HSBC employee Sara Davidson, who lives in Chippenham, will soon be swapping her desk in Newmarket to join Earthwatch scientists in studying birds of the Tanzanian forest.

Miss Davidson will help monitor rainforest bird populations to determine the impact of forest fragmentation in the Usambara Mountains.

Her expedition is part of an £11 million, five-year eco-partnership between HSBC and environmental charity, Earthwatch.

Miss Davidson will assist Tanzanian field assistants in putting up and removing any captured birds from mist nets; transporting them to the banding station; and helping band them, record data and release them.

She said: "I rarely win anything so to have been chosen to take part in such an amazing event has made me feel incredibly special."

In rotating shifts, she will also help radio-track birds, monitor the forest climate, and collect and sort fruit and insects to assess how human disturbance affects food biomass.

The data will be used to develop future conservation guidelines for the region.

She said: "I am absolutely thrilled to be able to participate in such a worthwhile project."

Miss Davidson is just one of 300 HSBC Environmental Fellows who will help work on a variety of conservation projects which will range from studying Australia's vanishing frogs to the blue swallows of South Africa in 2003.

Julian Laird, the acting chief executive of Earthwatch Europe, said: "In the first year of this project more than 200 HSBC employees have contributed nearly 200,000 hours of vital environmental research."

Guy Harvey Samuel, who is the area manager for HSBC in Newmarket, said: "This partnership has raised the level of awareness of environmental issues at all levels within in HSBC and has been an entirely beneficial experience."