Emma Greig

Project Leader, Project FeederWatch

Expertise

Behavioral Ecology

I manage Project FeederWatch, a program in which people who feed birds in their backyards send counts of those birds to the Lab. This program has been running for over 30 years and participants have created an enormous dataset of bird population changes through time. I love this program and am proud to be a part of it because it is such a meaningful way for people to contribute to science by doing something they already love. We learn about how birds are doing in the process, in a way that we could never do without the collective efforts of people across North America.

Recent Publications

Dayer, A. A., P. C. Pototsky, R. J. Hall, D. M. Hawley, T. B. Phillips, D. N. Bonter, A. M. Dietsch, E. Greig, and W. M. Hochachka (2023). Birds are not the only ones impacted by guidance to cease bird feeding. People and Nature n/a.
Bonter, D. N., V. Y. Martin, E. I. Greig, and T. B. Phillips (2023). Participant retention in a continental-scale citizen science project increases with the diversity of species detected. BioScience 73:433–440.
Miller, E. T., O. Mac Aodha, E. I. Greig, D. N. Bonter, and W. M. Hochachka (2022). Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species. Journal of Avian Biology n/a:e02934.
Berigan, L. A., E. I. Greig, and D. N. Bonter (2021). Urban House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) populations decline in North America. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 132:248–258.
Odom, K. J., K. E. Cain, M. L. Hall, N. E. Langmore, R. A. Mulder, S. Kleindorfer, J. Karubian, L. Brouwer, E. D. Enbody, J. A. Jones, J. L. Dowling, et al. (2021). Sex role similarity and sexual selection predict male and female song elaboration and dimorphism in fairy-wrens. Ecology and Evolution 11:17901–17919.
Greig, E. I., E. Kinnebrew, M. L. Witynski, and E. C. Larsen (2021). A desert songbird with no confamilials in the Western Hemisphere (Verdin, Auriparus flaviceps ) investigates divergent conspecific songs. Ornithology 138:ukab032.
Cramer, E. R. A., E. I. Greig, and S. A. Kaiser (2020). Strong sexual selection despite spatial constraints on extrapair paternity. Behavioral Ecology 31:618–626.
Kim, K.-W., B. C. Jackson, H. Zhang, D. P. L. Toews, S. A. Taylor, E. I. Greig, I. J. Lovette, M. M. Liu, A. Davison, S. C. Griffith, K. Zeng, and T. Burke (2019). Genetics and evidence for balancing selection of a sex-linked colour polymorphism in a songbird. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09806-6
Gulson-Castillo, E. R., T. M. Pegan, E. I. Greig, J. M. Hite, J. P. Hruska, J. A. Kapoor, S. C. Orzechowski, J. R. Shipley, and D. W. Winkler (2019). Notes on nesting, territoriality and behaviour of broadbills (Eurylaimidae, Calyptomenidae) and pittas (Pittidae) in Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 139:8.
Yandell, D. D., W. M. Hochachka, S. Pruett-Jones, M. S. Webster, and E. I. Greig (2018). Geographic patterns of song variation in four species of Malurus fairy-wrens. Journal of Avian Biology 49:jav-01446.
Parker, T. H., E. I. Greig, S. Nakagawa, M. Parra, and A. C. Dalisio (2018). Subspecies status and methods explain strength of response to local versus foreign song by oscine birds in meta-analysis. Animal Behaviour 142:1–17.
Stone, M. M., N. K. Kramer, E. C. Larsen, and E. I. Greig (2018). Masticophis flagellum (coachwhip) diet (Natural History Note). Herpetological Review.
Miller, E. T., D. N. Bonter, C. Eldermire, B. G. Freeman, E. I. Greig, L. J. Harmon, C. Lisle, and W. M. Hochachka (2017). Fighting over food unites the birds of North America in a continental dominance hierarchy. Behavioral Ecology 28:1454–1463.
Gulson-Castillo, E., R. Dreelin, F. Fernandez-Duque, E. Greig, S. Orzechowski, J. Hite, L. Smith, R. Wallace, and D. Winkler (2017). Breeding biology during the nestling period at a Black-crowned Pitta (Erythropitta ussheri )nest. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club Volume 137:173–194.
Greig, E. I., E. M. Wood, and D. N. Bonter (2017). Winter range expansion of a hummingbird is associated with urbanization and supplementary feeding. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284:20170256.
Baldassarre, D. T., E. I. Greig, and M. S. Webster (2016). The couple that sings together stays together: duetting, aggression and extra-pair paternity in a promiscuous bird species. Biology Letters 12:20151025.
Greig, E. I., D. T. Baldassarre, and M. S. Webster (2015). Differential rates of phenotypic introgression are associated with male behavioral responses to multiple signals. Evolution 69:2602–2612.
Shah, S. S., E. I. Greig, S. A. MacLean, and D. N. Bonter (2015). Risk-based alarm calling in a nonpasserine bird. Animal Behaviour 106:129–136.
Female in the woods. Staff member Emma Greig
Center Engagement in Science and Nature
Projects Project FeederWatch
Work(607) 254-2148
Email eig9@cornell.edu

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Golden-cheeked Warbler by Bryan Calk/Macaulay Library