Prospective Students

Interested in pursuing a project with KFBRP? Don’t hesitate to contact us!
Some possible project topics include:

  • Bird movements outside of breeding season
  • Mosquito abundance and/or isotopes at different sites and elevations
  • Low elevation bird surveys, using song meters
  • Fruit seasonality
  • Rat distribution in time and space; and/or rat diet
  • Remote sensing of Puaiohi, ‘Akikiki and ‘Akeke’e habitat
  • Relationship between vegetation and bird abundance
  • Nest site selection

Current Graduate Students

Maria Costantini, Graduate Assistant

Maria@kauaiforestbirds.org, mariacos@hawaii.edu

Inspired by two field seasons spent falling in love with Kaua’i’s forest birds as a field assistant with KFBRP, Maria has shifted roles and is now a PhD student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is a member of Dr. Floyd Reed’s lab of the Zoology graduate program, whose focus has been on blocking avian malaria transmission to Hawaiian birds. For her own project, Maria plans to use molecular techniques to analyze ‘Akikiki and ‘Akeke’e (both insectivorous honeycreepers) fecal samples to determine diet as it relates to time and space. Ultimately, she hopes to better understand the role of diet and invertebrate abundance on occupancy rates. She will begin collecting data for her project in the field this spring followed immediately with lab work. Maria has already successfully acquired funding from the Hawaii Audubon Society and was awarded the 2017 Watson T. Yoshimoto fellowship.

Mosquito Sampling-Photo by Theo Black
Maria Costantini