Predators of Parids are known to be more active during times of day when the light levels are lower, so it is reasonable to assume time of day might influence how connected a flock is while feeding, regardless of how many food sources are available.
Research Question: What is the influence of time of day and risk assessment on the connectivity of a flock when foraging for food?
Hypothesis/Prediction: If daylight exposure is more intense (e.g., midday), then the individuals within flocks will be more likely to forage at ___ feeder/s than if daylight exposure is less intense (e.g., dusk/dawn). What do you predict (the same, different, or no effect) and why?
Methodology: The general preface and set up is similar to the mobbing study!
For this study, we have taken five of our feeders and attached GoPro cameras to them. These five feeders are all moved to within a 200 meter radius of one another to ensure that the same single flock is using them all, or at least has access to them. However, once we attached the cameras to the feeders, we had to wait for a week before collecting data from them. Why might this be? For each trial day, we video record bird activity at three different times: 8:00a.m.- 9:00a.m., 12:00p.m.- 1:00p.m., and 4:00p.m.- 5:00p.m. Each of these times represents various levels of daylight intensity. The feeders are kept full of seeds throughout the day. From the video footage, we note which birds are at what feeder by observing their color-band I.D. tags. We then compare this information to the time of day it is from.
