Source: WILD TV: "Wildlife in the City"
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
An Ornithologist’s Job
(Video)
National K -12 Subject:
Lesson Plans Using this Resource:
Jarrod Santora, professor at the College of Staten Island, is an ornithologist, a person who studies birds. In this segment from WILD TV, Jarrod describes his job. One of his responsibilities is to "band" or identify birds by putting a small bracelet around the birds’ legs. Jarrod gets up before sunrise and spreads nets along bushes to safely catch birds. To get birds to go into the net, sometimes he will call them with whistles and noises, such as a screeching owl noise. Once birds are caught in the nets, he can carefully free them and band their legs. For more about the study of birds see, "An Orinthologist’s Job".
Download and ShareThe following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for elementary or middle school students using this video in an English language arts or science lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame (ELA) Do you think it is important to be able to report the important facts or events of a story? Explain your answer.
Focus (ELA) What are the important facts of this story about Jarrod?
Follow Up (ELA) If you were a reporter writing a newspaper article about Jarrod, what important information would you want to include? Divide your answers into what is most important, somewhat important and least important. Explain your decisions. Do you think people who read the newspaper or watch the news on the television would want to hear all the facts or some of the facts? Support and discuss your answers.
Frame (SCI) What is an ornithologist? What does he or she do?
Focus (SCI) What are some of the responsibilities of ornithologist Jarrod Santora?
Follow Up (SCI) Discuss why people study birds. Is Jarrod’s job important to our ecology? Why or why not?
JARROD SANTORA (professor, college of staten island): My name is Jarrod Santora. I’m twenty-four years old and I study birds.
JARROD: I know that they’re up to something. I knew that they’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Since 1997 I’ve been banding birds out here.
JARROD: It’s kind of hard to get used to at first. We’re up at four o’clock, usually in the morning, and coming out to set up the nets before dawn, before the sun comes up, before the birds start getting active.
JARROD: Being quiet, listening to the birds that are giving calls around you, watching the sun come up…
JARROD: Birds fly into the nets, I take them out and I measure them. Just like I’d measure a carrot or something, I measure the birds. I get an idea of how big it is, you know, what color it is, what time of the year it is…
JARROD: Trying to get a bird to go into the net, I may use some sort of “Cpish” call. And there’s all types of like, you know, hand kissing that you do.
JARROD: You can do all of these squeak sounds that may bring them in or you can do… Sometimes you do a screech owl call like, (whistling).
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