Since the late 1980s, we’ve known of an abrupt transition in Marsh Wren singing styles across the Great Plains of the United States. To the west of the transition zone, songs are harsh, grating, and highly variable, with each male having a large repertoire of up to 150 different songs. To the east, songs are semi-musical and far more homogeneous, and males learn only about 50 different songs.
It’s a morning many birders dream of: You wake up, make your morning coffee, and settle in to read the eBird rare bird alerts that rolled into your inbox as you slept. Suddenly, you see something that makes your heart race—a rare bird you’ve never seen before was sighted in your area!
The irony of writing a story about 45-kilogram cassowaries—with forelimbs as small as those of chickens—for a blog called Wing Beat is not lost upon me. My coauthors and I are particularly excited to publish a paper for Ornithology about these flightless birds, as it seems most of the researched avian species in this journal are no larger than a mango.
Nominations & Applications due for AOS-sponsored Student Memberships.
Applications due for 2026 Kessel Fellowships for Ornithological Research
Latin American/Caribbean Conservation Research Grant Preparation Workshop
1:00 p.m. ET on Zoom https://uwyo.zoom.us/j/8561711233
Applications due for Latin American/Caribbean Conservation Research Grants
AOS 2026 Annual Meeting: Hope Is the Thing with Feathers in Amherst, Massachusetts
“Over the past few years, the AOS has become my primary scientific society and it has played a big role in my professional growth by providing me with a lot of skills as well as a forum to make meaningful contributions.”
