First, we learned how the database works from Carol Lushbough who works at the University of South Dakota.

The Second thing we did was go into the field to collect data. We met up with a biologist named Alyssa Kiesow who works for South Dakota's Game,Fish and Parks. Every Thursday we went out to a recreation area in Clay County Park and set up mist nets (Large nylon nets used to capture birds). We would check the nets every few minutes to see if we captured any birds. If we did capture any birds we would take measurments of their Wing, Tail, Tarsus, Bill (length, Width, Depth). We would also check its firculum and abdomen for fat and weight the bird. We did this about every Thursday for three weeks. On Tuesdays we added the information into a database we created.