The Field Experience Award Fund provides students with a chance to get up-close with local wildlife
By Vanessa Parks
Internal Communications and Engagement Specialist
It was hands-on experience in the field that helped Biology Professor Liam McGuire decide on the direction of his career. Now he’s giving students the same opportunity with the help of the Faculty of Science’s Field Experience Award Fund (FEAF). McGuire has used funds from the FEAF to outfit a bird migration research station and organize field trips, providing students with field opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have.
His research station at the University of Waterloo Environmental Reserve on the North Campus gives students hands-on experience banding birds, a process by which a bird is captured, measured and a small uniquely numbered band attached to its leg. This band allows researchers to track the bird’s migration as it moves through other research stations. McGuire’s operation has become a substation of the larger Long Point Bird Observatory.
Contributing to research on bird migration has scientific value, but for McGuire, the teaching opportunity is equally beneficial. “This is giving students hands-on experience seeing birds they’ve never seen before and learning to handle them, and teaching about their biology and the biology of migration,” he says.
Ryan Leys, a PhD student in McGuire's lab, explains how to safely handle a bird while banding to Asher Zand, an undergrad in the Faculty of Environment.
McGuire looks up information while banding a Chickadee with undergraduate student Carter Matthews.
McGuire shows grad student Emily Dodsworth how to assess body fat on a Catbird while banding.
Victoria Pepe, a grad student in McGuire's lab, examines a Magnolia Warbler.
Thomas Pianta, who will be starting his graduate work with McGuire this fall, works with Lauren Weeks, a current graduate student in McGuire's lab, to band a Swainson's Thrush.
Before it can be banded, a bird must be safely captured. McGuire’s team sets up large nets throughout the reserve. These nets contain pockets, so when a bird flies into one, it falls into a pocket and can’t get out. The bird is carefully extracted and put into a bag to reduce its stress before being brought back to be weighed, measured and to have its sex, age and body fat determined. The students also do a census every morning, recording the birds they hear and see around the area.
The first bird McGuire removes from one of the collection bags is a Grey Catbird. “Catbirds are good teaching birds, because it’s usually fairly easy to determine their age, sex and body fat,” explains Ryan Leys, a PhD candidate who helps facilitate these field experiences.
McGuire explains to his students how to figure out the bird’s age by looking at its feathers. “In a Catbird, we’re looking for a molt limit in the greater coverts,” McGuire says. “This juvenile feather is grey, and these adult feathers are brown. They’re not all from the same generation, which is indicative of a hatch-year bird.”
Next, he determines the bird’s body fat. McGuire blows gently, parting the bird’s soft breast feathers and giving him a glimpse of the skin underneath. “Birds have transparent skin, so we blow the feathers out of the way and look at the wish bone area to see how much fat they’ve got,” Leys explains. “We note the amount of fat on a scale from zero to seven. This bird has a little, so we’re noting it at one.”
The bird’s wings are measured and the small band fastened carefully around its leg. The process prioritizes the bird’s comfort, and takes only two or three minutes, a little longer when teaching, before the bird is released.
“Students watch at first, to see what we’re looking for and how to handle the bird, and then they have a go at it,” says McGuire.
A uniquely numbered band is attached to the leg of a Grey Catbird.
The age of this Grey Catbird is determined by looking at the feather molt patterns.
McGuire assesses the body fat on a Magnolia Warbler.
A Magnolia Warbler's wings are measured during banding.
This field experience changed everything for Kathleen Lasseter, who decided to pursue graduate work after participating in a field course and is now part of McGuire’s bird banding team. “My whole undergrad degree shifted focus because of that field course and working with Liam,” says Lasseter. “It was finally the first thing in my degree where I was like, yes, this is something career worthy. I could actually enjoy this!”
McGuire has used funds from the FEAF to facilitate other field experiences as well, both close to home and farther afield. He holds on-campus bird walks, where he signs out binoculars to eager students. And he has hosted field trips to the Lasalle Marina in Burlington to learn about the reintroduction of Trumpeter Swans, and to Long Point to visit the research station there.
These field experiences don’t just attract students with an interest in researching birds. “I never thought I’d be interested in birdwatching,” says Avelyn Cheung, an undergraduate in the Biomedical Science program who heard about the Long Point trip through a friend. “This trip opened my eyes to how many birds there are all around us, and how many you can see when you know where to look.”
McGuire continues to lead field trips and offer other hands-on field experiences for undergrads. Events are advertised through the University of Waterloo Zoology Club.
McGuire's bird banding group at the University of Waterloo Environmental Reserve on the North Campus.