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Girl Scouts visits the Schubot Aviary

On November 20th, the Schubot Aviary received a visit from College Station’s Girl Scout Troop 9132. The visit was part of the troop’s community service activities in order to achieve the status of “super troop”.


The Schubot team provided a one-hour visit to the aviary facilities as part of its commitment to educate our local community on avian-related topics and inspire younger generations to pursue careers in wild bird health and research. Aviary manager, Debra Turner along with aviary caretakers showed the girls the different areas and laboratories and also shared information about the current studies done with the different psittacine collections housed at the aviary. At the end of the visit, Ph.D. student Meredith Anderson shared with the girls her experiences doing avian field work, including bird banding and mist netting, along with tips on how to study birds in the wild.

The Girl Scouts from troop 9132 visited the Schubot Aviary and learned about different aspects of wild bird research. Left: Observing the “Bird eggs collection” table. Center: Observing the Quaker parrot collection. Right: Learning about bird banding from PhD Student Meredith Anderson


As part of the visit, the troop was in charge of making “parrot enrichment materials” (A.K.A. parrot toys) to place in the different parrot enclosures. These toys stimulate and entertain the birds which help them to avoid destructive behaviors such as screaming and feather plucking. Enrichment materials are very important for the well-being of the birds and the girls took their job very seriously.

Girls Scouts from Troop 9132 working on building parrot enrichment materials (toys) for the parrots from the Schubot Aviary


Thanks to the scouts for their help and to the Schubot Aviary team for taking the time to teach youth about avian research.


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