Jobs to fly for

Are you a recent graduate in ornithology, ecology or perhaps wildlife biology with an abiding interest in birds, or maybe an undergrad looking to pad that resume. Maybe you’re not a student at all just an avid birder with great ID skills and a passion for fieldwork. Or maybe you’ve finished graduate school and want to put that M.S. or Ph.D. to work. There are a couple of Web sites that can hook you up.

You can subscribe to the Birdjobs-L email list by emailing lyris@cornell.edu from the email address where you want to receive updates. Leave the subject line blank. Type in the following message: join Birdjobs-L “your name.” Your name is the name you want the list’s administrators to have and it must be in quotation marks, i.e. “John Doe”. The message must be in plain text.

You may also view openings by visiting the Ornithological Societies of North America (OSNA) Web site at http://osnabirds.org/on/ornjobs.htm.

Another way to see the Bird Jobs list is to go to http://www.birdingonthe.net/birdmail.html and scroll down to “World and Elsewhere” and click on Bird Jobs.

According to Cheryl Trine, editor of the Ornithological Newsletter, the Birdjobs-L e-list grew out of the Ornithological Positions and Opportunities job list published in the Ornithological Newsletter.

In an email Trine explained: “The newsletter was/is published on a bimonthly basis, so those submitting announcements needed to submit four months prior to the application deadline. Otherwise, potential applicants would not have time to get an application together and submitted. Many of the field assistant positions are paid from grant money and often the grant recipient doesn’t know whether he/she will be receiving the money until just before the field season, this meant there were a lot of positions that were not able to be advertised in the Ornithological Newsletter. Also, the number of announcements regarding ornithological positions started taking up more and more pages in the newsletter, and the cost of printing and mailing the newsletter was mounting. To solve both these problems, it was decided to move the Positions and Opportunities section of the Ornithological Newsletter to the Internet, and update it on a more frequent basis.”

Today the list boasts more than 3,000 subscribers and nearly 1,000 positions announced each year. Positions run the gamut from the search for temporary field assistants to professional positions in academia, government and privates sector. Job listings include jobs across the U.S. plus places like Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, Peru, United Kingdom, Brazil — almost anywhere and everywhere avian research is occurring.

Below are some excerpts from the latest page of Birdjobs that gives a taste of the diversity of listings:

FIELD ASSISTANTS (2–3) needed to study the ecology of the Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrow on their newly discovered winter range on the Inner Banx of North Carolina. Research will be directed by a PhD student and last from early January through early April 2009. $500/month stipend provided along with canal-side housing on Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge ...

CURATOR, BORROR LABORATORY OF BIOACOUSTICS: The Department of Evolution, Ecology, & Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University is accepting applications for the position of Curator in the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics (BLB, http://blb.biosci.ohio-state.edu), a research facility for the study of animal sound communication.

SEASONAL FIELD BIOLOGISTS (20) and CREW LEADERS (2) are needed for federally endangered golden-cheeked warbler (GCWA) and black-capped vireo (BCVI) surveys from early March through late June 2009. The surveys will lead to improved estimates of each species’ distribution, abundance, and habitat associations. Surveys will occur throughout their breeding ranges in central Texas on private and public properties.

HUMMINGBIRD BEHAVIOR FIELD INTERN (2 positions available) — The Little Hermit is a lek mating hummingbird of Venezuela and Trinidad known for the peculiar patterns of vocal variation among different regions ...

And, of course, the nature of the positions changes with the seasons. Spring and summer is a time for breeding bird surveys and nest studies while autumn will see postings for hawk watchers and winter will offer opportunities to study resident birds and/or follow migrants to their wintering grounds.

So if you’re a college student looking for seasonal work, a birding vagabond with time and a suitcase or a professional looking for that once in a lifetime position, Birdjobs is a great place to start.

Don Hendershot can be reached at ddihen1@bellsouth.net