In 2023, Brooke Poplin, from the University of North Texas, was selected among five other candidates for an AFO Bergstrom Grant. A few days ago, two years later, she contacted us to let us know she had finished her Master’s.
With support from AFO’s Bergstrom Award, I completed my master’s thesis on Harris’s Hawks in south Texas andwas able to draw exciting conclusions into how urbanization affects raptor social behavior.
In more urban areas, group sizes were smaller and social interactions declined to levels similar to solitary raptors. This pattern may reflect the relative stability of urban environments compared to the unpredictable desert, suggesting that sociality functions as a strategy to navigate complex habitats.
Although Harris’s Hawks show remarkable adaptability to urban areas, these environments also introduce significant risks such as vehicle collisions, electrocution, and poisoning that must be addressed through conservation efforts.
Congratulations, Brooke! We are thrilled to have been helpful in advancing your research. At AFO we continue to work to support researchers at all stages of their career through our Grants Program… and none of this would be possible without the support of our members.
If you’re one of the wonderful people who support our work, THANK YOU, and if you’re not, we invite you to join our association to help us continue supporting ornithology in multiple ways.
If you received an AFO grant and would like to have any updates on your work featured on our socials, contact Agustina, our communicator, at agustinatorretta@afonet.org and we’ll make it happen!
Header photo: Spectacled Tyrant (Hymenops perspicillatus) –female– by neil bowman | Getty Images.