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Hilary
Turner
Capital High School, Helena, Montana
NMNH Intern, 2003
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Ornithology NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, WASHINGTON, DC This poster presents the activities of a two week internship in the Division of Birds at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The internship consisted of training in museum-based ornithology and included learning how to prepare museum specimens and conducting research on birdstrike identification.
Preparing study
skins is important for studying all aspects of ornithology. For example,
we can study subspecific variation, feather identification, and taxonomy
from birds in the research collection. Artists also use the museum study
skins and flat skins for their field guide illustrations or portraits
of birds. Birds are accessioned into the collection by personal donation
from people who salvage dead birds found locally, and by scientific
collecting in the field for specific research projects. During the internship, I was trained in specimen preparation. Part of my internship included preparing an American Woodcock, a Clapper Rail and a European Starling.
Solving birdstrike
cases is an important part of applied museum work. When a few feathers
are recovered from a bird-aircraft collision and sent to the Smithsonian,
the species can usually be determined by matching feather fragments
to museum specimens or conducting microscopic examinations. When cases
are solved by species identification, airport habitats can be altered
to dissuade the birds from coming to the runway, and engines can be
designed to withstand the weights of birds that cause damage. This ultimately
improves aviation safety and protects the birds from danger.
Another important role of a museum collection is to store extinct species such as Passenger Pigeons, Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, and Carolina Parakeets.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A travel award for this internship was provided by The Montana Audubon Society. Thanks to the staff in Division of Birds, National Museum of Natural History, for support of this project; Mary Sangrey (Smithsonian) provided assistance through the Academic Resource Center. Thanks to my family and friends for financial support and helping me along the way. Thanks you to Smithsonian Photo Services for printing this poster.
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Museum
collections are useful to avian research in studies of systematics,
evolution, ecology and the conservation of birds. The collections at
the Smithsonian contain approximately 640,000 avian specimens making
this one of the world’s largest research collections. It has historical
importance as well as scientific and geographical diversity.
The
Smithsonian birdstrike experts identified approximately 1,885 military
birdstrikes in 2002. The average number of strikes per month is 157.
During spring and fall migration birdstrike cases can total more than
60 per week.
A
special thank you to Carla Dove and Marcy Heacker-Skeans (Division of
Birds) for teaching me about ornithology in lab!
