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Research Overview

Interests: Ornithology, Conservation Biology, Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology, Life History Theory, Avian Responses to Urbanization and Climate-induced Environmental Change

 

    My research focuses on associations among parameters of fitness and variation of animal life histories, using birds as model species. More specifically, I'm interested in the causes and consequences of post-fledging survival of fledgling birds. Overall, however, my interests in avian ecology are relatively broad. I have more general interests in avian breeding ecology and conservation, and in avian responses to urbanization and climate-induced environmental change. My past and current research has examined variation in coloration and condition across and urban-to-rural gradient, how avian morphologies vary with urban-associated sensory pollution, prevalence and costs of blood parasites in small songbirds, host-brood parasite interactions, fledging behavior, functional ecology of juvenile wings, and pre- to post-fledging carryover effects (with a focus on life history evolution).

Research Projects

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Post-fledging Ecology of Songbirds
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Age and Diel Patterns of Fledging in Songbirds
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Avian Responses to Urbanization and Climate-induced Environmental Change

Collaborators

  • Dr. Michael Ward, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • Dr. T. J. Benson, Illinois Natural History Survey

  • Dr. Mark Hauber, City University of New York

  • Dr. Jennifer Phillips, Washington State University

  • Dr. Sara Kaiser, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

  • Dr. T. Scott Sillett, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

  • Dr. Michael Webster, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

  • Dr. Amanda Rodewald, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

  • Dr. Henry Pollock, Southern Plains Land Trust

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