RESEARCH COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITY FOR BANDERS

[Melanie Colón]

The Cameron Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign welcomes partnerships with bird banders and ornithologists across the United States for the 2014 banding season. Collaborators will opportu­nistically collect avian excreta during routine banding. Samples will be shipped to the U of I to be screened for evidence of bumble bee predation. Goals of the study include identifying bird species that are major bumble bee predators and to shed light on the importance of these declining insect populations on the available forage for these birds. Banders/stations will be acknowledged in all resulting publica­tions. Supplies and shipping expenses are provided. Interested parties should contact JOHN MADDUX (EM: maddux2@illinois.edu) for more information or to register for a collection kit.