A recipient of a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) appointment from the Fralin Life Science Institute, Alex Garretson is stationed at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., where he can observe one of North America’s only captive Logger head shrike populations. Known as the ‘Butcher Bird’ because it skewers its prey on branches or barbed wire before eating it, these song bird populations have declined in the northeastern United States.
Read more about Garretson's SURF experience: Student researchers take a walk on the 'wild' side