Fede'sBirdTasteExperiment.

This is my (Fede’s) bird project, I’m going to create a experiment that will demonstrate/prove or disprove a hypothesis I choose.

I want to know if birds are affected by sugar or spice, I want to see to what extent they can taste.
 * Question **

Research on my topic: 1) It seems that birds don't have as many taste buds as humans, who usually have around 9000, which Birds only have around 400. Chickens and Pigeons can have less than 100. However, they can feel their food more then humans.
 * Research Summary **

2) Birds tend to also have taste buds on the roof of their "mouths" unlike humans who have them on the base of their mouths.

I think Birds will like sweet seeds more then normal seeds, and will eat more of then in comparison with normal, non-sweetened seeds.
 * Hypothesis **

I will set up 2 feeders, 1) Control Feeder 3) Feeder with sweet sugar in it.
 * Methods and Materials **

I made Sugar Syrup by combining 3 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar. I boiled it until the sugar melted. Next, I combined it with the seed. It made a nasty kind of soup, so I drained out the water and the seeds were sticky, so I added much more sugar and a drop of water until I was sure it was sugarcoated. Then, I put the seeds back into the feeders and weighed the feeders and put them back up.

My independent variable is the sweet seeds; my dependent variable is how many seeds are eaten out of the sweet seed feeder. My control variable is the normal seeds, which I will compare with my results I find from the sweet seeds.

Pictures of your experiment or materials

My experiment didn’t go very well. My results seemed positive at first and then they seemed to have been affected by something not part of the experiment, and so it didn’t work. After I set out all the feeders, I measured them, and again the next day. The Wednesday of that week I did not get to measure the feeder, but on Thursday when I checked, the control seed had gone down much more then it had had in the days before. The amount it had gone down by was more the double from the first day to the second, so it wasn’t because of the time gap. It seems I came to a null hypothesis, although in the first few days, the birds seemed to love the sweet seed. Also, I noticed that the sweet seeds ended up being very sticky and I was thinking that this too might have been a factor in the experiment; it may have been very hard for the birds to get to the seed.
 * Discussion **

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1857/are-birds-immune-to-hot-pepper-enabling-them-to-eat-vast-amounts-and-spread-the-seeds A staff report by the straight dope science advisory board.
 * Bibliography **

http://www.birdsandblooms.com/Birds/Summer/Can-Birds-Smell-or-Taste By George Harrison(no, not the Beatle), Contributing Editor.