Available Alpine Resources for the Insectivorous Golden- crowned Kinglet Shelley Nagata -Winter Ecology, 2010 – Mountain Research Station, University of Colorado, Boulder EBIO 4100, Sec 570

Overview  Research & background topics about the Golden-crowned Kinglet  Investigate how Kinglet is able to survive through the cold weather  Procedure and Methods that were executed in order to answer this question  Results  Drawing conclusions

Research  Kinglets summer diet  Little information on winter diet  Difficulties faced among winter Bernd Heinrich and Ross Bell

Key Features of the Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa)  Identification Tips  Important behavioral aspects

What are the Kinglets eating??  Discover the possible resources available in alpine ecosystems.  Determine how well the resources are represented in the sampled area

Methods  Field Tools - Beat sheet - Sledge hammer -Aspirator  Communities 1 & 2 -10,100 ft -9,600 ft  Community constants -20 Trees at each site -Spruce Forests  Collect count data Bernd Heinrich and Ross Bell

Classifying - body shape -wings - legs

Segmented appendages

Results continued…  Diversity Index s Shannon-Wiener Index (H’) = -Σ (p i )(lnp i ) i=1 p i  proportion of individuals of species (i) in community  Chi-squared test X 2 = Σ (Observed-Expected) 2 / Expected

Community Diversities  Community 1: 10,100 ft H’= 0.21 More distributed environment Less Stable  Community 2: 9,600 ft H’ = 0.24 Greater abundance  compare the multiple dependent variables collected under different environments

Chi-squared Interpretation  Level 0.01 indicated a significant difference between the proportions of insects found in community 1 and community 2.  Distribution of observations differs among the two communities  Communities structured differently in regards to the different orders found in the communities

Drawing Conclusions  Freeze Avoidance -Cannot tolerate formation of ice in body tissues  Free Tolerance -Tolerate formation of ice within tissues -Evolving Orders  Winter foraging results in abundance  Evolving affects on foraging specialization

References  Bell, R. & Heinrich, B Winter Food of Small Insectivorous Bird, the Golden-Crowned Kinglet. Wilson Ornithological Society. The Wilson Bulletin 107(3):  i7480id.html