Undergraduate Carolyn Sedgwick records data after placing a transponder on a chickadee at the Cornell Lab.

There is no such thing as a typical course of study at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. An undergraduate can cover the gamut, analyzing DNA, putting transponders on local birds and tracking their movements, studying seabirds and declining songbirds, and writing for the Lab’s website.

A Black-capped Chickadee wearing USFWS band, color band, and transponder

This issue of BirdScope celebrates the work of Lab students of all kinds. Carolyn Sedgwick, for example, is investigating the relationship between gender and supplemental feeding rates in Black-capped Chickadees. Next year she’ll analyze the DNA of feathers to determine the sex of each chickadee she’s banded. Last summer she took a field ornithology class with the Lab’s David Bonter at Shoals Marine Laboratory and worked on a seabird conservation internship. She also wrote species accounts for our All About Birds website. This summer she migrated to West Virginia to do field work on Golden-winged Warblers. Every student’s varied experiences at the Lab serve them and a wide variety of birds well in the coming years.