The AOS Council is pleased to announce a new annual publication prize, the Wesley Lanyon Award. This new award will recognize the early-career ornithologist who authors the best synthesis/review paper on avian science to be published as an open-access article in either AOS journal (The Auk or The Condor). Members of AOS who are within or up to …
The William Brewster Memorial Award goes to the author or coauthors of an exceptional body of work on birds of the Western Hemisphere. Established in 1921, the award consists of a medal and an honorarium and is in honor of William Brewster, one of the founding members of the American Ornithologists’ Union. For the first time this year, AOS is awarding two separate Brewster Awards, one to Dr. Helen James and one to Dr. Craig Benkman.
We are excited to announce the winners of the recent AOS Council election! The Council is AOS’s governing body, made up of members who volunteer their time to oversee the Society’s strategic direction, policies, budget, and organizational planning. The four new Elective Councilors (below) will be joining eight Elective Councilors and four officers (President, President-Elect, …
About 25 years ago, I started a research position at the Instituto de Ecología AC in Veracruz, Mexico. During my first explorations of the cloud forest there, I heard the marvelous sound that eventually became a key part of my work and that of my assistant Clementina González.
The Elliott Coues Award recognizes outstanding and innovative contributions to ornithological research, regardless of the geographic location of the work. The American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) established this award in honor of Elliott Coues, a pioneering ornithologist of the western United States and a founding member of the AOU. The award consists of a medal and an honorarium provided through the society’s Elliott Coues Achievement Award Fund. The 2018 Elliott Coues Award goes to Dr. Linda Whittingham and Dr. Peter Dunn.
The Ralph W. Schreiber Conservation Award, established in 2005, recognizes extraordinary scientific contributions to the conservation, restoration, or preservation of birds and/or their habitats by an individual or small team. The award honors Ralph Schreiber, a prominent figure in the American Ornithologists’ Union known for his enthusiasm, energy, and dedication to research and conservation. The award consists of a framed certificate and an honorarium provided by the society’s endowed Ralph W. Schreiber Fund. This year, the Schreiber Award goes to Dr. José Maria Cardoso da Silva.
In the fall of 1973, shortly after starting my PhD at McGill University, I decided that I wanted to study a community of hummingbirds in western Mexico. During his own PhD research, my supervisor (major professor), Peter Grant, had discovered an apparent case of character displacement in the bill lengths of two hummingbird species on …
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) Loye and Alden Miller Research Award is given for lifetime achievement in ornithological research. Loye Holmes Miller and his son, Alden, left a remarkable legacy to the field of ornithology and to the Cooper Ornithological Society (COS). Together they sponsored 30 Ph.D. students, 28 in avian biology, and their students went on to train in turn a total of 166 scientists. Alden also made contributions to the COS and to ornithology as a long-standing editor of The Condor. This year, AOS is pleased to honor A. Townsend Peterson as the recipient of the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award.
As many marshes along the Gulf Coast were drained in the late 1970s, Snow Geese that had used them as wintering areas began shifting to agricultural land instead. Leftover crops in farm fields provided them with a generous new winter and spring diet, and the population began growing at an unprecedented rate. While they have ample habitat in the south, the growing number of geese, coupled with their destructive foraging behaviors, has led to increasing and widespread habitat destruction in the Arctic coastal habitats where they breed.
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is pleased to announce Dr. Karan Odom, Dr. Kyle Horton, and Dr. David Toews as the 2019 recipients of the society’s Early Professional Awards, the James G. Cooper Early Professional Award and the Ned K. Johnson Early Investigator Award.
