{"id":107204,"date":"2020-03-04T09:52:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T14:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=107204"},"modified":"2022-04-19T14:58:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T18:58:16","slug":"scientific-research-takes-flight-with-purple-martin-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/scientific-research-takes-flight-with-purple-martin-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientific Research Takes Flight With Purple Martin Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study exploring nesting preferences of North America\u2019s largest swallow is giving students hands-on experience in scientific methods.<\/p>\n

The Purple Martin Project, led by a Department of Biology<\/a> Research Scientist Anna Forsman, aims to attract the bird using strategically placed nests around UCF\u2019s main campus.<\/p>\n

Students from Forsman\u2019s biology courses and the Wild Symbioses Lab<\/a> worked diligently to place 12 poles around campus to host the birds. Each 14-foot pole holds between six and 18 plastic gourds that function as the actual nesting site, for a total of 144 gourds under study<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are very social creatures,\u201d says Forsman, a member of UCF\u2019s Genomics and Bioinformatics Cluster<\/a>. \u201cThey are colonial nesters, so it will be interesting to see if they prefer poles that have a higher density of gourds or lower. We can hypothesize that the more gourds on the pole, the more nesting we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are 12 poles paired at six different sites across campus. Some of the gourds are stuffed with pine straw, while others are empty. This will test the Martin\u2019s preference for pre-existing nesting material, along with the density of nests.<\/p>\n