Topic of Interest for Finch Research Paper?

[Nrg800]

Hello everyone! At my school, in Year 9 we can choose Two two year electives, and one one year elective. What we do instead of the third elective is a 'personal interest project' and if I didn't do something on birds... it just wouldn't be me!

For ease it would probably be best if I were to use aviary birds, because reliably finding wild birds is... hard...

Does anyone have any ideas for something I could focus on... I would rather not do much on genetics because, personally I don't like mutations and much rather Natural coloured birds in there... Could I keep, say, a single species for a year, in my aviary, rather than a mix, and just do a detailed study on it?

Kinda like this: http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_f ... 964251.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But I would welcome suggestions from anyone!

Thanks!!

[spanna]

Dr. Sarah Pryke has done lots of good research for the save the gouldian fund on the effects of head colour on breeding, mate selection, offspring sex ratios, aggressiveness etc etc so if you can duplicate experiments then some of that would be interesting. genetics would be involved, but only a little bit, and the head colours are fairly easy to get a hold of.

[E Orix]

I am not sure if David Pace is a forum member but if he is he maybe able to assist you as he is a teacher in Melbourne
and done some wonderful work with his students with regard Avicultural as well as avian studies in general.

[natamambo]

As an ex-science teacher, I can tell you now, "just studying it" won't cut the mustard. You'll need a specific premise, hypothesis or aim to discover.

Pick an easy to breed species with fairly varied dietary acceptance (eg not only live food or not only seed). Offer the same range of food all year round and see whether different foods are taken in greater quantities at different times of year. Note seasons, weather (coz it can be cold in summer...) and stages of breeding cycle and chick raising.

Thus:
Hypothesis - Gouldian diet varies according to weather cycles more than breeding cycles which will be proved or disproved by your research
VS
Aim - To determine whether a specific pattern exists in the food choices made by Gouldian finches

Again, the Gouldian springs to mind as they are relatively easy to breed and generally accept a range of foods.

[Myzomela]

Following on from Natamambo's example, if you could carry out the study with multiple pairs of the same species, then you will obtain more credible information. Keeping individual pairs separately in smaller enclosures will make it easier to assess what each pair is doing. This all assumes that you have the space, of course. Otherwise you could study a colony of individually rung birds, all of the same species, all in the one aviary and record pair interactions, dominance and breeding success. The hypothesis in this situation may read something like" within a colony of breeding X finches, breeding success is directly related to the social standing of the pair within the colony". So if one pair produces most of the youngsters bred over the year then this supports your hypothesis. If the breeding results are spread more evenly between pairs, then this refutes your hypothesis.
If you do any sort of breeding project then make sure you pick an easy to breed species, as suggested.

[spanna]

hey, another idea, mate selection and effect of colour intensity in emblemas...

i've long believed that my more red birds will through out more cocks than hens, and my more dull birds will throw out more hens than cocks... you could get maybe 8-10 unrelated birds with varying red/spotted intensity, throw them in the aviary, see which cocks partner up with which hens and note the breeding outcomes. i've wanted to do it myself for a while, but i'm sure a decent enough experiment could be made out of it
would even be happy to help with planning and writing if you'd like a bit of input... best thing is painteds aren't fussed by nest checks (within reason) so you can check reproduction throughout the process and check egg fertilities too...

[SamDavis]

Interesting hypothesis. I have a single pair of painteds (about three years old). Currently there are 7 of their young in my holding aviary - 6 hens and 1 cock. So far so good! Another 4 have just fledged.

Perhaps you could do a survey of AFF members. I'm sure many have a pair or two of painteds. Maybe everyone can send you a photo of the parents so you can classify them according to the amount of red.

[Redwing]

The painted topic sounds interesting and would be one that hasn't been researched before......and why wouldn't anyone not want an excuse to to be surrounded by lots of these little gems for a year. Besides as Spanna has said there seems to be a fair bit of anectodal evidence that intensity of male colour affects gender of offspring.

[Diane]

Happy to be involved if you decide to take this Emblema subject on.
Got parent pair (hen I bred myself)
son of above pair with larger red chest with new partner,
waiting on young from both pairs and any hens will be kept and paired to the the boys I have
(other 2 sons of parent pair and brother to the larger red chest and a cock bird from the same breeder as the new partner hen)
Happy to provide detailed pedigrees too.

[Nrg800]

That sounds like a great idea Spanna! I could probably keep about 6 pairs of Painted Finches, and if I could get data from other finch keepers here that should be a sample size of about 20 pairs (?). That should easily be enough! Whatever I do end up writing, I'll put it up on here for everyone to read if they want!