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October 16 at 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
The 2025 Paul C. Mundinger Distinguished Lectureship will be given by Mike Webster, Robert G. Engel Professor of Ornithology and Director of the Macaulay Library.
Birds are colorful and birds are loud. In large part this is because they use their plumage and voices to communicate with each other. In particular, males of many species use their bright plumage signals and voices to attract mates and repel rivals. Decades of research have revealed a lot about the evolutionary processes that have led to the diversity of avian colors and songs that we see today, yet many puzzles remain. If bright colors attract females, why do some males adopt less attractive drab plumage? What is the role of these sexual signals in the process of speciation? And why do bright colors and elaborate song evolve in females of some species and not just males? Dr. Webster will give a broad overview of his long-term research on Australian fairywrens, all aimed at better understanding the evolution and function of their stunning plumage and songs.
Mike Webster is the Robert G. Engel Professor of Ornithology at Cornell University. He is Director of the Macaulay Library, the world’s largest collection of animal recordings, and is also a faculty member in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. He does research on the evolution of courtship signals and other behaviors in birds, focusing primarily on fairywrens in Australia and wood warblers in North America.
This lectureship was established in honor of the late Paul Mundinger, who received his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University.
The Mundinger lecture will also be streamed live via Zoom – register below.
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