Nest Parasite Community Science Project

Traded in our lab coats for caps and gowns!

LET THE FIELD SEASON BEGIN! 🏁⛅️
Pic 1: handsome papa bluebird on a box
Pic 2: a bluebird nest with a COWBIRD egg!
Pic 3: WHITE bluebird eggs!🥚
Pic 4: one of the first bluebird eggs we found🪺
Pic 5: first EABL nestlings of the season🐣
Pic 6: mama bluebird incubating her eggs
Pic 7: two pretty tree swallows

This week during our lab meeting we had ART DAY! Art day is always a highlight of our semester because we get to unwind, share pictures and fun facts about birds, and show off some serious art skills. Stay tuned for more pictures of the finished masterpieces 🎨

Lots of productivity in the lab! Sila is mounting mites on slides for middle school students to look at under the microscope at outreach next week. Casey is inventorying samples to keep everything logged and organized as always. Carrie is dusting the shelves and is clearly having a great time! Swipe to see a predatory mite under the compound microscope 🔬🥼

Two of our elite members of the parasite squad are GRADUATING! We are so proud of Anna & Casey, and all of the hard work they’ve done in the lab. We will miss them! 🫶🐣🪺🔬🦠 These two nestlings are officially ready to fly. Here are their messages about their experiences:

Anna - “My favorite experiences from working in the lab have been working with nestlings and seeing all the cool organisms within the nest (and the berry picking after work). My hope is to work as a lab technician / assistant and eventually become a researcher!”

Casey - “As someone that grew up loving nature it’s so cool that I got to do fieldwork with the baby birds and that I can look at a nest and tell you what kind of bird built it. I love all of the unique experiences and lab crew yap sessions I’ve had because of this job. After graduating I’m going to get EMT certified so I can gain experience for PA school!”

Happy holidays from the parasite squad! We did secret santa today and shared many bird gifts, homemade goodies, books, and silly trinkets 🎁🎄

We’re more than halfway through our summer break and the field work is winding down… JUST KIDDING!!!! The bluebirds are keeping us busier than ever. Here are some pictures of eastern bluebirds from day zero to adulthood 🪺🌱🌞🌻
Picture 1: Egg helmet! Nestling caught mid-hatch.
Picture 2: Day zero (day of hatching).
Picture 3: Day 1 (day after hatching).
Picture 4: Day 13.
Picture 5: Adult!

*These birds were handled for the purpose of scientific research and we hold all necessary state and federal permits.

Pics from Storrs! When the bluebird nestlings are 13 days old we measure and band them, and collect samples of their feathers, f***s, and blood (shown in pics 2-7). And yes, we always talk to the nestlings and tell them, “you’re doing such a good job buddy!” 😊

It’s interesting to see the abundance of parasites in the nest on day 13. Sometimes we see a heavily parasitized nest and we talk about how it impacts the birds (while we slather our arms in hand sanitizer to get the parasitic mites off). There’s variation from brood to brood in their appearances and apparent health. We’ve had nestlings big or small, docile or feisty, full or hungry, etc… each brood is so unique and that’s what makes our research SO FASCINATING! 😎🐣🦠🐜

*these birds were handled for the purpose of scientific research and we hold all required state and federal permits

We went out into the field last week with Dr. Knutie and Dr. Hird to collect f***s samples from mama birds! Turns out that catching adult birds is a lot trickier than collecting samples from nestlings. Dr. Knutie came up with an effective and sterile method to carefully collect the poopies involving a paper bag, grate, and weigh boat. We even caught a papa bird (first picture) that was banded here in Storrs 3 YEARS AGO as a nestling! He was only a few nest boxes away from where he hatched 🥲 What an exciting day!

P.S. Do you know what it sounds like when there is an adult bird in a paper bag? Answer: popcorn in the microwave.

The field season is well under way here in Storrs! Rain or shine, the NPCS crew is outside collecting data and checking on the many Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows. No two nests are exactly alike, and each day is full of surprises. More updates to come! 🪺🌧️☀️