PROGRAM: Chris Whelan: Foraging for Food - How Do Birds Do It?

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Tuesday, January 28, 2025

How do birds, or any organisms for that matter, make their living? Every living thing need safety from enemies, and resources (food) to grow, sustain life, and reproduce. Given the extraordinary diversity of birds, how do birds exemplify an extraordinary diversity in feeding behavior -- how do they obtain food? This question is the domain of what ecologists call "Foraging Ecology". Every detective wanna-be is told to answer these questions: Who? When? Where? Why? and How? We'll look into answers to those questions with respect to bird Foraging Ecology, though not necessarily in that order. Foraging Ecology influences many aspects of bird life -- who lives where (habitat selection), with whom (community ecology), and ecological impacts (pest control). The 11,000 some species of birds exhibit fascinating examples of Foraging Ecology, so this review will have to be selective and, unfortunately (fortunately?), limited by the time available. We could go on for years....  On Zoom  7:30 pm.