Field Journal 1: Julia DiGiovanni
Date: 2/9/2024
Start Time: 4:00pm
End Time: 5:00pm
Location: Centennial Woods
Weather: Windy- 16mph, mostly cloudy, 49 degrees
Habitat: Mixed deciduous and coniferous trees including Sugar Maple, American Beech, Eastern Hemlock, Eastern White Pine, etc.
Today I spent an hour in Centennial woods in the late afternoon and ending up being able to identity five bird species. I think this was a good start, and with more practice over the semester I hope to improve my sound ID skills to hopefully be able to identify more species in the field. I decided to go in the late afternoon in hopes to see some crows which I particularly love. It ended up being the perfect time to watch hundreds of crows fly overhead as the sun began to set making this a very lovely experience! I saw the most of American Crows and Black Capped Chickadees, so I decided to compare their flight patterns.
These two species occupy very different ecological niches, which is clearly reflected in their bodies and the way they fly. Black-Capped Chickadees are much smaller and fly very erratically, changing directions often and having short bursts of quick flapping. This allows them to navigate through dense vegetation and forests. Alternatively, the much larger American Crow has more of a direct flight, gliding over long distances and with more powerful, slower flaps. This type of flight pattern is ideal for open areas and more smooth, sustained flight, which allows them to conserve energy when traveling far distances.
There are many connections that can be made between their bodies and their diets. Black-Capped Chickadees have rounded wings with a low aspect ratio. This is ideal for their foraging behavior of searching through dense vegetation for insects, seeds, and berries. American Crows have high aspect ratio wings which allows for soaring. They have a much more diverse diet than chickadees, often traveling further distances in search of carrion, invertebrates, grains, etc.
Observations
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