PatriciaTruong

Hi Patricia, This is your page. YAY! Thank you! I'm happy to be working with you! :D

[|How does Physics Apply to Birds]

Topics to Consider:

 * Flight
 * Migration [|more on migration]
 * Color
 * Sound

Actually, I have been researching some of the topic you have listed above. I think I'm more interested in either the sound one or the color one. Flight could be a good topic too!

What I know on Color: [|more on plumage]

 * reflected light photons are collected and seen by the eye.
 * Blue light has a short wavelength and reflect more easily (blue jays?)
 * Plumage effect coloring on pigments of the feather???
 * violet, blue, and white are //schemochromes//
 * structual color is depended upon reflective structures
 * iridescent feathers get their color from interference
 * White plumage is produced when all wavelengths of light are reflected by the feather- structure appears like cut glass or snow
 * melanin granules and air pockets (don't know much)

What I know on Sound: [|More on sound]

 * Uhmmm I haven't researched this topic yet, but the link you gave me some knowledge of it.

What I know on Flight: [|more on physics of flight]

 * Flying is a balance between lift & weight, and thrust & drag.
 * Weight is reduced as much as possible in bird
 * Lift is generated by the flow of air over the wings
 * Bird wings are aerofoil
 * Air passes over or under the wing
 * The more curved the aerofoil, the greater the lift
 * A bird with air moving over its wings is pulled up from above and pushed up from below
 * Drag- the resistence the air gives to anything passing through
 * AERODYNAMIC! (need more understanding)
 * There is more, but I'm not able to type anymore because my class is about to end.

Thank you for your time! :)

Hi Patricia, My name is Drew. I'm one of the interns at BirdSleuth, and I hope I can help you. Lisa shared your email regarding UV-light. I'm hoping you can explain your question a bit further. Are you asking how birds can be used to detect UV light that might be harmful to humans? If that's the case, it's certainly an interesting question, but would be very, very difficult to design an experiment for and I'm not sure if there are any that would be very practical for you to do. It would be wise not to get too complicated, and try to save the world all at once.

But I do think working with UV light would be a really cool investigation. Here's a link to some research regarding birds and UV light: http://www.vri.cz/docs/vetmed/54-8-351.pdf

I have one idea that you might want to consider. UV perception is important in foraging. Fruit-eating birds often prefer certain fruits due to the UV light that the fruits give off. It would be interesting to see if you can manipulate this sort of preference by using a black light - black lights give off a little bit of visible light but a whole lot of UV light. Effectively, anything under a black light becomes saturated in UV light. How would birds' feeding behavior be affected by a black light? Would it deter or intensify birds' feeding?

Another thing to consider with this is how and why birds choose certain fruits. For instance, it has been shown that a species of bird might prefer 1 berry over 2 others due to its color and UV light. But what if you modified this UV light so that all three berries gave off the same UV light? Would the bird consume all three berries equally? This could really be done with an 2 similar looking berries or fruits, depending on the birds in your area. Your control group could be feeders with the fruits without a black light (and you can measure the consumption of the 2 fruits) and you experiment could see how the fruit in the feeders were consumed if they were left under a black light.

Let me know if you like this idea, and we can talk more, Drew

Hello! Sorry I haven't been updating lately. Right now, I'm still waiting on my forms to be approved. I still have to look for materials I would be using. I think the hardest material to find is a BirdCam, so I can see the behavior of the bird while they are feeding. Also I have to research more on the anatomy of a bird's eye, so I can understand more about their eyesight and how it differs from ours. One more thing. I was if you could give me any suggestion to create my chart while collecting data. Thank you for all your help! I will keep you updated! :)