I鈥檝e always loved animals, and I鈥檓 fascinated by birds in particular. So, when the opportunity to research birds arose during my junior year, unsurprisingly I took the offer. I鈥檝e been working with barn swallows ever since. Barn swallows build their nests in underpasses, barns, or culverts. These are unusual nesting sites for birds and bring with them unique challenges. The barn swallows must address these challenges, and I鈥檝e been researching one aspect of how. My honors thesis focuses on where the barn swallows choose to nest and how that affects how many of their nestlings survive to take flight.
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To gather data for my thesis, I spent the summer counting eggs, weighing young barn swallows, perching on precarious ladders to take measurements, and using a laser to determine the height of the barn swallows鈥� nests. The summer heat made this hard work but it was worth the effort.
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Getting to do this research is exciting because I enjoy thinking about how animals make choice, especially choices in responses to the environment that humans have created. In this case, the barn swallows鈥� nests are fundamentally influenced by the human-made environment around them, which makes this an excellent way to explore my questions about animal behavior. Determining how animals react to a changing environment is something that is increasingly important in our ever more human-centric world.
