Spring 2027

Birds of Southern Wisconsin

A lab-based course focused on identifying Southern Wisconsin birds by sight and sound, including two required Saturday field trips.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Anna Pidgeon

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.72 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=67 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.55 GPA, 76.6% A/AB (n=64 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.61 GPA, 74.1% A/AB (n=54 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify bird species found in Southern Wisconsin by sight and vocalization.

  • Compare and contrast habitat associations (e.g., wetlands, grasslands, oak woodlands, conifer forest, riparian zones) and some life history strategies (e.g., foraging guild, migratory guild) for the majority of species.

  • Explain and use bird monitoring techniques.

  • Assess and integrate primary scientific literature to evaluate a question about speciation or migration pattern changes or a mutually agreed on (with instructor) topic relevant to field observations of birds.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101 and 102,ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 152, (BIOCORE 381 and 382), or graduate/professional standing

F&WECOL/ZOOLOGY 521

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.72 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=67 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.55 GPA, 76.6% A/AB (n=64 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.61 GPA, 74.1% A/AB (n=54 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANNA PIDGEON is recorded teaching in Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 190
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 190
LAB 001Classroom Instruction0 / 190
LAB 002Classroom Instruction0 / 190
LAB 001Classroom Instruction0 / 190
LAB 002Classroom Instruction0 / 190
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 190
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 190

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.72 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=67 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.55 GPA, 76.6% A/AB (n=64 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.61 GPA, 74.1% A/AB (n=54 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Bird identification by sight and vocalization
  • Habitat associations including wetlands, grasslands, and forests
  • Bird monitoring techniques
  • Speciation and migration pattern changes

Skills

  • Bird species identification by sight and vocalization
  • Comparing habitat associations and life history strategies
  • Explaining and using bird monitoring techniques
  • Evaluating scientific questions through primary literature

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.10 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
F&WECOL/ZOOLOGY 521 · Spring 2027

Birds of Southern Wisconsin

Recorded 2026-10-14
F&WECOL/ZOOLOGY 521 · Spring 2027

Birds of Southern Wisconsin

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:396:019338",
    "course_id": "F&WECOL/ZOOLOGY 521",
    "course_uid": "course_e1f309d4b6509357364e9d67",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "019338",
    "source_subject_id": "396",
    "title": "Birds of Southern Wisconsin",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:970:019338",
    "course_id": "F&WECOL/ZOOLOGY 521",
    "course_uid": "course_e1f309d4b6509357364e9d67",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "019338",
    "source_subject_id": "970",
    "title": "Birds of Southern Wisconsin",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "982e8079b4fee80cf193ea324c3fdc85fc61a28ed1aadefb57187e45936b5d56",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}