Black Rock Forest
General Methadology for Instructors and TAs

Exercise 7: Predation Pressure and Avian Behavioral Ecology
Module 7: Consumers: Herbivory, Predation, and Parasitism

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  1. Instructor gives the biological background during lecture on behavioral ecology.
    • Lay the groundwork for the exercise quickly — talk about some central tenets of behavioral ecology.
    • Quick introduction to the basic biology of the species being studied
      • Birds of the eastern deciduous forest likely to visit the feeders: chickadees, nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, goldfinches
  2. Independent and Dependent variables in the experiment: distance from cover and various behaviors
    • Students will break into several groups, with each group working on different behaviors (e.g. feeding rate, vigilance, time at feeder, group size, etc)
  3. Possible field methodology
    • Feeders set up the week (or more) before by TAs. Food maintained at feeders/
      • Three to five feeders should be set up at varying distances from the forest edge.
    • Teams of students will observe various behaviors of visiting birds for a period of 1-3 hrs.
    • Return to computer lab, analyze relationship of various behaviors to predation pressure.
  4. Present the work as an oral or written report at the end of the day