SAMPLE PAPER TOPICS:
1- Compare the migrations of the blackbirds and orioles from Michigan: which kinds of icterines migrate further for the winter, where do they go? What ecological trends in feeding or other traits may account for these species differences?
2- How does song learning in indigo buntings relate to age and to social interactions with their parents and neighbors?
3- Why do pileated woodpeckers have a harder time remaining in one place over a period of generations than other Michigan woodpeckers? Is there any evidence that they disperse and migrate?
4- How different do blue-winged and golden-winged warblers have to be to be distinct species?
5- compare the arrival times of swallows and flycatchers in Michigan in spring migration. Which swallows and flycatchers are the earliest and the latest? What about their ecology explains these differences in migration time?
6- Why do female cardinals sing like males? Or do they?
7- What effects do brown-headed cowbirds have on host nests? On host populations?
8- Which songbird species in Michigan have song dialects? What common features do they have that differ from songbird species that don't have song dialects?
9- What advantages do large red-winged blackbirds have over small ones? Or do they have an advantage?
10- Which kinds of ducks over-winter in Michigan? Compare their feeding ecology to ducks that don't stay for the winter.
11- Do Michigan warblers that nest on the ground have a higher nest loss to predators than warblers that nest in the trees?
12- How long have Carolina wrens lived in Ann Arbor? Compare their populations at the margin of the range, why do the margins move from time to time?
13- Why are Florida scrub jays cooperative breeders but California scrub jays not?
14- Which Michigan birds copy the songs of other species? What good does it do them?
15- How do cedar waxwings make their "wax" feathers?
16- Compare the development of feathers in birds and scales in reptiles: what are the differences?
Some more topics, more evolutionary/behavior oriented:
1. Evolution of flight: cursorial vs. arboreal origins?
2. Are birds living dinosaurs?
3. Several Michigan birds are introduced birds, not native to Michigan. What determines the success of an introduced bird population?
4. How do birds learn their songs?
5. Has there been a loss of an adaptation in African Village Weavers?
6. Compare the consequences of species concepts in ornithology for population studies and conservation issues.
7. Elaborate on some mechanisms of mate choice in birds.
8. Describe the different metabolisms of flightless birds
9. Explore mechanisms of avian navigation
10. Evolution of lekking behavior
11. Colonial breeding and parent/offspring recognition
12. Is the level of parental investment related to level of assurance of parentage?
13. What the are the biomechanics/phylogenetic implications of walking vs. hopping?
14. What significance are Hesperornis and other missing links in fossil record?
15. What are some mechanisms of temperature regulation
16. Evolution of crops and gizzards
17. Cooperative breeding
18. Passerine evolution
19. DNA evidence used in avian systematics
20. Bathing, dusting and anting
21. Vocal dialects
22. That interesting bird egg.
23. Role of altruism in avian parental care.
24. Affects of the environment on acoustic propagation.
25. Territoriality: intra- and interspecific.
26. Nonvocal sound use by birds.
27. Hornbill biology and evolution.
28. Adaptations of owls (pellets, feather structure, ears, etc.)
29. Courtship displays
30. Why do birds rear young of a different species, the brood
parasites?