Speaker: Jim Ferrari

Water is profoundly important for birds, not only for drinking, but also for feather maintenance. But surprisingly little is known about how often birds bathe or drink, and whether this varies with the seasons or the time of day. What is the social behavior of birds at water sources – do they avoid each other, or do they get along? And does the attraction of birds to water also mean that bird baths are focal points for deposition of seeds from fruits that birds have recently eaten? This presentation will describe the findings from a multi-year project in Georgia in which a game camera was used to monitor bird behavior and seed deposition to a water bath. It turns out that some amazing ecological interactions are happening every day at your backyard bird bath!

Jim Ferrari is a Professor and Chair of Biology at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, where he has taught Biology for more than 25 years. His Ph.D. is in Ecology from the University of Minnesota, and his undergraduate Biology degree is from Middlebury College, Vermont.

At Wesleyan, Jim teaches Ecology, Evolution, Conservation Biology, Field Biology, and related courses. He is an accomplished birder and is past-president of both the Ocmulgee Audubon Society (Macon, Georgia) and the Georgia Ornithological Society (GOS); in addition, he is the editor of The Oriole, the scientific journal of GOS. 

Jim has studied vultures, fruit-eating birds, seed dispersal by birds, nocturnal flight calls, and the song structure of Bachman’s Sparrows. His book on The Ecology of Fruit-Eating Birds in Georgia, with co-author Jerry Payne, was published by the Georgia Ornithological Society in 2009. Jim has a number of other scientific publications, including three species accounts in the Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia, and his nature essays have appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest.