Cecily

=__BIRD SONGS__=
 * Why do birds sing?**
 * //Answer://** Because they're all hoping to be spotted by Simon Cowell
 * Ok ok, here's my real question...**
 * Question:** Do birds sing at the same time each morning? Do the songs come in the same order each morning?


 * My Hypothesis:** I believe that the same birds will sing at the same time each morning.


 * What I will need:** Recorder, Data chart, Pen, Clock.


 * Procedure:** Wake up around 6:00am and bring materials outside. Start recorder around 6:15am (that's the time that I've I found that the birds start to sing) write down when each bird chirps. Stop after I have at least five or six distinct bird calls writen down.


 * Dependent Variable:** The order of the songs.
 * Independent Variable:** Bird songs.


 * Results:** I observed the bird calls for four days (there was a laps of time inbetween) and found that they sang usually around the same time each morning. The sunrise, from what I can see, didn't have much effect on when they started to sing. One bird did sing before all the rest started to sing, a cardinal I believe. It sang at least one minute before all those that followed. The rest of the birds did not have a specific order.


 * Recording Date || Time of day and first bird call || Sunrise || Start of recording || Movie elapsed minutes of first bird call || Temp. ||
 * 11/17/10 || 6:26AM || 6:54AM || 6:20AM || 5:54 || 38F ||
 * 11/18/10 || 6:24AM || 6:55AM || 6:20AM || 5:15 || 36F ||
 * 12/2/10 || 6:15AM || 7:09AM || 6:03AM || 12:53 || 30F ||
 * 12/4/10 || 6:24AM || 7:10AM || 6:20AM || 4:03 || 33F ||


 * Discussion:** My Hypothesis was only party right. Only one bird had an order from what I have on my data. There was a laps of time in between days, so the cardinal call could just be a coincidence. I noticed that when the temprature droped by several degrees, that the birds actually started to sing early! (Which doesn't make sense to me because when it's cold one would think that the birds would stay nested until it warmed then begin singing.)


 * Resources:** No one bird's call is the same as another, even though it can appear as if this is the case when birds sing in unison. Some songs are longer and more complex and are associated with courtship and mating, while other calls tend to serve such functions as alarms or keeping members of a flock in contact. I decided to do this experiment because I thought that it would be a good idea to see if birds had a... regular routine. I think that if someone were to do this experiment again, that they would have to do it for at least a month, without lapses of time inbetween, to get accurate results.