{"id":75769,"date":"2020-10-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-student-studies-habits-habitat-of-rhode-islands-most-unusual-bird\/"},"modified":"2020-10-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T00:00:00","slug":"uri-student-studies-habits-habitat-of-rhode-islands-most-unusual-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2020\/10\/uri-student-studies-habits-habitat-of-rhode-islands-most-unusual-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student studies habits, habitat of Rhode Island\u2019s most unusual bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 22, 2020 \u2013 Justin Moore has always had a keen interest in working with wildlife, and this year he got his first chance. The 溏心vlog免费B站 senior spent the last six months conducting field studies of one of the Ocean State\u2019s most unusual birds, the American woodcock, which is sometimes called the timberdoodle.<\/p>\n

The softball-sized bird with a long flexible beak does what Moore calls a \u201cwobble dance\u201d by rocking back and forth from one foot to another, a behavior that scientists can\u2019t quite explain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw them do it just once, and it\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d said Moore, a resident of Middletown, Rhode Island<\/strong>, who is majoring in wildlife and conservation biology. \u201cIt might be a feeding behavior to stir up the soil to see if there are worms around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate student Colby Slezak, Moore spent most of his time since last spring capturing and tracking the movements of nesting woodcock in Arcadia Wildlife Management Area in Exeter to document their home range, activity patterns, distribution in the area, and habitat preferences. Each day he used radio telemetry to home in on birds that had been previously tagged with a tracking device that could be detected with a special antenna.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A handful of woodcock chicks. Photo courtesy of Justin Moore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d usually get a weak signal from the road, so we\u2019d walk in to locate them and make sure they were still alive,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re really well camouflaged, so sometimes we\u2019d get within 10 feet of them before they startled us by flying off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore learned that the birds, whose populations have been declining since the 1960s, prefer young forests and shrubby areas with moist soils.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they find a location they like, they don\u2019t move around a lot,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s a protection strategy \u2013 the area is good for feeding and they don\u2019t have to worry about predators. And if we ever did find that they moved somewhere else, they always found their way back to their original location.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 student said his favorite part of his experience was exploring different parts of Rhode Island, discovering other species of wildlife, and spending time outdoors.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s research is supported by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 24th year, the program pairs students with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really appreciated the program because I came in with no prior research experience and I learned to do so many things \u2013 mist netting to capture the birds, radio telemetry to track them, how to handle birds, and so much more,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt was my favorite job I ever had. I got a lot out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes to gain additional experience in the coming year, perhaps with mammals or reptiles, in hopes of getting some seasonal field research jobs upon graduation next year. He will likely earn a graduate degree eventually as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cDown the road, I might continue on to get my Ph.D. and continue to do research,\u201d he said. \u201cI could see myself working for a university \u2013 teaching and doing research \u2013 or maybe take a long-term job managing wildlife for a government agency. Right now I\u2019m just focusing on school. The rest is up in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 22, 2020 \u2013 Justin Moore has always had a keen interest in working with wildlife, and this year he got his first chance. The 溏心vlog免费B站 senior spent the last six months conducting field studies of one of the Ocean State\u2019s most unusual birds, the American woodcock, which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-75769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}