Bird Behavior

Nearly 10,000 species of birds have been described and they are the most diverse of terrestrial vertebrates. These attractive beasts are behaviorally active, showing a wide variety of visual displays and vocalizations (songs and calls). Courtship, mating, nest-building, and territorial maintenance are among the most complex of their behaviors. A missive on bird behavior can be found here (print out and read it before collecting data)

For this exercise you will observe and record the behavior of a common wild bird. Choose an observation site that will allow an unobstructed view of the birds' behaviors. Your observation site should be relatively free of human interference. Next, spend about half an hour observing the types of birds and their numbers. Choose a species that is behaviorally active, and in reasonable numbers. You will need to identify the species for this exercise, so either choose one you already know (recommended), or use one of the internet guides at the bottom of this page (the WhatBird site is best). If you choose one you already know, you can use this site to determine the scientific name and order of your bird.

You should record the behavior at three times: early in the morning, around mid-day, and near twilight. Observations should take place on a pleasant day, without storms, and with mild temperatures. Observation periods should be half an hour in length and should be repeated twice for each of the three times (a total of six half-hour observations).

Record the number of times your subject sings and calls, along with other behaviors you observe. Other behaviors may include feeding, fighting, flying from branch to branch, nest-building, and courtship (among others). Describe each of these behaviors as best you can. If your subject moves out of sight, you can switch to another individual of the same species.

If you have a portable device to record their songs that can also download to a PC, use it. Otherwise, you can get songs at North American Bird Sounds or this site, though for the second you'll have to use your browser's "Find" tool to locate the recording (they're in random order). Either of these sites will allow you to download the songs for later analysis. For the songs and calls, first download and install RavenViewer here. (you can play with a reverse spectrograph here to get an idea of how to read a spectrograph).  Songs differ from calls in that calls are not melodic, while songs have a musical quality.

Download Audacity for the spectrographic analysis. An Audacity tutorial is here.

1. Graph the frequency of the most common behaviors (including songs and calls) vs. time of day. An Excel demo is here. A page showing how to graph these data is here.
2. What behaviors are most common? What do you think are the functions of these behaviors?
3. Are there differences in the frequencies of the behaviors at the three different times? Describe and explain.
4. What do you think is the purpose of the most common behaviors?
5. Did your species sing several different types of songs or calls? If so, under what circumstances?
6. Use RavenViewer analyze several songs that are available at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

• The WhatBird web site is the best.  Click on the link in the Search Bird panel to begin using their search engine. There is a tutorial movie off the home page, but you need to register first (free).
• Wild Bird Identification (for identification)
• The Birds of Indiana (for identification)
• Additional information on birds can be found at the Audubon Online and the Cornell Ornithology Lab. Neither of these are required reading for this exercise. They are only for interest.