Migratory songbirds can travel thousands of miles on their annual trek. Like elite athletes, they must fuel their bodies for the feat as well as contend with the fallout. Thanks to an NSF CAREER Award in 2000, Professor Scott McWilliams set out to study the science of migratory songbirds while revising required courses in the undergraduate program in Wildlife and Conservation Biology to be more inquiry-based and involve more active learning.

In the 25 years since the award, much of his work remains focused on two key themes from this original NSF-funded research. One was the nutritional ecology and physiology of migratory birds, and the other was phenotypic flexibility, or how animals flexibly respond to environmental differences or environmental change.

As they worked, McWilliams and his team developed a number of new, nondestructive techniques to study body composition in free, living migratory birds. They validated that connectivity of an animal could be used to estimate its body composition to measure fat and protein.

“There are a number of things we discovered in terms of our understanding of migratory birds. While studying the process of fattening in a variety of migratory birds, we also determined that fat quality, or its fatty acid composition, was very important in enabling migratory birds to make their long-distance flight.”

Professor Scott McWilliams, Department of Natural Resources Science

When birds migrate, they rarely go from point A to point B in one fell swoop, they must stop along the way often at favorite stopover points such as Block Island. While studying birds stopping over on Block Island, McWilliams and his team documented which foods were preferentially consumed, which were more nutritious, and which allowed migratory birds to fatten up most efficiently so they could continue their migration. They developed a guide for interested landowners that lists the various native fruits available to birds, which they prefer, and which have the best complement of nutrients for birds on migration.

“The guide is a nice example of how understanding the basic biology of an animal has applications to conservation,” McWilliams says. “Fruits happen to be a particularly important resource during fall migration, it’s a songbird superfood. People throughout the East Coast and elsewhere use our guide to determine which are the best fruits for migratory birds.”

But why is it important to study songbirds?

“They generally are considered the canaries in the coalmine,” McWilliams says. “If you are losing large numbers of migratory songbirds, there’s something going on with the environment that is not good at large; they are a very sensitive indicator of environmental health.”

“They generally are considered the canaries in the coalmine. If you are losing large numbers of migratory songbirds, there’s something going on with the environment that is not good at large; they are a very sensitive indicator of environmental health.”

Professor Scott McWilliams, Department of Natural Resources Science

Their work has now been applied to migratory bird conservation throughout the world.

Developing a new curriculum

The grant also funded the development of new curriculum in natural resources science at URI. When McWilliams first arrived, he was responsible for two undergraduate classes—wildlife ecology and wildlife field techniques— that were core required classes for Wildlife and Conservation Biology students. At that time, they were primarily lecture-based classes with little fieldwork.

“I considerably revised those two classes to make them more active learning and inquiry-based to train undergrads how to conduct field-based science and conservation. I also developed a new upper division class—physiological ecology of wild terrestrial vertebrates—which was directly related to the grant,” McWilliams explains.

He also developed ways for his research projects to involve undergraduates so they could make connections between coursework and actively doing scientific research. Over the years since the initial award, hundreds of URI, undergraduate and graduate students have benefited from being involved in this field- and lab-based research program. Participating students have gained a front seat in how science works, the excitement of new discoveries, and the underpinnings that drive successful conservation.

Award leads to rewarding career

McWilliams was the first URI professor to receive an NSF CAREER award, and he admits it was a big deal for his career.

“NSF awards are a highlight of anyone’s career in science,” he says. “If you can pull that off, then you feel like you’re heading in the right direction and doing cutting edge science.”

For McWilliams, that first CAREER award has led to 20-plus years of continued NSF funding, many invitations to be on NSF review panels and otherwise contribute to the scientific community at large, and the opportunity to train the next generation of scientists.