Monday, December 13, will be the next monthly meeting of the Cayuga Bird Club
at 7:30 pm.
Register in advance for the Zoom meeting here: https://tinyurl.com/cbc202112.
Speaker: Jay Falk, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Biology,
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington Title: Females that look like
males: Unraveling a hummingbird mystery Hummingbirds are famous for their
brilliant coloration. It is no wonder that cultures throughout history have
considered them to embody a magical or even godly essence, and modern
taxonomists couldn't help but name them after the most beautiful gems and
jewels. But when we take a closer look, we see that not all hummingbirds are so
boldly showy, and that colorfulness varies between species, subspecies, sex,
and even individuals. Conventional scientific wisdom dictates that we expect to
see more coloration in males than females. However, in many species where it
was previously thought that males are more colorful than females, recent work
has found that females, in fact, vary widely from drab to entirely male-like in
ornamentation.
In his talk, Jay Falk will be discussing one such hummingbird, the
White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora), where it was found that 20% of
adult females are indistinguishable from males, while the rest look completely
different. Even more surprisingly, it was found that juveniles of this species
all look like adult males, the complete opposite of what is found in most
birds. He will discuss his team's process for studying these hummingbirds in
the Panamanian tropics, testing multiple hypotheses, and gradually unraveling
the mystery of these birds. Finally, their findings from White-necked Jacobins
will be framed into the broader context of evolutionary theory, showing how
this fascinating species can help illuminate how color evolves in birds and
beyond.
Dr. Jay Jinsing Falk grew up in Austin, Texas where some of his earliest
memories involve watching grackles, pigeons, and ducks with his grandparents at
Zilker Park. In college, he majored in Ecology and Evolution at the University
of Texas and found an interest in animal behavior while studying flour beetles
and local crickets. As a doctoral student, Jay began studying hummingbirds and
color evolution at Cornell University, advised by Mike Webster at the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology and co-advised by Dustin Rubenstein at Columbia University.
He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle
where he continues to study the evolution and behavior of hummingbirds with
Alejandro Rico-Guevara.
Cayuga Bird Club meetings start at 7:30pm on the second Monday of each month,
September through June, and are open to the public. Each virtual meeting will
begin with the speaker's presentation, followed by club business.
Choose to be safer online.
Opt-in to Cyber Safety with NortonLifeLock.
Plans starting as low as $6.95 per month.*
https://store.netzero.net/account/showService.do?serviceId=nz-nLifeLock_source=mktg_medium=taglines_campaign=nzlifelk_launch_content=tag695=A34454
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds
3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html
Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
--