Birds In New York

By Lucy and Susannah
Mr. Waldman's class
Fieldston School
Bronx, NY
Grade 7

I. Introduction

For our research and report on birds in New York, Lucy and I took with us only our previous knowledge of birds and researching on the internet, and were assigned to choose a question pertaining to our findings from the Classroom

FeederWatch Internet site. Based on all the graphs concerning weather and how birds were affected in the rain or snow we decided to answer "How Does Weather Affect Birds in the New York Area"? We thought, what better birds to answer this question about then our own, New York birds. Some people in New York may believe that this question is unrealistic with the thought of snow in New York. But this does not consider that we are studying the entire state of New York and not just Manhattan, and that by studying weather we mean precipitation of any kind.

We hypothesized that birds travel in larger groups in the rain or snow and smaller groups in clear weather. We also hypothesized that because there were larger groups in the presence of precipitation, there would be fewer bird sightings, because a single sighting would include many birds that would otherwise be counted in another sighting if they were in small groups. We also hypothesized that it was the need for food that brought the birds together in the colder weather, partially from our past knowledge of birds. However, the graphs and information we found do not show enough evidence to prove this part of our hypothesis.

II. Materials and Methods

Because Lucy and I were not experimenting, we didn't use experimental materials and methods. We did have methods for our research, which was done with the help of only the computer in our classroom and our access to the Classroom FeederWatch database.

1. We logged onto the Internet and entered the password-protected site for Classroom FeederWatch.

2. We went to Data Retrieval.

3. We searched under these conditions- Count Data: Yes, Study Specific Area: State of New York, Study Specific Species: No, Study Weather: Yes, Precipitation (both rain and snow): Yes, Study Average Group Size: Yes, Number of Observations: Yes.

4. After finding the information that we wanted, we tabulated our information into Excel and attempted to make a graph.

5. When the graph didn't come out clear enough because so many species met our specified conditions we chose to use the five examples of our data that best illustrated our hypothesis. However, all of the data, except 5.6% supported our hypothesis.

III. Results

The results that Lucy and I found on the Internet are summarized here, and in the figures below:

• American Goldfinch - When it was neither raining nor snowing the average group size for American Goldfinch was 3.7 and the number of observations was 7. In the presence of either rain or snow the average group size was 9.4 and the number of observations was 5.

• American Tree Sparrow - When there was no precipitation the average group size for American Tree Sparrow was 5.7 and the number of observations was 9. In the presence of either rain or snow the average group size was 10.8 and the number of observations was 5.

• European Starling - When there was neither rain nor snow the average group size for European Starling was 3.5 and the number of observations was 8. In the presence of either rain or snow the average group size was 7.7 and the number of observations was 3.

• House Sparrow - When there was no precipitation the average group size for House Sparrow was 7.1 and the number of observations was 22. In the presence of either rain or snow the average group size was 9.3 and the number of observations was 12.

• Mourning Dove - When it was neither raining nor snowing the average group size for Mourning Dove was 3.6 and the number of observations was 18. While it was raining or snowing, the average group size was 6.4 and the average number of observations was 9.

IV. Analysis

For all 5 bird species, average group size increased and the number of observations decreased in the presence of precipitation.

V. Discussion and Conclusions

Our data support the first part of our hypothesis, namely that birds travel in larger groups in the rain or snow. However, we can not be absolutely positive that bird species form these groups in search of food unless we obtain more information. To support that theory, we would need to find data on bird food availability and whether it does decrease in supply with rain or snow. We would need to measure whether gathering in larger groups would help birds find food when weather conditions bring about a decrease in food supply. This part we could only speculate on with our previous bird knowledge.

Whether we discovered the answer to our entire hypothesis or not, Lucy and I both learned a lot from this report, including learning how to get information from the Classroom FeederWatch database and learning about bird habits in general.

But most of all, we came out of this report with new-found knowledge about our own New York Birds.

American Avocet