What chickadees can tell us about climate

Ross CarusoMeteo 482

4/22/14Article posted on March 19, 2014

How it started Villanova University

biology professor Robert Curry

Looked for an interesting project for his students

He found it in his own backyard feeder: The Chickadee

Wanted to catch a lot of birds and monitor them

Nesting's, offspring, partners, etc.

Focused on two species: Carolina Chickadee and the Black-Capped Chickadee

Black-capped vs. Carolina Chickadee

Location of project• Good candidates for his

project, since they don’t migrate seasonally

• The areas in which they intersected contained hybrids

• Made fake nests in those areas (450 total)

• Started collecting blood samples from birds to determine bird type

• Started project in 1998(Hawk Mountain-blackcaps) (Nolde Forest-mixed) (Chester County-Carolinas)

Chickadee Population of POI’s in 1998

Surprising Results Noticed more hybrids in

Hawk Mountain Found that the line

separating species was about 17 degrees

Carolinas wont live where its colder, while black-caps will

Warmer temperatures and Carolina Chickadees were moving north in sync at an average of .7 miles a year

Other possible organisms, parasites, and diseases could be following the same path

My own findings

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/black-capped_chickadee/id

Sourceshttp://articles.philly.com/2014-03-19/news/48334

893_1_chickadees-hybrids-hawk-mountain-sanctuary

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/black-capped_chickadee/id