Above: Jennifer Lee, an eighth grader at the Two Rivers Middle Magnet school in East Hartford, presents her research on birds at Trinity’s Annual Science Symposium Poster Presentations. Jennifer was selected to present her work along with Trinity students, having been chosen for her standout research analyzing 10 years of bird banding data from Dr. Morrison’s field site at Two Rivers. Jennifer worked with Dr. Joan Morrison (pictured), Professor of Biology at Trinity, and a long-time ornithologist. Jennifer was most surprised to learn from her research that the diversity of birds in the urban Hartford area is quite high and not dominated by any one species, and that birds’ food of choice during the nesting season is, overwhelmingly, insects.
Morrison works with area students throughout the year on tagging birds and researching their behaviors and distributions. In addition to studying birds in Connecticut, Morrison has returned repeatedly to the MacArthur Ago-ecology Research Center in south-central Florida for over 20 years to continue her studies of the Crested Caracara, a unique falcon found year-round on Florida’s ranchlands and remnant prairies. Morrison’s research now uses GPS/GSM transmitters to study the caracara’s movements. Her plan is to use this technology to facilitate the next research phase for this federally- and state-threatened species, to understand breeding pair responses to habitat conversion. Click here for a short video about Professor Morrison’s research on the Crested Caracara.
