(Senior Research continued)

Building on his internship experience with the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences where he split his responsibilities as a bird bander and education coordinator, Tony began researching song variation and the responses to different variations of song in the male Dickcissel. His question asked why and/or what causes Dickcissels to exhibit song variation based on geographic location. Similar to the dialects we have in the United States, based on where we live, song birds will often have dialects as well and may even exhibit aggressive behavior towards other birds with different song variations. In the abstract of his research he writes, “Young male songbirds may imitate the songs of the neighbors they encounter on their adult territories, resulting in geographic patterns of song sharing.” His experiment tested responses of male Dickcissels to three different song playbacks, songs of local territories, songs of nearby neighborhoods, and songs of distant or foreign territories. His hypothesis was that Dickcissels would exhibit less aggression towards local and nearby territories than foreign territories. Although his hypothesis did not turn out the way he had hoped for, and it showed that the male Dickcissel is more aggressive to local song variations, Tony’s research has been beneficial to his sponsors and his own experience in the field of avian ecology.

Tony is intending to take his passion for avian ecology to the next level. After graduation he plans to attend graduate school at either the University of Miami or Washington State University. His intended program of study could include song behavior (Miami) or the effects of climate change on migratory bird species (Washington).

We wish you luck next year Tony!