BIOEE 2640 - Tropical Field Ornithology

(CU-ITL)

Multi-semester course: Fall (weeks 8-14). 0.5 credits. First course: R grade only (in progress).

Permission of instructor required. Primarily for: students with limited or no bird knowledge. Multi-semester course, students must complete BIOEE 2640, BIOEE 2641, and BIOEE 2642 for a final grade.

A. Dhondt.

Provides students with the opportunity to study birds intensively in a neotropical environment. Students learn observational and field techniques, formulate and participate in group research projects.

Outcome 1: Find, read, and interpret literature relevant for the course.

Outcome 2: Understand and explain what observed bird behavior means (foraging, aggressive, territorial, reproductive,…) and place it in the relevant ecological context.

Outcome 3: Ask critical questions about scientific papers, discuss them and summarize main findings.

Outcome 4: Observe animal behavior in the field and record observations (find and identify observed birds, place them in the proper taxonomic group; describe observations supported with field sketches).

Outcome 5: Design field observations and experiments required to test hypotheses and carry out the necessary field work.

Outcome 6: Analyze and interpret the observations in collaboration with peers, explain and defend interpretations and conclusions.

Outcome 7: Extract information to formulate research hypotheses and develop an observation protocol to carry out the fieldwork in order to collect critical data (observations, experiments) to test hypotheses.

Outcome 8: Write up results in the format of a scientific publication.