Field Observation 6: Reproductive Ecology and Evolution

I went out birding with my parents in Sudbury, MA on April 20th around 1:30pm. The weather was cold, cloudy, and towards the end it started raining.

I knew going birding that it was not going to be a great day to see birds, however, we did hear a lot of birds. From the calls we heard, they were mostly just songs, but there was a really loud couple of birds that I could not identify by sound. These birds seemed to be making territorial calls or disputing over something large, which I thought to be their home. Visually, however, I did see a few robins and tree swallows fighting/disputing over nest and/or territory. They were chirping loudly and flying at each other in hopes to disturb the one at/protecting the nest. I also saw a crow flying around with some twigs in it's beak, probably attempting to make a nest.

Even through I saw the American Robins fighting on the ground in the walking trail, they would probably build their nest in a more covered environment in the woods were foot traffic and openness to predators would be decreased, and I would assume the American Crow would be doing the same. This is because the nesting habitat for both of these birds both reside in wooded areas with tall trees, or large branches to nest on. The tree swallows I observed seemed to be perched nexts to nests on really dead and open trees or on old telephone poles in the marsh/lake area. This would make a good nesting site/habitat for them because swallows usually like open habitat near/over water to be able to fly around and catch bugs freely. I also saw two mallards (a male and female) and their habitat would be completely different than the other birds listed before because they pretty much live in the water and need water, so their nest would have to be right next to the water/ or on the water if possible, in order to be helpful to them.

Posted on April 25, 2019 03:16 AM by elizabethkaufmann