Life of a Biologist
From the Field to the Lab
Cassandra Ziegler
Cassandra Ziegler
Tattoos are such an interesting topic of conversation. There are so many kinds of designs you see (and don’t see) on people. Many people get tattoos that remind them of their family, their beliefs, a significant moment in their lives, a favorite character from a movie or book, or something completely random with no significance other than they thought was really cool. I’m in the group that’s slowly accumulating nature-themed tattoos on myself. Of course, one of those includes an exceptionally large tattoo of a bird (naturally) on my right shoulder of an Eastern Whip-poor-will. Some of you may have heard of this bird, some may have heard its repetitive song that sounds exactly like its name, and some of you might have never heard of this bird. Let me introduce you! The Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus) is a nocturnal, ground-nesting bird that breeds in eastern and central North America. These birds are more often heard than seen due to the height of their activity occurring during the night. They have a tiny bill but a huge mouth that they use to catch insects, such as moths and beetles at night. An extremely interesting fact about these birds is that they rely on the moon and the lunar cycle. They use moonlight to help provide enough light for foraging through the night and they also lay their eggs in time with the lunar cycles so that the adults will be able to capture and provide plenty of food to feed the nestlings. They’ll only lay about 1-2 eggs in a nest that doesn’t even look like a nest (you can see a picture from last blog post about nests!) with dead leaves on the ground, located at the edge of a forested area for protection but also close enough to an open area that can allow moonlight through. Why such a simple nest? Their feathers are a mixture of browns and grays that allow them to camouflage with the leaves on the ground. It’s the perfect example of hidden in plain sight and working smarter and not harder, right?
Okay, so now you might be thinking that this sounds like an interesting bird, but why would I decide to get a large tattoo of it? When I was an young undergraduate, very new to field research and working on my undergraduate thesis, part of my focus was on this bird and it’s habitat. It is a near-threatened species experiencing population declines like many other birds. And like many other birds, loss of habitat is one of the problems. In 2010, I was researching if there is an overlap in habitat management styles between Golden-winged Warblers and Eastern Whip-poor-wills. While the primary focus was on the Golden-winged Warblers, our crew did some evening surveys for Eastern Whip-poor-wills to determine how many were present in the same areas and how many there were at the time. One day, when I was surveying for Golden-winged Warblers in our study area in Sproul State Forest in central PA, I flushed up one of these beautiful birds from it’s nest. Not only had I laid eyes on my first Whip-poor-will, but I had also located its nest with 2 speckled eggs. Over the next week or so, I returned to the same spot and was not only able to capture beautiful picture of this bird and how well it blended in with the ground, but I was also able to see the nestlings after they finally hatched into 2 litter orange (!!!!) fuzzballs. After that, I fell in love. Fast forward to 2013 when I had the tattoo done, and then fast forward to another year after that while working in Fort Morgan, AL during fall migration, we caught an Eastern Whip-poor-will so we HAD to take a picture of it next to my tattoo. And it is still my favorite of my (current) 4 tattoos to this day.
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AuthorBird Enthusiast and Graduate Student Archives
February 2024
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