New Genetic Techniques Are Improving Our Understanding of Plumage Color
Few groups of organisms possess striking visual displays that rival the bright colors and intricate patterns of bird feathers.
Announcing the AOS Kessel Research Fellowship Program
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is honored to announce that we are accepting applications for the new Kessel Research Fellowship Program.
Ten Tips for Applying for Small Ornithology Grants
In the first two years of my PhD I applied for a slew of small grants and was roundly rejected from every single one. Multiple times.
Winter Experiences Carry Over into Swallows’ Breeding Success
There’s no shortage of studies demonstrating that conditions during one part of birds’ annual of breeding and migration cycle can affect individuals in subsequent stages — a phenomenon known as carry-over effects.
Do Prairie-Chickens Care More About Land Cover or Wind Turbine Noise?
Imagine living in a grassland landscape with an almost constant low-frequency hum from spinning wind turbine blades. The humming is distracting, so what do you do?
Songbirds Indicate Short-Term Restoration Success
To understand the impact of restoration efforts, one of the things we can do is study the wildlife that lives in these human-restored habitats.
A Vacation Like No Other
Back in the 1980s, one of my graduate students and I split the cost of an Ontario Lottery ticket. We knew that the chances of winning were vanishingly small (p<0.000001) but the jackpot had risen to $24 million—real money in those days. It was a cheap and fun investment that could really help my research …
Researchers Identify Previously Unknown Hybrid Zone Between Hummingbird Species
We usually think of a species as being reproductively isolated – that is, not mating with other species in the wild. Occasionally, however, closely related species do interbreed. New research just published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances documents the existence of a previously undiscovered hybrid zone along the coast of northern California and southern Oregon, …
The Threat of a Green-Headed Monster
Affectionately known to some as the “green-headed monster,” the Mallard is one of the world’s most recognizable species of waterfowl.
Chasing Evolutionary Processes in Andean Coeligena Hummingbirds
I am lucky that one of the species of hummingbird I study, the Blue-throated Starfrontlet (Coeligena helianthea), occurs on my university’s campus in the mountains of Bogotá, Colombia.