More specifically, she is looking to put nest boxes in the yards of San Marcos homes for the black-crested titmouse.
Rylander is a doctoral candidate at Texas State University and has devoted the last few years of her life to studying the black-crested titmouse—a Texas and Northeastern Mexico bird characterized by a black tuft at the top of its head and by its song—and how it lives in both urban and rural environments.
Rylander is looking to expand her sample size of urban titmice and looking for San Marcos residents willing to keep a nest box in their yard for a few years.
"The more nest boxes I can put up, the higher likelihood of me having a higher sample I can study and try to come up with conclusions," she said.
Rylander said there is no maintenance involved for residents. She will install the nest boxes and clean them out once the birds have left, but she needs permission to go on the property to check on the birds weekly.
“[Residents] can be as involved as they want to,” she said.
How it works
Rylander first attaches the nest boxes—which she purchases through grants—to trees via screws.
If residents are not comfortable attaching the nest boxes with screws, Rylander said they can be attached using ratchet straps.
Currently, Rylander has set up nest boxes in the following urban locations (with permission from the respective entities):
- Texas State University
- Dunbar Park
- Children’s Park
- Rio Vista Park
- Crooks Park
Once the nest boxes are installed, Rylander waits for the titmouse to make a nest inside. When the birds have made a home, Rylander gives each bird a unique identification through a process called bird banding, which involves attaching colored bands to the bird's leg as a form of identification to track the bird's movements. Rylander is certified in banding the black-crested titmouse.
"You have a whole handle of colors so you can come up with thousands and thousands of combinations," she said. "You can tell exactly who it is, what nest box I banded that bird in, what year. It can tell us how far the bird has moved, if they’re still alive."
After birds are banded, Rylander checks on them weekly, following them for about 30 minutes and using a GPS tracker to log their movements.
Eventually, the birds fledge the nest, and Rylander cleans up the nest box to make room for a new bird to make its nest.
Family dynamics
Rylander said the titmouse's nesting season begins in March, and until then, they look for places to create their nests.
"Birds shop around just like people do," she said, laughing.
Since Rylander began studying the patterns of rural black-crested titmice in 2013, she has found that for the most part, the birds appear to be monogamous.
"They tend to pair up for life unless something happens to their mate," she said, adding titmice "tolerate" their relatives.
"They have what’s called high site fidelity. They tend to stick around year after year. These birds are residential; they don’t migrate," she said.
Typically, the oldest male sibling stays with his parents in the vicinity while the rest of the siblings disperse, Rylander said.
Right now, Rylander does not know where the siblings go when they leave the family nest, which is what she is trying to identify through her research.
Rylander has also found that urban birds tend to move around more than their rural counterparts.
"I'm not entirely sure why. I think it’s probably to find food, but I can’t prove that," she said.
A passion for ornithology
From her first undergraduate ornithology class at The University of Texas, Rylander was hooked on the study of birds.
"It's one of those moments where it just clicked, and I can't even explain why," she said. "It’s my thing."
Rylander received her bachelor's degree in ecology, evolution and behavior and went on to get her master's degree at Texas State, where she began her research on rural black-crested titmice, studying them inside the Freeman Center, a 3,500-acre Texas State-owned Hill Country habitat.
For her Ph.D., she has expanded her studies to urban titmice and hopes in three or four years she will have enough data to put together a dissertation.
"Unfortunately, I have no control over whether the birds use [the nest boxes] or not," she said.
Residents interested in allowing Rylander to install a nest box in their yard can contact her at [email protected].
