<p>I'm going into sophomore year at high school and have started researching colleges and majors. I'm really into birds (I'm in the Audubon society) and so far I've only found once college with an actual undergraduate major in bird studies (besides Poultry Science) : the University of Georgia. Is that the only one?</p>
<p>As an undergrad, you can’t major in ornithology. Georgia is somewhat of an exception because its avian biology courses involve more than just poultry husbandry. The major also draws on related courses in other depts. Note, however, that the avian biology major at Georgia is housed in the poultry science dept.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to major in a biology, zoology, ecology & evolution, or wildlife biology/management department. You can supplement the courses in your dept. with relevant courses from an avian sciences/poultry science dept. Some avian science programs are found as a subspecialty within animal science depts. Wildlife courses and avian sciences courses typically are found at universities with colleges of agriculture and natural resources. So, you might want to focus your search on landgrant public universities. Don’t limit your search to such schools since many ornithologists teach at schools that do not have colleges of ag and natural resources. </p>
<p>You can check this list: [Wilson</a> Ornithological Society :: Guide to Graduate Programs](<a href=“http://www.wilsonsociety.org/pubs/studies.html]Wilson”>http://www.wilsonsociety.org/pubs/studies.html)
Even though the list refers to graduate programs, it will help identify which schools have faculty who teach in that field. Note, however, that the list hasn’t been updated since 2005.</p>
<p>At some schools, you might be able to create your own major that combines relevant bird courses from several different depts. I would recommend against just trying to take primarily bird-related courses. You still need courses in more general aspects of biology, e.g., ecology, evolution, genetics, ethology, etc. and maybe even vertebrate paleontology or entomology. You can always specialize more in graduate school and you might need a graduate degree anyway to give you the options to do what interests you professionally.</p>
<p>You’ll have to search around for depts that offer the subjects that interest you, so be flexible about the name of the dept. since these courses can be found in a number of different depts.</p>