Position Title: Lead Bird Bander
Location: Northwestern New Mexico/Durango CO Start date: mid-March 2025
Supervisors: Dr. Jennifer Phillips, Dr. Jennifer Heppner Duration: 6 months
Salary Estimate: ~$20/hr at ~$2,400/month
Job Summary
The Phillips Lab at Washington State University is seeking a lead bird bander to contribute to a project investigating how anthropogenic noise and night lighting influence sexually selected traits, avian reproductive success and fledgling survival in 6 focal species (chipping sparrow, gray flycatcher, house finch, ash-throated flycatcher, mountain bluebird, and western bluebird). The successful applicant will help lead fieldwork at a long-term field site in New Mexico (late March-early August), where the closest large town is Durango, CO. The lead bander will coordinate their efforts and data with the PI, postdoctoral fellow, graduate students, and field assistants. The fieldwork will involve observations of birds to record songs, set up target mist nets, start playback, and extracting birds from mist nets in 3 minutes or less. After capture, the bander is expected to independently conduct banding and processing with standard measurements, including taking blood samples. Additionally, the lead bander will also be expected to assist with nest searching and monitoring, resighting birds, attaching radio transmitters, and manually tracking birds with moveable radio towers and handheld radiotelemetry units. Provided field housing is shared with a large crew, typically with 2 people per room. Work hours are typically 5 days a week, 8-12 hours per day (when including commute) and fluctuates based on weather, the life cycle of the birds, and age specific behavioral experiments, where May and June are the busiest times of data collection
Duties and Responsibilities
- Organize and lead field work, specifically in efficient capture of adult birds with mist nets
- Record bird song before or after capture
- Operate a sound level meter to measure ambient noise levels on territories
- Deploy and maintain off-grid solar power systems for radiotowers
- Find and monitor nests on banded bird territories
- Banding and measuring of adult birds (wing, mass, fat score, tarsus, bill length, bill depth, bill width)
- Obtaining blood and feather samples without harm to the bird
- Attach and remove radio transmitters
- Radio telemetry
- Mentor students and technicians as it relates to the project and communicate clearly with teammates
- Read and follow protocols
- Assist with experimental light assembly and disassembly
- Perform other duties as assigned
Position Requirements
- A strong record of independently setting up mist nets, extracting and banding adult birds
- Ability to identify passerine birds by sight and sound
- Strong computer and data management skills
- Excellent organizational skills
- Ability to prioritize, plan, organize, and meet timelines, including communicating banded territory locations to teammates the day they are found/banded
- Ability to establish and maintain cooperative and effective working relationship with others
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Desire to learn new skills and work in teams including students, researchers, and faculty
- Ability to move to field site region for 6 months during field seasons, including some camping in remote field sites. Provided field housing is shared with a large crew in typically with 2 people per room.
- Possession of a driver’s license and the ability to drive four-wheel drive vehicles off-road.
- A background check is required for all regular, benefited positions
- The following experience is desirable:
- Experience within sensory ecology and/or field-based acoustic research experience
- Strong analytical skills
- Experience working with people of different backgrounds, philosophies, and objectives
Physical Requirements
- Ability to exchange information in person or on the telephone
- Ability to operate a computer keyboard and calculator
- Ability to read a variety of materials including detailed protocols
- Sitting or standing for extended periods of time, often hiking up to 6 miles per day
- Physical agility to lift 50 pounds to shoulder height
- Physical agility to lift, carry, push, or pull objects
- Physical and psychological ability to withstand demanding fieldwork that includes:
- Early mornings and late nights (cold in early season and mornings and hot in late season)
- Fluctuating temperatures
- Biting insects
- Interactions with non-target wildlife (snakes, bears, mountain lions, unexpected humans)
Additional Requirements
For questions and to apply, send a CV that includes detailed banding stats (# of mistnet extractions, # banded or colorbanded, species or bird groups handled and banded, etc), letter of interest, contact information for three professional references to Jennifer Heppner at jennifer.heppner@wsu.edu. Applications will be read as they are received. If the bander is also interested in graduate school at WSU, there may be an option to turn the first summer of work into a Masters or PhD project related to daily movements and post-fledging survival under different sensory pollution conditions. Please indicate in the letter of interest if that is the case.
