Internships in the Field

Avery with a mouse in the field in Washington

The Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology Field Internship program offers the opportunity for students to learn the fundamentals of field biology. Field interns are paired with MWFB biologists and senior interns and learn hands-on at active project research sites. The methods employed will be dictated by the project’s research goals. Projects available for student interns vary annually by grant and project cycles. Interns can potentially learn a variety of vertebrate monitoring field methods, such as avian audio/visual surveys, live animal handling, mist-netting, songbird nest box monitoring, bird banding, small mammal trapping, camera trapping, bat surveys, herpetological surveys, and image and data processing. All interns will be trained on field safety. Internships are limited to University of California, Davis students.

If you are unable to commit to a formal internship, check out our Remora program below.

Putah Creek Nestbox Highway

Nestbox interns checking a field site

The Putah Creek Nestbox Highway offers students annual opportunities for field internships in the spring and summer. This program is a combined conservation, education, and research project for cavity-nesting songbirds. Along the creek, artificial nest boxes provide surrogate nesting habitat in a region largely devoid of trees and fraught with nonnative competitors and predators. To date, over 14,000 birds have fledged from the boxes—including Western Bluebird, Tree Swallow, House Wren, and Ash-throated Flycatcher—helping to recover songbird populations in the region. MWFB staff and trained interns monitor the boxes weekly throughout the breeding season, gathering data and banding nestlings, providing research opportunities and hands-on field experience for students. Some of our interns have become field team leaders in subsequent years and have gone on to graduate school or paid positions based on the experience and connections they gained working for the project. To learn more about the Putah Creek Nestbox Highway, click here or visit the program's blog.

Nestling Tree Swallows lined up to be banded

The weekly commitment for field interns depends on the project and project site. Nestbox interns are required commit a minimum of 3 hours per week for the Putah Creek Nestbox Program and 10 hours per week for the Bird Haven Nestbox Program. Some field sites are far away and may require full 8-hour days. The ability to intern on weekends may be required.

Other Field Opportunities

The Museum offers a variety of additional experiential learning field opportunities depending on grant and project cycles. Visit our California Research page for examples of recent and ongoing local work, or contact us for more information.

If you are interested in an internship, please contact us at mwfb@ucdavis.edu.

For internships in the Museum, click here.

The Lloyd W. Swift Endowment Fund

The Lloyd W. Swift Endowment focuses on supporting experiential learning opportunities. If you are an undergraduate student in the Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology major, you may apply for funding for an internship with the MWFB. Click here or contact us for more information.

Remora Program

This program was designed to afford interested students and graduating seniors the opportunity to see what museum science is all about before committing to a formal MWFB internship. As a Remora Intern, you will "attach" yourself to a host MWFB Staff or Student Intern and observe museum science in action. It gives you the opportunity to shadow your host for one or more visits, a minimum of two hours per visit. Space is limited in our labs and all Remora Intern visits are made by appointment only. There is a minimum of one two-hour visit and unlimited return visits, provided a host is available.

Activities for Remora Interns include accompanying an MWFB field biologist for avian surveys, bluebird nestbox monitoring, and/or chick banding. Questions can be asked by the Remora but no formal training is given. However, if your host is working on a task where they could use a couple of extra hands, you might be asked to assist as needed. If you are interested, you may return for multiple Remora visits. This has proven to be an excellent way to find students well-fitted to museum work. Remora Interns that successfully completed multiple visits will be first on the wait list of formal MWFB internships.