 7

BIOL*2060DE Ecology Tutorial 4 Part 3 – Your Prediction Figure and Caption for your Case Study Project Please answer the following questions, which are related to your Case Study Project. 1. Create a figure based on your prediction for your Case Study. Figures must be fully labelled and include appropriate legends. (2 marks) 45 90 135 180 225 (Group A) (Group B) (Group C) (Group D) (Group E) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Series1 Time in direct sunlight (minutes) Plant height (cm) 2. Create a figure caption for your figure that includes all the necessary information a reader would need to interpret your prediction figure. (2 marks) “Fig. 1 The plant height (cm) measured for each experimental group that was in direct sunlight for different periods of time (n=50).” 3. Describe the major trend in your prediction figure that you would want a reader to take away from it. (2 marks) When transgenic seedlings are exposed to direct sunlight for an increased amount of time, they will respond with a proportional increase in their height. 8

Tutorial 4 - Revised

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