HR: 1330h
AN: ED22C-1247    [PDF]
TI: What's a Nice Hummingbird Like You Doing at an AGU Meeting Like This? (or, Operation RubyThroat Meets The GLOBE Program)
AU: * Hilton, B
EM: hilton@rubythroat.org
AF: Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History, 1432 DeVinney Road, York, SC 29745 United States
AB: "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project" is an international cross-disciplinary initiative that uses Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) as a hook to excite K-12 students (and adults) about science learning. In 2002, Operation RubyThroat affiliated with The GLOBE Program as the first GLOBE protocol that involves animal behavior. Through Operation RubyThroat, students make observations about hummingbird phenology, behavior, and ecology and correlate their data against traditional GLOBE observations of atmosphere, climate, land cover, soils, hydrology, and phenology. Although Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (RTHUs) breed throughout the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada and may be the most common and most widely distributed of all 338 hummingbird species, little is known about how abiotic environmental factors affect their migration, nesting activities, and everyday behavior. Operation RubyThroat participants in the U.S. and Canada log early arrival dates of RTHUs during spring migration, note their presence throughout the breeding season, and report the last date RTHUs are seen in autumn. Conversely, participants in Mexico and all seven Central American countries (the region in which RTHUs spend their non-breeding months) watch for early arrivals in fall and late departures in spring. Participants also attempt to estimate numbers of RTHUs in local populations by counting the number of visits hummingbirds make to feeders and/or flowers in a 45-minute time block. Optional activities include observations of RTHU nesting behaviors and determining RTHU preferences for various species of native and exotic nectar sources. Participating schools are encouraged to establish Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitats in which to make their observations, but data may be collected in backyards or at local parks, nature centers, botanical gardens, and other sites where RTHUs occur. Adults not affiliated with K-12 schools are invited to become certified in the hummingbird protocols and to submit Operation RubyThroat data to GLOBE. Participants report sightings of any RTHUs that are banded and color-marked with dye or that have unusual plumage (albinistic, leucistic, etc.). Participants in the eastern U.S. and Canada also report the occurrence of "winter vagrant" hummingbirds, i.e., species from the western U. S. and Mexico that from August through March seem to be wandering more frequently into the region. These unusual movements by western hummingbird species, as well as migration timing and winter occurrences of RTHUs, are correlated against GLOBE data to determine possible effects of atmosphere, climate, and land use, including the impact of global warming. As a new GLOBE protocol, Operation RubyThroat is just beginning to generate data for analysis. Operation RubyThroat's collaboration with GLOBE is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Support for other aspects of the project comes from, among others, Agilent Technologies, ConocoPhillips (through National Fish and Wildlife Foundation), The Christensen Fund, and individual donors. Operation RubyThroat is an education, research, and conservation initiative of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History (www.hiltonpond.org) in York, South Carolina USA.
UR: http://www.rubythroat.org
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
DE: 1699 General or miscellaneous
DE: 1851 Plant ecology
DE: 3399 General or miscellaneous
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting