AvianActs: Thermal Imaging

Thermal imaging is a powerful non-intrusive technique to study biological systems. Current research activities in this field include studying how birds and other vertebrates use thermoregulation to control body temperature.

We are using a FLIR camera to study how nesting birds manage their time on and away from the nest during incubation and while tending to young chicks, and to monitor insects in active and sleeping states.

Northern Mockingbirds' Nest
When the eggs are hatched, the chicks are naked with patches of down feathers and must be kept warm by the parent. At the same time the chicks need to be fed, forcing parents to leave the nest. On a cold, wet morning, this Northern Mockingbird's four otherwise healthy chicks froze to death as their body temperature dropped.

American Robins' Nest
Keeping eggs warm in the nest is challenging in early spring. The mother bird must manage her foraging time and return to the nest before the eggs cool down below a critical temperature. The chart indicates egg cooling rates in a nest with four eggs in the month of April, where Ts is the temperature of the surrounding nest.

Carpenter Bees stay at ambient temperature when sleeping and warm up when active. We found the thorax temperatures of different carpenter bees ~ 10 C higher than the ambient temperatures in the active state.
Read more on thermal regulation in carpenter bees
The chart shows a carpenter bee resting on a leaf