Office Hours: by appointment

e-mail: dbuehler@utk.edu

website: http://online.utk.edu/

Teaching Assistants: Lesley Bulluck (o)974-8749 (h)330-2421

Benny Thatcher (o)946-1128 (h)523-4806

II. Catalog Description:

Biological and ecological characteristics of wild birds, including game and nongame birds, endangered species, and bird pests. Current principles and practices in wild bird management. Prereq: FWF 317 or consent of instructor. 2 hours and 1 lab. Two weekend and one evening fieldtrips required.

III. Schedule: Lecture- Mon-Wed 1:25‑2:15

Lab- Mon 6:30‑10:00 am or

Wed 6:30-10:00 am

IV. Texts:

Option A: National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America: Revised and Updated by Jon L. Dunn

There are a lot of bird field guides available. In my

opinion, this is the best inexpensive all-around guide.

Option B: The Sibley Guide to Birds: By David A. Sibley.

This has become the definitive field guide although it is somewhat bulky to carry around. I keep mine on my desk or in the car.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Guide to the Birds of North America Version 3.0

This CD is recommended for purchase and is a very useful tool for learning birds visually and by song. It also has a tremendous amount of reference material on birds.

All of the above are available at the Wild Birds Unlimited store, 7240 Kingston Pike. Make sure to tell the owner you are in the UT birds class. He donates stuff to our annual birdathon.

V. Course:

Goal: The overall goal of the course is to help students learn how to identify birds by sight and song, learn the basics on avian ecology, and learn how to manage for avian species across a variety of habitats.

Specifically, a successful student should:

1) Be able to identify ~100+ birds by sight and song.

2) Be able to sex and age birds from live specimens, wings and study skins.

3) Know and understand avian ecology related to reproduction,

migration, foraging, and over-winter.

4) Know and understand how to manage habitat for the whole

spectrum of birds, including wetlands, grasslands, forests, and urban-suburban environments.

5) Know how to read and interpret key studies in the

literature related to avian ecology and management.

Week	Date	Lecture	Lab
1	12-14 Jan	Introduction/Origin of Birds	Intro to Birds and night birds (7:00am)
2	19-21 Jan	Anatomy and Physiology	Owl Prowl- meet at 600pm; Monday lab meets Tues night! Kyker Bottoms.
3	26-28 Jan	Avian Communication	Avian Anatomy & Physiology (7:00am)
4	2-4 Feb	Reproductive Biology	Water Birds- ID, Sex, Age (7:00am)
5	9-11 Feb 14-15 Feb	Foraging Ecology Sat/Sun	Kyker Bottoms Field Trip (6:30 am) Hiwassee Island Fieldtrip (7:30am-500pm)
6	16-18 Feb	Population Ecology	Raptors, Upland Gamebirds, Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers - (7:00am)
7	23-25 Feb	Community Ecology	Songbirds- ID, Sex, Age (7:00am)
8	1 Mar 3 Mar	Birds in Winter	Lab Review (7:00am) Lab Exam (7:00am)
9	8 Mar 10 Mar	Migration Ecology Midterm Exam	Seven Islands Field Trip (6:30 am)
10	15-19 Mar	Spring Break	Bird on your break!
11	22-24 Mar	Forest Bird Ecol & Mngmt	Norris Dam Field Trip (6:30am)
12	29-31 Mar	Waterfowl Ecol. & Mngmt	Eagle Bend Field Trip (6:30am)
13	5-7 Apr	Shorebird/Wader Ecol. & Mngmt	Sharp's Ridge Field Trip (6:30am)
14	12-14 Apr	Grassland Bird Ecol & Mngt	Freel’s Bend- OR Field Trip (6:30am)
15	19-21 Apr	Endangered Species	Sharp’s Ridge (6:30am)
16	26-28 Apr 1-3 May	Final Thoughts- Bird for Life Final Exam May 3 1230-230 pm	Lab: Birdathon: Freel’s Bend May 1(Sat)

Student Evaluation: Final grades will be assigned based on the following:

Midterm Exam 100 points

Final Exam 100 points

Lab Exam I 100 points

Lab Final 100 points

Field Quizzes (10) 100 points

Field Notebook 50 points

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Total 550 points

Grading:

                  A                         506-550 points                                    92-100%
A/B (B+)                490-505 points                                    89- 91%
B                         451-489 points                                    82- 88%
B/C (C+)                435-450 points                                    79- 81%
C                         385-434 points                                    70- 78%
D                         330-384 points                                    60- 69%
F                             0-329 points                                      0- 59%

Extra Credit: For students wishing to improve their grades and gain additional experience, there will be up to 50 additional points awarded as extra credit. These points will be added to the final point total earned by the student. The projects available to earn extra credit will include:

1) Preparation of study skins (5 pts awarded for each acceptable skin prepared- up to 50 pts total)

2) Participation in a northern mockingbird territory mapping research project on campus [30 pts for 10 weeks of field work @ 3 hours per week (Jan-Mar) and up to 20 points for final written report]

3) Participation in a winter grassland bird survey research project [30 points for field work- 2 days per month for 3 months (Jan-Mar); up to 20 points for final written report]