Missouri River Bird Observatory

• Populations do not change. Shifts in population can happen in many ways. Some changes can happen slowly and take hundreds of years, like the gradual shift in traits from genetic change. Some changes can happen more quickly, such as a shift in population because of environmental changes like pollution.
• Humans cannot control natural selection. Both plants and animals can be modified genetically by humans in a way that produces an organism with desired traits, but humans do not control natural selection. When humans modify a plant or animal genetically it is called artificial selection, and it is done for many reasons such as to create disease-resistance crops, bigger animals for food, and desired looks for specific dog breeds.
• Environmental factors cannot change traits. Environmental factors can affect traits in both plants and animals. For example, the sunlight can affect the color of your skin, and it can also affect your health. Too much Sun exposure can lead to skin damage, but not enough can lead to a vitamin D deficiency.

1. Watch video: Natural Selection
   
2. Complete this Google Forms Quiz to make sure you know the concepts.

In this activity you will explore traits that help organisms be better camouflaged to your environment and how that increases your chances of survival and reproduction.

1. Watch video.
2. After watching video, complete this Google Form Quiz to make sure you understand the concepts introduced. 

1. Give an example of an inherited trait and its variations.
   
2. What is an adaptation? Give an example.
   
3. Define natural selection. Use an example.
   
4. What is required for natural selection to take place?
   
5. Describe a common misconception about evolution.

• Songs – Tend to be complex, learned, and given principally by males in prolonged bouts in the breeding season to establish a territory and attract a mate.
• Calls – Tend to be simple, innate, and used by both sexes in more general contexts, such as to raise an alarm, maintain contact between flock members, or beg for food.
• Spectrogram – A computer- generated graph of sound frequencies across time. (or a way to visualize bird sound)
• Frequency – The speed of the sound vibration, and this determines the pitch of the sound.
• Amplitude – The size of the sound vibration, and this determines how loud the sound is.
• Pitch – The quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone.

• Bird species only make one type of sound or only have one song and one call. This misconception is often what can make learning the sounds that birds make so difficult. Almost all species of bird have more than one vocalization and some have repertoires into the thousands.
• All individuals in a species will sound the same. Not all young birds copy songs from a tutor. Some invent your own songs according to the typical pattern of your species. In species that learn from tutors, some young birds typically end up with slightly different versions than your tutors sang. When birds breeding in a particular area sound similar to each other but different from members of the same species elsewhere, you are said to have a regional dialect.
• Watch out for mimics. There are a few species of bird that will mimic other bird’s songs and calls and others who will copy only part of another’s song and include it in your own repertoire.
• All bird sounds are innate. Some bird sounds innate, meaning that birds can produce them without ever having heard them before. The ability to produce innate sounds is inborn and genetically controlled. Some bird sounds are learned, meaning that in order to produce them properly, a young bird must hear them from an adult tutor of the same species. Tutors do not actively “teach”; instead, young birds learn by listening from a distance. The tutors are often the neighboring males on a young bird’s first summer territory. As far as we know, the only North American birds that can learn sounds are the hummingbirds, the parrots, and the passerines (excluding the flycatchers). Even in these groups, many sounds are innate.

Video Description: In this webinar, Ethan Duke, MRBO Director, leads a discussion of bird sounds, with a focus on how to identify and record your own.

1. Start Video at 14:30 and End Video at 30:21.
   
2. Some bird recordings are on the quieter side so you may want to turn up volume for these parts.
   
3. After watching video, complete this Google Form Quiz to make sure you understand the concepts introduced. 

Activity Summary: Students will use this excellent resource provided by Cornell Lab of Ornithology to learn more about how and why birds sing as well as learn the songs of a few bird species.

• All bird species are monogamous. Most songbirds in North America will somewhat secretly mate with multiple birds. DNA paternity testing shows that in many species, 40 percent of the young are the result of extramarital mating.
• Birds pair for life. Splitting up is a regular part of life for almost all birds. Most live with one partner for only a few months or years depending on the species. Annual divorce rates range from 99 percent in the greater flamingo to 0 percent in the wandering albatross.
• All bird species mate during the same month of a year. We typically think of spring as the mating season for birds, however, this period falls over several months with some birds starting as early as January, while others don’t start until the late summer months.

Article Summary: Audubon writer, Hannah Waters, presents ten birds with interesting and outrageous courtship dance displays. Article includes videos of the displays as well as a fun, short description. Article with Video Links: https://www.audubon.org/news/10-outrageous-ways-birds-dance-impress-your-mates

• Have you become familiar with some of the funkiest mating displays and courtship rituals by reading the article and watching the associated videos.
  The follow-up questions will address what the you should takeaway from the article
• After reading the article you need to complete this Google Forms Quiz to make sure you understand the concepts introduced in the video. (Link is to editable version of quiz) NOTE: Please make a copy of quiz before editing. 

Activity Summary: Students will learn more about a unique species endangered in Missouri, the Greater- Prairie Chicken. They will examine the causes of this decline and design the ideal habitat with all the necessary components.

1. What is a display behavior? Give an example.
   
2. How do courtship rituals and mating displays help a species survive and reproduce?
   
3. Explain one reason the population of Greater Prairie-chickens has declined in Missouri.
   
4. What is one misconception people often have about bird mating season? Explain why it is false.
   
5. Describe or draw a courtship display you found interesting.

• Birds use nests all year long. Birds only use nests as a place to incubate eggs and raise young. Once chicks fledge, adults and young do not typically continue to use the nest. However, some birds will return to the same general areas to nest year after year.
• Cowbirds are a pest species that should be eliminated. Cowbirds are a brood parasite, meaning you lay your eggs in nests of other species. Baby cowbirds grow fast and can crowd out other chicks. This is an example of a species using an alternative reproductive strategy. Cowbirds are native to the United States and therefore are protected by law, so it is illegal to harm them. Some birds are able to recognize and reject cowbird eggs.
• Two parents are needed to raise the young. In many birds like hummingbirds and woodcock, the female raises the young all by herself. In other birds like crows and blue jays, parents recruit nannies, usually former offspring, to help protect and feed the young. There is a lot of variability on how and who raises the young and makes the nest based on species.

Video Description: Watch the busy hummingbird craft the perfect nest in this video from NATURE: Animal Homes. The female hummingbird plays the role of surveyor, architect and builder in her effort to create a suitable home for her eggs and future chicks. Video is from PBS.

Video Link: https://kmos.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nat15.sci.lisci.humming/hummingbird-surveyor-architect-and-builder/

1. What does the nest provide the eggs and the young to better help them survive?
   
2. Describe the nest cycle. What are the four main stages and what happens during each?
   
3. What is brood parasitism? Give an example.
   
4. List five materials birds use to make your nests and the nest type that might best utilize that material.
   
5. From your own experience, what are the challenges of making a structurally sound nest?
   

Activity Summary: In this activity you will examine real-life nest monitoring data from the Missouri River Bird Observatory’s Grassland Nest Monitoring Project. They will learn how to interpret graphs and tables as well as use this information to construct a scientific explanation for how environmental factors influence the growth of organisms.

1. How do you calculate nesting success rate? (Hint: Remember your calculation in the activity).
   
2. What are two reasons a nest might be unsuccessful?
   
3. What was the difference between the treatment and control units in the nest monitoring study and how might this difference affect nesting success?
   
4. Why is it important to study grassland bird nesting success? 
5. What is something you learned in this lesson that you had no idea about before? Be specific.