The 20th annual Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

Bird Personalities: Variations in Boldness of Nesting House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon)
Poster Session-Science Complex Atrium, 4:00 PM

Ashley  Ozelski,   '09 82
   Major: Biology
   Hometown: Macomb, MI

Sponsor(s): Douglas White
Support: FURSCA- Jane Seymour Kilian, '39 Endowed Scholarship/Fellowship

Abstract: 
Animals can vary individually in their degree of boldness and shyness, here anthropomorphized as personality. Ultimately, scientists hypothesize that personality may affect reproductive output. I predicted that female House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon), common cavity-nesting birds, would differ in characteristic individual levels of boldness/shyness. I assessed personality by observing and video taping breeding females presented with a familiar object (leaf) and a novel object (checkered ribbon) on the nest box. Thirty-three different females with nestlings were tested and categorized by personality type in the Whitehouse Nature Center in summer 2008. The majority of females hesitated more frequently upon entering the nest box to feed their young when the novel object was added. Some females displayed aggressive behaviors such as scolding before entering the box in the presence of the novel object, and others would not enter the box at all. Personality may be determined by an interaction of heredity, experience, and environment. In a fluctuating tradeoff between risk, investment, and survivorship, bold birds may be superior at defending against intra- and inter-specific predators while shy birds may be superior at incubating and feeding young or in renesting.

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