Who we study:
Black-capped chickadee
Black-capped chickadees are one of the most familiar birds in North America. These non-migratory forest birds can be found visiting feeders and in backyards across much of the United States and Canada, extending from southern Pennsylvania all the way to Alaska. Their simple Fee-Bee song and scolding chick-a-dee-dee calls set the backdrop for many of our daily walks and outdoor activities.
Carolina chickadee
Carolina chickadees are the southern relative of the black-capped chickadee. Found in the south eastern United States, from Florida north to Pennsylvania, this greyer and smaller species is also a common and familiar backyard bird. Also non-migratory, you can see Carolina chickadees throughout the year in forests and backyards in the southeast.
Carolina chickadee photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren - Carolina Chickadee, CC BY 2.0,
What we study:
Black-capped and Carolina chickadees hybridize in a long and narrow zone of contact that extends from New Jersey to Kansas. Our research on this hybrid zone has used genomic and community science data to document the speed at which it is moving northwards and found that this movement is tightly linked to warming minimum winter temperatures. We鈥檙e continuing our work on this hybrid zone by investigating what causes hybrids between these two species to have poorer spatial cognition and problem solving abilities than either parent species (NSF IOS ) and by studying听the genomic basis of physiological adaptations and their breakdown in hybrid chickadees (NSF DEB ).
听
In the Press
Video Press Release of This Work
Listen听to Scott talk听about using eBird data to study avian hybridization听
Warming Temperatures Are Pushing Two Chickadee Species鈥擜nd Their Hybrids鈥擭orthward鈥�
On The Cusp of Climate Change
Warming temperatures are pushing Carolina and Black-capped Chickadees northward鈥�
Crossbreed chickadees chart climate march
Warming temperatures are pushing two chickadee species鈥攁nd their hybrids鈥攏orthward鈥�
Hybrid Chickadees Move North With Warmer Weather
Warming temperatures push chickadees northward鈥�
Publications
2020
Wagner DN, Curry RL, Chen N, Lovette IJ, Taylor SA. 2020. Genomic regions underlying metabolic and neuronal signaling pathways are temporally consistent outliers in a moving avian hybrid zone.听Evolution.听74:听1498-1513.
2017
McQuillan MA, Huynh AV,听Taylor SA, Rice听AM.听2017. Development of 10 novel SNP-RFLP markers for quick genotyping within the black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina (P. carolinensis) chickadee hybrid zone.听Conservation Genetic Resources听9: 261-264.听DOI 10.1007/s12686-016-0667-z
2014
Taylor SA, Curry RL, White TA, Ferretti V, Lovette IJ.听2014. Spatiotemporally consistent genomic signatures of reproductive isolation in a moving hybrid zone.听Evolution听68:听3066-3081.听 PDF
Taylor SA, White TA, Hochachka WM, Ferretti V, Curry RL, Lovette IJ.听2014. Climate Mediated Movement of an Avian Hybrid Zone.听Current Biology听24: 671-676.听 PDF
Associated Articles:听Harr B, Price T.听2014. Climate Change: A Hybrid Zone Moves North.听Current Biology听24: 230-232.听 PDF