ZO 501 Ornithology - Spring 2009

Lab Project

     Dr. Tom Quay

Dr. Thomas Lavelle Quay earned his Master's Degree at NC State in 1940. He went on to earn the first Ph.D. awarded by the University and taught ornithology in the Department of Zoology for over 30 years. The goal of this exercise is to gain an appreciation for the process of planning, carrying out, and interpreting an avian field study.  Teams of students will use Dr. Tom Quay's 1940 NCSU Master's thesis "The Ecological Succession of Winter Birds at Raleigh, North Carolina" to develop objectives for a field study of wintering birds in 2009. Potential topics include; understanding how changes in land use have changed Raleigh's winter bird communities over the past 60 years, designing a monitoring program to document changes in avian communities associated with development at Centennial Campus or elsewhere in Raleigh, or comparing current bird sampling methods with those used by Dr. Quay in 1938 and 1939. The photographs presented in the thesis are reproduced here:

Plate 1

Plate 2

Plate 3

Guidelines/expectations

1) The class has been divided up into teams of 4 people.  See below to find your collaborators.

2) Review Dr. Quay's thesis and previous ZO 501 lab projects and formulate an approach for your field study.  Submit a short (1 paragraph) project proposal on Friday, 30 January summarizing your objectives (5 points).

3) On Friday, 20 February submit the methods section of your paper outlining your team's study approach and analysis

• Describe the location and time of your study
• Describe sampling methods and sample sizes
• Describe statistical methods and analyses

4) On Friday 6 March submit the introduction and literature cited section of your paper. This section should place your study in the context of related ecological research and include your project objectives. All references should be fully documented in a literature cited section using the citation format from The Auk.

5) On Friday, 20 March submit the results section and a summary of your raw data to be included in the final paper as an appendix. Your data summary should include all data collected for your project in an organized format (e.g. Excel or Access). Provide summary statistics for data (e.g. # birds seen per point, total number of detections per person, # trees per plot)

6) On Friday, 3 April submit the discussion/conclusion section of your paper as well as a short abstract (about 250 words).

7) On Friday, 24 April, your team will make a scientific oral presentation to the class (20 min.) and turn in your final written project report.  One presentation and report per team.

Team Written Report - Provide a summary report of approximately 10 pages (15 points). This will include all of the sections previously submitted with revisions/changes as appropriate.

• Title and Authors
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Literature cited
• Data summary (appendix)

Team Oral Presentation (out of 20 points)

• Presentation style (format, font, color choices) (2)
• Introduction (4)
• Methods (4)
• Results (4)
• Discussion (4)
• Answering questions (2)

Resources at your disposal

1) The Raleigh Christmas Bird Count data, collected since 1916, are available in a spread sheet format for analysis and comparison to your field data.

2) We are available to meet with team members during the semester to provide assistance with field identification and suggestions on objectives and methods of data collection and analysis.

3) Dr. Quay's thesis and study plot maps are online. 

4) Sample reports and presentations from previous classes are provided as examples.

Team 3 2005 Presentation	Team 1 2007 Presentation	Team 4 2007 Presentation
Team 3 2005 Summary	Team 1 2007 Summary	Team 4 2007 Summary
Team 3 2005 Data	Team 1 2007 Data	Team 4 2007 Data

5) Copies of bird monitoring techniques and evaluations are available online and in the library reserve:

bird monitoringhandbook43.pdf

 NPSbird.doc

Team Assignments: