The lab of Dr. Tim Greives is looking for two field technicians to assist in the upcoming field season for a research project conducted near Fargo, ND (Alice USFWS WPA). The research aims to assess potential biomarkers of trade-offs in migration and reproduction in red-winged blackbirds.
Dates: The field season with the Greives Lab will last from April 20 – July 17, 2020 (full-time position 1), and May 16 – June 30, 2020 (full-time position 2). Dates may be flexible with prior agreement with PI.
The position may be extended to August 30, 2020 to assist Dr. Page Klug with projects evaluating the feeding preferences of birds offered oilseed hemp relative to other crops known to suffer from blackbird depredation and damage and a project evaluating the behavioral response of birds to noise disturbance and unmanned aircraft systems.
Duties include: capturing and banding free-ranging birds, morphological measurements, blood sampling, and nest searching and monitoring; care and maintenance of captive birds, aviary feeding experiments, semi-natural experiments evaluating anti-predator responses, and field-based bird community monitoring in oilseed hemp plots.
Preferred qualifications:
• Willingness to work early in the mornings in sometimes inclement weather.
• Accurate data entry.
• Previous experience: 1) capturing and handling birds, 2) taking blood samples from songbirds, and 3) nest searching and monitoring are preferred but we accept applicants willing to learn these skills as well.
Salary: $10-12/hour contingent on experience
Last day to apply: February 23, 2020
How to apply: Enthusiastic applicants interested in potential trade-off between migration and reproduction research as well as interactions between birds and agriculture are encouraged to apply by sending a letter of interest, CV or resume, and contact information of three references in a single Word or pdf document to Esther Morales, with subject “Red-winged Blackbird Field Tech Position†to esther.moralesvega@ndsu.edu.