Ep. 19: Bluebirders vs House Sparrows with Suzanne Hartley

Published: April 14, 2018, 1 p.m.

b'

We got the chance to sit down with Suzanne Hartley, a graduate student at North Carolina State University.\\xa0 Suzanne researches how to help Bluebirds in their surprisingly violent turf war with House Sparrows, and how we can use this war to learn about environmental toxins like pesticides or other chemicals.\\xa0 Bluebirds are a beautiful, native species in North America, but they are constantly harassed by House Sparrows, an invasive species from Europe.\\xa0 So listen in to learn about Bluebird defenders, called Bluebirders, and what they are doing change the balance.\\xa0\\xa0Read below to learn more about the study or even get involved.

About Suzanne

Suzanne is a masters student in Fisheries Wildlife and Conservation Biology at NC State. She currently manages Sparrow Swap, a citizen science project that tests different house sparrow management strategies and investigates the use of house sparrow eggs for mapping environmental contaminants. You can see the project in action behind the glass of the Biodiversity lab at NC Museum of Natural Sciences.


Suzanne\\u2019s Research Project Sparrow Swap

Connect with Sparrow Swap on Facebook and Twitter

More Information

Learn general bird information from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Find even more citizen science projects like Sparrow Swap on\\xa0SciStarter

NestWatch monitoring program has a database of bluebirds as well as other nesting bird species

Visit Sialis\\xa0website for another background on bluebirds

This episode was recorded at ComSciCon Triangle, the convention for science communicators in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.\\xa0 Special thanks to RTI international for hosting us!\\xa0 Follow ComSciCon on Twitter and check out this recently-published journal article\\xa0on science communication training penned by two (former and current)\\xa0committee\\xa0members.

Also listen to our other interviews from ComSciCon:

Ep. 20: Biomedical Engineering and Science Education with Stephanie Teeter

Ep. 21: Smart Textiles and Flexible Electronics with Ashish Kapoor

Ep. 24: Search and Destroy in HIV Therapy with Aaron Devanathan

\\xa0

Any other questions?\\xa0\\xa0Let us know!\\xa0 We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at\\xa0https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast.\\xa0 Many thanks to our past and present supporters!\\xa0

Thanks to\\xa0Plant Warrior\\xa0for their support.\\xa0 Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

'