Learn about how citizen science enables Bluebird conservation. We got the chance to sit down with Suzanne Hartley, a graduate student at North Carolina State University. Suzanne researches how to help Bluebirds in their surprisingly violent turf war with House Sparrows. Furthermore, she investigates how we can use this war to learn about environmental toxins like pesticides or other chemicals. Bluebirds are a beautiful, native species in North America. However, they are constantly harassed by House Sparrows, an invasive species from Europe. Citizen science is especially helpful in this research. Listen in to learn about Bluebird defenders, called Bluebirders, and what they are doing change the balance. Also read below to learn more about the study or even get involved with citizen science projects.
About Suzanne
Suzanne is a masters student in Fisheries Wildlife and Conservation Biology at NC State. In addition, she currently manages Sparrow Swap, a citizen science project that tests different house sparrow management strategies and investigates the use of house sparrow eggs for mapping environmental contaminants. You can see the project in action behind the glass of the Biodiversity lab at NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
Suzanne’s Citizen Science Research Project Sparrow Swap
Connect with Sparrow Swap on Facebook and Twitter
More information
Learn general bird information from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Also visit SciStarter to find even more citizen science projects like Sparrow Swap.
For even more information, the NestWatch monitoring program has a database of bluebirds as well as other nesting bird species.
Visit Sialis website for another background on bluebirds.
This episode was recorded at ComSciCon Triangle, the convention for science communicators in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Special thanks to RTI international for hosting us! Follow ComSciCon on Twitter and check out this recently-published journal article on science communication training penned by two (former and current) committee members.
Also listen to our other interviews from ComSciCon:
Ep. 20: Biomedical Engineering and Science Education with Stephanie Teeter
Ep. 21: Smart Textiles and Flexible Electronics with Ashish Kapoor
Ep. 24: Search and Destroy in HIV Therapy with Aaron Devanathan
