In the summer of 2013, seven undergraduates from three universities spent two months in Australia studying one species: the Red-backed Fairywren. Their research questions covered a variety of aspects of the tiny bird’s life history and behavior. Here’s a short film about their experience doing field research.
Editor’s note: This wonderful video was produced in part by Shailee Shah (in photo above), who at the time of the video was a Cornell undergraduate. While some ornithologists go into research similar to the fairy-wren research in the video, some make a living off creating videos not too different from this one. Check out what things you like to do with birds and go for it!