Monday Night Seminar Series
Spring 2007
All seminars are held in the Lab of Ornithology Auditorium at 7:30 P.M, unless otherwise noted. Talks hosted by the Cayuga Bird Club are preceded by club business. Admission is free and open to all. Hear great talks, meet the speakers, and shop at Wild Birds Unlimited.
Why do some individuals apparently sacrifice their own self-interest to
help others? Reproductive competition is the norm in the animal kingdom,
but instead of fighting over females, male Lance-tailed Manakins team up
to court mates cooperatively. Emily will describe the spectacular displays
and complex social behavior of these small tropical birds, and explain her
studies of why subordinate males cooperate.
February 12, 2007
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Birdsong, Ecology, and Speciation: from Tropical Forest to Urban Jungle
Hans Slabbekoorn, Leiden University, the Netherlands
There are close to 10,000 bird species in the world, each with its own vocal signature that is a product of phylogeny, anatomy, and the ambient sound within an environment. Sound transmission properties of a habitat may favor one set of acoustic features over another and interference with ambient noise may drive vocalizations towards frequencies less affected by masking noise. Hans will address both aspects of environmental selection and their consequences for evolutionary changes in songs of birds from three continents and discuss implications for speciation in the tropical rainforest as well as the urban habitat.
February 19 , 2007
On the Origin and Evolution of Avian Flight: Traditional Hypotheses Stifle Discovery
Ken Dial, University of Montana
George Jackson Mivart challenged Charles Darwin by asking, "What use is half a wing?" This remains the essential question behind the evolution of flight. KenĚs lab has integrated diverse fields of study (e.g., life history, ecology, behavior, developmental biology, biomechanics, aerodynamics, and paleontology) in order to reevaluate our understanding of the origin of avian flight.
Compared with North America, Europe tends to have larger concentrations
of observers but many different coexisting monitoring schemes. In this seminar
Gabriel will explain the benefits of combining different data sources using
the New Catalan Breeding Bird Atlas. Furthermore, he will show how amazingly
consistent and precise the process of plumage replacement is for birds,
and its usefulness in ageing birds.
March 5, 2007
Territoriality in Common Loons: Behavior, Vocalizations and Fatal Fighting
Charles Walcott, Cornell University
Breeding loons are highly territorial; males and females defend their territory against intruders of the same sex. These battles are sometimes fatal for males but not for females. Individual males have characteristic yodels which are constant from year to year but change when the male changes territory. This lecture will explore the reasons behind these curious findings.
March 12, 2007
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Golden-winged Warblers--History, Hybridization, and Conservation
Rachel Vallender, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Rachel will present some of her dissertation work that examined the hybridization system between Golden-winged and Blue-winged warblers, including patterns of mate choice and impacts of interbreeding between these fascinating species. She will explore the history of the species in this area, and will discuss what we can expect in future years.
The perception of long-term declines among Neotropical migrant birds led
to the development of Partners in Flight, considered the worldís
largest conservation effort. Yet, there has been little discussion about
population trends since the early 1990s. In this lecture John presents some
patterns from personal long-term monitoring studies, including 35 years
from Puerto Rico, and discusses what they may suggest about current and
future trends in bird populations.
March 26, 2007
Bird Flu, Birds, and Birders--What is it All About?
Karel Anton Schat, Cornell University
Bird flu has been a hot topic in the press and many questions are being asked by birders and non-birders alike. What is the flu virus and how might it find its way into wild birds in the United States? In this seminar, Karel will present information on flu virus and pandemics. He will also discuss the possible routes of introduction as well as the consequences if the flu virus infects our wild birds.
People have harvested wildlife in tropical forests for consumption for
thousands of years. In this talk, John explores the biological limits of
sustainable hunting, and examines changes in recent years brought about
by increased access to forest areas, changes in hunting practices, increased
commercialization of the wild meat trade, and increased demand for bushmeat.
Conservation strategies must take into account both the ecological and socioeconomic
context.
April 9, 2007
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Habitat Specialization among South American Birds
Dan Lebbin, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Dan will introduce some of the many birds and their habitats with photos from his travels in Peru and Ecuador. He will speak about his research on habitat specialization of Amazonian birds, focusing on a rich community of birds that specialize on native bamboo habitat in the Amazon of southeast Peru.
April 16, 2007
Mercury and Migration: Conservation through the Lives of Adirondack Loons
Nina Schoch, Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program
Nina will give an overview of the loon conservation efforts conducted in New York’s Adirondack Park by the Wildlife Conservation Society and its partners in the Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program. Beautiful photographs and video clips describe intriguing facts about common loons and their natural history, as well as the Loon Program’s research on the impact of environmental mercury pollution to these captivating birds and their aquatic habitats.
April 23, 2007 - NOTE: THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN MOVED TO THE STATLER AUDITORIUM ON THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS.
We are co-sponsoring this lecture with the College of Architecture, Art & Planning. For more information, please click to visit: http://www.aap.cornell.edu/crp/events/index.cfm?customel_datapageid_2742=35174
The Politics and Policies of Environmental Protection
Governor Christie Todd Whitman, former head of the EPA
Governor Whitman will address the issues confronting environmental protection and conservation from the unique perspective of having led the Environmental Protection Agency for four years. Her environmental legacy as governor of New Jersey and as head of the EPA illustrates the challenges that politicians must overcome as government leaders and environmental stewards.
Louis Agassiz Fuertes was one of the influential early leaders at the Lab
of Ornithology, even coining the name of the sanctuary "Sapsucker Woods"!
In this engrossing seminar, the artistís granddaughter guides the
audience through Fuertesí life by showing a selection of his paintings
and sketches, reading a few bits from his letters, and talking about his
life and times.
May 7, 2007
Birding Babylon: A Soldier-Naturalist in Iraq
Jonathan Trouern-Trend, 188th Area Support Medical Battalion of the Connecticut National Guard; American Red Cross
Jonathan will discuss the natural history of Iraq in the context of his deployment and as a crossroad of familiar palearctic birds as well as exotic Afrotropical and Oriental avifauna. He will also detail the revitalization of the Southern Mesopotamian marshes and address the nascent (but growing) Iraqi environmental movement. [Books may be available for purchase. Inquire at the Lab's Wild Birds Unlimited store.]
May 14, 2007
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Chasing Summer Down Under: Birding Travels in Australia
Marie Read, natural history photographer
Marie and her husband Peter Wrege traveled around Australia during September--December 2006 photographing birds, beasts, and habitats. She will share her adventures in this photographic safari.
To view the current
semester's schedule, please visit the Fall
2007 Monday Night Seminars page.
To access archived Quicktime
movies of selected lectures, please visit the Archived
Monday Night Seminars page.
