Data Analysis and Graphing activity

tern Australian Wheatbelt Bird Survey

In this STEM activity you will be evaluating real data collected every week for over 30 years. The Wheatbelt Bird
Survey recorded every species of bird sighted at the ‘Koobabbie’ property in Western Australia between 1897 and
2016. A large proportion of the property retains native vegetation, making it a valuable location for tracking native
birdlife sightings.

The observations made were an indication of the diversity of the species, but they also provide us with quantitative data
across different seasons and years.

Your task is to understand the dataset collected from ‘Koobabbie’ and the trends associated with it.
 Table 1 contains a subset of data from this study. A list of 15 bird species are listed and the number of times
they were sighted during each month for one year of the observation.

Task One. Determining the perimeter of the property.

The ‘Koobabbie’ property has a total area of 7,173 hectares. The bush area where the birds were observed was 492
hectares.

a. If the bush area was 492 hectares and the width was 82 hectares. What was the length (assuming the
observation area is a rectangle)? Include your working out.

492 / 82 = 6 hectares

b. What is the perimeter of the observation area? Draw the rectangle and show your working out.

82 Hectares
6 Hectares 6 Hectares
82 Hectares

82 x 2 + 6 x 2 = 164 + 12 = 176 hectares

Task Two. Identifying trends in the data.

Review Table 1, the bird appearances by month, and describe any patterns you observe.

On average, the number of bird appearances seem to increase throughout the months of Spring. Additionally, some
bird species either do not appear or appear rarely in certain months but appear very frequently in others (such as the
Carnaby’s Cockatoo). Finally, some species decrease throughout the months of Spring, contrary to what is
common.
Table One. Selected subset of data from the Wheatbelt Bird Survey.

January February March April May June July August September October November December

Emu 28 22 32 34 43 42 50 53 43 40 23 31

White-faced Heron 14 14 10 16 32 16 33 51 51 52 36 21

Grey Teal 53 48 40 44 50 46 61 70 68 63 42 60

Australian Wood Duck 77 73 71 86 103 110 113 110 114 106 85 79

Black-shouldered Kite 20 18 19 21 31 37 40 25 27 19 13 21

Wedge-tailed Eagle 94 91 90 97 106 88 79 65 70 57 68 85

Falcon 13 9 11 9 18 25 8 27 24 33 32 21

Nankeen Kestrel 96 73 69 76 92 86 79 101 115 108 113 117

Stubble Quail 56 46 42 45 47 33 27 39 59 47 78 62

Banded Lapwing 27 38 61 69 97 99 94 75 65 42 25 20

Black-winged Stilt 14 13 8 11 7 8 4 14 18 8 3 6

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo 102 106 113 115 116 116 108 103 99 95 92 99

Carnaby's Cockatoo 98 40 8 0 0 0 35 113 120 116 118 113

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo 97 100 106 111 115 119 113 118 120 115 117 113

Australian Magpie 116 116 116 116 120 120 117 118 120 116 119 118
 Task Three. Averaging the data

 Copy the monthly data table into Microsoft Excel. Determine the averages of all birds for each month. What
does this indicate about the seasonal impact on the birds at ‘Koobabbie’ property?

January February March April May June July August Septembe October November December
r
60.3333 53.8 53.96667 56.66667 65.13333 63 64.06667 72.13333 74.2 67.8 64.26667 64.4
3

The average number of bird appearances increase at Spring time, this is likely due to Spring being breeding season. Additionally, there
availability throughout Spring, causing the number of bird appearances to increase.

Task Four. Graphing the data

a. What kinds of graph can you use to represent this data? Remember the data has been taken over time!
Line Graph or Bar Chart
b. Graph the data for each individual bird over the twelve months (from the table) in Microsoft Excel.

Emu
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White-faced Heron
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 Grey Teal
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Australian Wood Duck

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Black-shouldered Kite
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 Wedge-tailed Eagle
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Falcon
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Nankeen Kestrel
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 Stubble Quail
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Banded Lapwing
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Black-winged Stilt
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 Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo
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Carnaby's Cockatoo
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Major Mitchell's Cockatoo

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 Australian Magpie
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c. Identify any outliers.

- The Australian Magpie didn’t seem to increase during Spring.
- The Banded Lapwing seemed to increase at the beginning of winter time, contrary to the other birds.
- The Carnaby’s Cockatoo was not seen through the months of April, June and July but seen lots through most of the other
months.

d. Identify trends or patterns from the graphs and describe them below.
- Most birds increased in appearances through Spring.
- Although most peaked during Spring, numerous birds also increased in appearances during January and December.
- Some birds decreased during the months of Spring; this may be due to there being an increase in other predators that have the
possibility of harming them.