#81: Dr. Emma Greig - From Fairywrens to FeederWatch
Dr. Emma Greig is a behavioral ecologist who has been leading Project FeederWatch, a multi-decade community science effort led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada.
Today's discussion could be broadly characterized as "how to take care of the birds that visit your yard" - and you might be surprised at some of the recommendations.
Our discussion begins in Australia, where Dr. Greig did her dissertation. Her work studied the amazing behavior of the splendid fairywren, a small and colorful Australian bird, who literally sing in the shadows of a predator.
From there, we get into Project FeederWatch and the practice of bird feeding in general. Project FeederWatch has collected an immense dataset that reveals a lot about birds that visit feeders and people's yards in general. We discuss some of the findings, and how you can participate. It's easy!
It's a wide ranging discussion, including topics like - does feeding birds affect their migration routes or timing, or their geographic ranges? How to minimize pests getting into your feeders? Does widespread feeding birds impact populations or the composition of bird communities?
We also talk about best practices for feeding birds. Yes, we're taking on a responsibility of caring for wild animals, so there are several important things we need to do, such as paying attention to disease spread.
Dr. Greig gets into all of this and more. So if you feed birds or are considering feeding birds, this is an important episode to listen to.
Find Project FeederWatch on Twitter.
Check out Jumpstart Nature's podcast episode #2, "Plant Your Birdfeeder", for more from Dr. Greig and other experts on birds and their habitats.
FULL SHOW NOTES
Links To Topics Discussed
- FeederWatch Scientific Data
- Killing with kindness: Does widespread generalised provisioning of wildlife help or hinder biodiversity conservation efforts? - scientific paper by Jack Shutt and Alex Lees
- Preventing Window Strikes
- Project FeederWatch - Begins on November 1!
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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://brianholtzmusic.com
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Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests such as Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Gabe Brown. And topics ranging from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!
