My name is Rebekah (17) and I am studying the Western Scrub-Jay. The reason I chose to study these beautiful blue birds is because there are so many living in the trees around my house in Berkeley and I knew almost nothing about them. It's hard to get good observations because the jays are always hiding in the trees, but it's a real treat when they come out to forage. Because these birds are smart enough to fly away when humans come I observe them at a safe distance from my window at home. My experiment is testing two things: whether or not these jays like shiny things and whether they like sweetness. I put edible glitter on peanuts to test for preference of shiny things and cooked peanuts in sugar syrup to test for preference of sweet things. So far I don't think the birds have noticed the peanuts but I've moved them to a new location so we'll see.

My favorite food is definitely cereal and my activities/hobbies include drawing lots and lots of art and playing the piano and cello. I'm also a ridiculously huge fan of the baseball team the San Francisco Giants.