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Wildlife and Fisheries Branch, Manitoba Sustainable Development, 3 Discover Owls ABSTRACT. Citizen science is gaining popularity as a means for all persons to participate in and contribute to scientific projects, and can increase our understanding of avian conservation and ecology by facilitating the collection of more data. Understanding the type of person who participates in citizen science projects, including their motivations, behaviors, and gains, allows researchers to better recruit and retain participants and to design enjoyable and educational projects with direct and indirect benefits to conservation and science. We surveyed participants of the Manitoba Nocturnal Owl Survey, an ongoing 25-year-old citizen science project, to evaluate how and why people participated and to determine their relationship with science and ecology. The interpersonal dimensions of surveying was important at all stages of participation, affecting recruitment, participation, and reasons for leaving. Being in nature and encountering wildlife was often cited as the most important aspect of the actual surveying experience, though many respondents also reported they enjoyed experiencing nature socially. Educational opportunity was rarely cited as a motivation, although gaining knowledge was the most common reported benefit. Respondents were highly educated, and concerned about a variety of environmental and conservation issues. The majority of respondents had participated in multiple citizen science projects. Marketing citizen science projects as social learning opportunities embedded in nature may help attract and retain more volunteers, ensuring long-term sustainability of programs while engaging new participants in activities that increase their ecological knowledge and awareness. Qui imite les hiboux? Motivations et attitudes scientifiques des participants manitobains aux inventaires de hiboux RÉSUMÉ. La science citoyenne gagne en popularité en raison du fait que tous peuvent participer et contribuer à des programmes scientifiques, et qu'elle peut améliorer notre compréhension de la conservation et de l'écologie des oiseaux en facilitant la collecte de plus de données. La capacité de cerner le type de personne qui participe aux programmes scientifiques citoyens, dont sa motivation, ses comportements et ce qu'elle en retire, permet aux chercheurs de mieux recruter et retenir les participants et de concevoir des projets intéressants et éducatifs présentant des bénéfices directs et indirects pour la conservation et la science. Nous avons sondé les participants à l'inventaire des hiboux nocturnes du Manitoba, un programme de science citoyenne mis en place il y a 25 ans, pour évaluer de quelle façon et pourquoi les personnes ont participé et pour déterminer leurs relations avec la science et l'écologie. Les dimensions interpersonnelles de l'acte d'inventaire étaient importantes à tous les stades de participation, tant le recrutement, la participation que les raisons d'un abandon. Le fait d'être dans la nature et de voir des animaux ét...

The behavior of adults and young at the time of fledging is one of the least understood aspects of the breeding ecology of birds. Current hypotheses propose that fledging occurs either as a result of parent‐offspring conflict or nestling choice. We used video recordings to monitor the behavior of nestling and adult grassland songbirds at the time of fledging. We observed 525 nestlings from 166 nests of 15 bird species nesting in grasslands of Alberta, Canada, and Wisconsin, USA. Overall, 78% of nestlings used terrestrial locomotion for fledging and 22% used wing‐assisted locomotion. Species varied in propensity for using wing‐assisted locomotion when fledging, with nestling Grasshopper Sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum) and Henslow's Sparrows (Centronyx henslowii) often doing so (47% of fledgings) and nestling Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia), Common Yellowthroats (Geothlypis trichas), and Chestnut‐collared Longspurs (Calcarius ornatus) rarely doing so (3.5% of fledgings). For 390 fledging events at 127 nests, camera placement allowed adults near nests to be observed. Of these, most young fledged (81.5%) when no adult was present at nests. Of 72 fledging events that occurred when an adult was either at or approaching a nest, 49 (68.1%) involved feeding. Of those 49 fledgings, 30 (62.1%) occurred when one or more nestlings jumped or ran from nests to be fed as an adult approached nests. The low probability of nestlings fledging while an adult was at nests, and the tendency of young to jump or run from nests when adults did approach nests with food minimize opportunities for parents to withhold food to motivate nestlings to fledge. These results suggest that the nestling choice hypothesis best explains fledging by nestlings of ground‐nesting grassland songbirds, and fledging results in families shifting from being place‐based to being mobile and spatially dispersed.

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