1. 19 September 2012
To whom it may concern,
This letter is to confirm that Margherita Bandini conducted a three-month field work
experience as a volunteer field assistant for our research project on the “Evolution of sociality
and cooperative breeding in birds” from March to June 2012 in Cordoba, southern Spain.
During this time, she participated actively in the field with nestbox monitoring, nest searching,
behavioural observations, experiments at the nest with camera recording and direct
observations, catching and banding birds. She also actively contributed to the data
management by collecting and entering data into an access database and monitoring cards.
This experience, in addition to being an intense work experience with long physical days in
the field and under hot weather conditions, was also an intense social experience since she
has been sharing a house with the other field assistants and me the whole field season.
Margherita has shown to have several qualities which made her a wonderful person to work
and live with. She has proven to be a well rounded person and motivated volunteer,
meticulous and organized. She has been a really good field assistant. Margherita has been
of great help with the data, having a really good sense of observation and patience which
made her work of good quality regarding experiments and behavioural observations. In
addition to the field work, she also has demonstrated a great interest in the theoretical
background of the project and provided some pertinent comments that helped to improve
some aspects of an experiment.
Based on this great work, as well as social, experience with Margherita, I would recommend
her without any hesitation.
Emeline Mourocq
Emeline Mourocq
Institute for Ecology and Evolution
University of Bern