Erica

**Breakfast or Dinner?**

**Question:** Do birds prefer to feed in the morning or the early evening?

**Background Information**: Birds are usually actively feeding and foraging in the morning, right after the sun rises, when the air is just beginning to warm up and in the evening as the sun sets and the night becomes dark, they have one last snack before they sleep for the night.

**Hypothesis:** Based on my background information, I predict that most birds will feed in both the morning and the evening. I believe that like humans, birds have routines and that many types of birds eat breakfast and dinner. I think the number of birds that feed in the morning and in the evening will be roughly the same.

**Variables:**
 *  Independent Variable: The time of day.
 *  Dependent Variable: The number of birds at the feeder
 *  Control: The location of the bird feeder and the type of seed will remain constant

**Materials:**
 *  One Bird Feeder
 *  Birdseed

**Procedure:** I hung my bird feeder first from a tree in my backyard. One day afterwards, squirrels knocked my feeder down and I had to choose a new spot that was harder for them to reach. I hung my feeder from a hook on my house that is about 9 feet off the ground. I observed my feeder from 7:30-8:00 am and from 5:30-6:00 pm. I did this for 7 days and refilled my feeder each night after 6:00.

**Observations:** During the first day that I observed my feeder, about 10-15 birds came at the time I was watching. After the squirrels knocked my feeder out of the tree and I switched the location of the feeder, I noticed a considerable decrease in the amount of birds that visited each day. There were only about 3 or 4 **types** of birds that came to my feeder. A black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, and carolina wren.

**Results:** Tables, Graphs, Charts, Maps, Photos, Diagrams
 * || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> Number of birds from 7:30-8:00 am || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> Number of birds from 5:30-6:00 pm  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 18 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 7 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 5  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 19 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 4 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 5  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 20 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 9 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 3  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 21 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 3 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 4  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 22 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 5 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 5  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 23 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 6 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 7  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 24 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 4 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 4  ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">October 25 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 4 || <span style="display: block; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> 5  ||

<span style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Baskerville; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">**Discussion:** <span style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Baskerville; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Overall, I am pretty pleased with my experiment and the outcome. Everything worked really well and I learned a lot that I didn't know before. One thing that I might try if I did this experiment again, would be observing my feeder three times a day instead of just two. I only observed it from 7:30-8:00 in the morning and from 5:30-6:00 in the evening. I think that adding a time around midday might give me an even clearer picture on the times that birds feed. I also would observe my feeder for a longer time. I only watched it for 30 minutes and it might have changed the results if I had monitored my feeder for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. I think something else that I could have changed was the location of the feeder. I think that maybe if the feeder were to be in the woods there might be more birds that visited and it might change the outcome. Another thing I would change if I were to redo this experiment would be to conduct it for a longer amount of time. I only watched my feeder for 7 days and I would've liked to get more information by watching it for more days than I did.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Baskerville; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">**Conclusion:** <span style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Baskerville; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">My hypothesis was supported in that birds feed in both the morning as well as the evening. Observing from 7:30-8:00 in the morning and 5:30-6:00 in the evening, I discovered that the amount of birds at the feeder during each time period is relatively the same.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Baskerville; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">**Bibliography:**

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Frequently Asked Questions." //C&S Products Company, Inc.// N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Audubon At Home." //Audubon At Home//. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"When to Go Birding." //About.com Birding / Wild Birds//. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.