ChickadeeNews

Scott discussed the Boulder Chickadee Study on How on Earth!

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:28:04 +0000

Scott discussed the Boulder Chickadee Study on How on Earth! Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/01/2024 - 18:28

Scott recently discussed the Boulder Chickadee Study with Host Susan Moran from How on Earth, the KGNU Science Show. Listen here!

https://howonearthradio.org/archives/9639

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The 2024 summer field season comes to a close

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 00:45:43 +0000

The 2024 summer field season comes to a close Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 07/14/2024 - 18:45

Last week marked the final nestling banding of the 2024 Boulder Chickadee Study field season wrapping the 6th year of the study. The team of Will, Sara, Olivia, Ajay, Nikki, Blake, and Sage counted 464 eggs, banded 431 nestlings, and 98 new adults. 32 birds previously banded here in Boulder County were recaptured (with some getting new color bands this season) for a total 561 chickadees handled during the season. Nikki also monitored multiple chickadee nests with nest cams and the data from those will be examined during the fall semester.

The completion of the 6th year of the Boulder Chickadee Study makes it eligible for long-term study funding from the National Science Foundation and Scott will be working on that grant in the coming weeks.

Will also completed his first solo PhD field season sampling house wrens across Colorado and Nebraska collecting blood samples from 87 house wrens and travelling over 2000 miles as he attempts to better define the region of contact between the eastern and western subspecies. He also sampled a number of yellow breasted chats for a previous Taylor Lab undergraduate student, Johanna Beam, who is completing her PhD at Penn State University.

Congrats all on an excellent field season!

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Olivia publishes her honors thesis in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology!

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 19:38:08 +0000

Olivia publishes her honors thesis in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology! Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 07/13/2024 - 13:38

Congratulations to Olivia and her co-authors Kathryn, Angela, Harriet Leeson and Carrie Branch for publishing a recent paper in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. After initially embarking on her undergraduate career as a Violin Performance major, Olivia completed her EBIO degree and honors thesis in our lab last year. For Olivia, her transition from music to studying bird song was a natural decision that followed her love of music and more, importantly, her curiosity about its nature. Olivia and her co-authors found that mountain chickadees in Boulder County sing different songs than mountain chickadees in California, but that black-capped chickadees in Colorado do not sound different from black-capped chickadees elsewhere. This is a potential example of either reproductive or agonistic character displacement! More work will be required to determine which one, but the initial results are very exciting. Congrats Olivia!

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2024 field season updates!

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 04:55:35 +0000

2024 field season updates! Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/30/2024 - 22:55

The 2024 field season has been a busy one - here are some updates from members of the lab currently in the field:

Sara: It has been a wild and exciting field season so far! With the addition of our new nestboxes on flagstaff mountain it is gearing up to be the most nests the Boulder Chickadee Study has ever seen!

Haley: Haley is conducting a mate choice experiment to understand whether females use color pattern to differentiate between potential black-capped and mountain chickadee mates.

Sage: This field season I have gained surveying skills when observing chickadee provisioning habits and have greatly enjoyed assisting in bird banding!

Will: The field season has been great thus far, I have caught 87 house wrens and we have had record numbers of nests up at the MRS.

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Additional research grants for Nikki and Will!

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:11:24 +0000

Additional research grants for Nikki and Will! Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/11/2024 - 11:11

The good news keeps coming! Nikki (Documenting responses to experimental and natural nest intrusions in two species of cavity-nesting chickadee) and Will (Using acoustic and genomic data to evaluate the taxonomic status of Northern Pygmy Owls) were recently notified that they will receive funding for their work from the Colorado Field Ornithologsists and Will is also receiving funds from the Western Field Ornithologists.

Congrats Nikki and Will!

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Sara is awarded a 2024 NSF GRFP!

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 17:15:10 +0000

Sara is awarded a 2024 NSF GRFP! Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/08/2024 - 11:15

Congrats to Sara Padula, a second-year PhD student in the lab, who was granted a 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship! The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education. The GRFP provides three years of support over a five-year fellowship period for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements in STEM or STEM education.

Sara works on many different research projects in the lab: she is (1) investigating interspecific variation in spatial cognitive abilities and genetics between two closely related species of food-caching chickadee, (2) determining if signatures of selection in the black-capped chickadee genome occur around genes that have been experimentally associated with spatial cognition, (3) examining the interspecific differences in female preference for male body size in black-capped and mountain chickadees, and (4) testing if birds adjust the frequency (Hz) of their song in response to airplane noise. She also is a field technician on the Boulder Chickadee Study!

In addition to research in the lab, Sara has a passion for breaking down barriers for prospective scientists to get involved in research and get connected to career opportunities. To achieve this, she is a graduate student representative in. EBIO club is an on-campus organization that provides resources to EBIO students to get involved in research, learn about career opportunities, and get connected to undergrads, grad students, and professors in the EBIO department.

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Winter fieldwork is underway!

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 04:35:19 +0000

Winter fieldwork is underway! Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/17/2024 - 21:35

Members of the Taylor lab are busy in the field these days, braving the cold and snow to collect exciting data on black-capped and mountain chickadees. Haley is conducting feeder-based agression experiments in Boulder, Nikki has been getting our nest boxes ready for the 2024 breeding season, and Sara, Ajay, Will, Scott, and Haley have been banding chickadees at the Mountain Research Station with PIT tags (see yellow band on mountain chickadee above) for upcoming experiments on spatial cognition. Along the way we've enjoyed visits from an American pine marten (a lifer mammal for Will, Sara, Ajay, and Scott) and pine grosbeaks!

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Haley wins a 2023 Stearns Prize from ESEB and the Journal of Evolutionary Biology!

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:17:52 +0000

Haley wins a 2023 Stearns Prize from ESEB and the Journal of Evolutionary Biology! Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/13/2023 - 09:17

Huge congratulations to Haley who was recently awarded a Stearns Prize from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology and the Journal of Evolutionary Biology for her paper examining the influence of between-species color pattern differences on chickadee mate choice. Stay tuned for her follow-up work here in Colorado!

You can read the paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jeb.14058

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AOS / SCO-SOC was a success!

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 02:29:29 +0000

AOS / SCO-SOC was a success! Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/15/2023 - 20:29

Members of the Taylor Lab past and present recently attended the 2023 joint meeting of the American Ornithological Society and the Society of Canadian Ornithologists in London Ontario. Great talks and posters were presented by everyone. It is always great to catch up with colleagues and build new friendships at this annual meeting. Scott even got to announce that the 2024 AOS meeting will be in Estes Park, Colorado, Oct 1 - 5.

Nikki and Sara were interviewed by the CBC, too!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/what-s-your-favourite-bird-and-is-it-doing-okay-bird-experts-visiting-london-weigh-in-1.6933011

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The 6th season of the Boulder Chickadee Study comes to a close

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 21:12:17 +0000

The 6th season of the Boulder Chickadee Study comes to a close Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/17/2023 - 15:12

With the banding of our final mountain chickadee nest at the CU Boulder Mountain Research Station this morning, the 6th season of the Boulder Chickadee Study comes to an end. Thanks to the hard work of Haley, Nikki, Sara, Will, Ajay, Olivia, Athena, and Macy as well as our numerous study participants this was our largest season yet with 83 nests monitored (64 of which were successful), 488 eggs, and 347 chicks banded. The numbers don't add up because sometimes nests are abandoned and sometimes eggs don't hatch, especially in places with active hybridization like Boulder County. It was a great season and everyone is ready for a break before we start winter field work at the MRS later this year. Stay tuned for a forthcoming publication analyzing data from 477 whole genomes from birds in the Boulder Chickadee Study as well as exciting behavioral results!

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