We are excited to present the AFO Café—informal science conversations about birds, their habitats, and field biology, with a short update on AFO’s programs—all free, open to the public, and sponsored by Avinet Research Supplies. Please bring your coffee, tea, beer, or beverage of your choice, and join us! You can even help us support the café by visiting our Bonfire store and purchasing a coffee mug or shirt. If you miss one of our events, you can view recordings at our YouTube Channel.
For a complete schedule of future AFO cafés please click here.
Upcoming Events
More events coming soon
Past Events
Featuring: Scott Taylor (University of Colorado-Boulder), Shawn Billerman (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), and Robert Curry (Villanova University)
Scott Taylor, Bob Curry, and Shawn Billerman will be talking about the dynamic nature of hybrid zones, and how they change over time, whether in response to climate change and shifting ranges or habitat alterations that lead to changes in how species interact.
Watch the recorded event here:
Featuring: Emily Choy (McGill University, Canada) and Kendra Tingmiak (University of Lethbridge, Canada)
Kendra and Emily will share their experience and perspectives working with northern communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories, monitoring the health status of Beaufort Sea beluga whales as part of a community-based monitoring program.
Watch the recorded event here:
Resources mentioned during today’s presentation:
- Doing Research in the Northwest Territories
- Negotiating Research Relationships with Inuit Communities
- Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
- People of a Feather film
- Arctic Eider Society
- SIKU – The Indigenous Knowledge Social Network
- National Representational Organization for Inuit in Canada
- Inuit Circumpolar Council
Featuring: Juan Manuel Rojas Ripari, IEGEBA-CONICET, Argentina
Cooperative breeding is a reproductive system in which one or more adults (helpers) assist others in rearing their offspring. In birds, cooperative breeding occurs in 9% of species and it is associated with remarkable variation in mating systems and patterns of social organization. A comprehensive understanding of the evolution of helping behavior can only be achieved by assessing social and genetic patterns across a broad range of cooperative systems. Yet, for some geographic regions like the Neotropics, detailed genetic studies of cooperatively breeding birds are still comparatively scarce, despite being the most biodiverse region of the world. Here, we examine genetic relationships within and between social groups in a Neotropical cooperative breeder, the Grayish Baywing (Agelaioides badius), a medium-sized passerine native to southern South America. We used ddRAD sequencing to study the social organization and fine-scale genetic structure of 41 breeding groups obtaining 327 SNPs. We found that helpers were primarily males, the majority of which were genetically related to the individuals they assisted, either as previous offspring of the breeding pair or as first or second order relatives of the breeding male with reproduction skewed to the breeding pair. However, we also observed unrelated male and female helpers, suggesting non-reproductive benefits may be at play. We found weak evidence consistent with male natal philopatry, and fine-scale genetic structure, as adult males in our population showed higher relatedness at close geographic distances than females. Future studies that further examine the mechanisms behind group formation and the fitness pay-offs of helping behaviour will increase our understanding of the complex cooperative system of the Grayish Baywings.
Watch the recorded event here:
Featuring: Matthew Gonnerman, University of Maine
Wild turkeys are a wide-ranging species with considerable cultural and economic significance. As they can exist across a variety of ecosystems, understanding how land use affects population vital rates can be a crucial component of informed management. This is even more important for turkey populations in Maine, where harsh winters can have negative impacts on survival and reproduction. Using a combination of banding, radiotelemetry, and GPS tracking data, I sought to better understand the relationship between turkey population ecology at their northern range limit and the diverse landscape gradient they occupy in Maine. This work resulted in a better understanding of the current distribution of turkeys in Maine, what habitat is necessary for their survival in harsh winters as well as for reproduction, and how movement between seasonal ranges can impact population distributions.
Watch the recorded event here:
Featuring: Nicolas Lois, IEGEBA-CONICET, Argentina, and Rebecka Brasso, Weber State University
Stable isotopes and trace metals can aid our understanding of trophic dynamics and interactions between species and populations. Southern ocean penguins present an intriguing spatial pattern of these ecological tracers. In this presentation we will show global and regional patterns and potential evolutionary and conservation implications.
Watch the recorded event here:
A panel discussion led by Allyson Jackson (SUNY Purchase)
Interested in graduate school but not sure how the process works? Come to the September AFO café to hear from 5 current graduate students about their experiences and advice for finding, applying to, and getting into graduate school. This panel will be focused on US-based graduate programs and will cover topics like whether to do a masters or a PhD, how to find an advisor and funding, and what to expect in graduate school. We will also take your questions. This will be helpful for current or recent undergraduates or anyone looking to get into a grad program!
Panelists include:
- Karina Sanchez, PhD student, University of Northern Colorado
- Katie Henson, PhD student, Duke University
- Maria Costantini, M.S., PhD candidate, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
- Nicole Lussier, PhD student, University of Tennessee
- Ryan Baumbusch, M.S., PhD candidate, Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University
Watch the recorded event here:
Featuring Bettina Mahler, Melina Atencio and Alicia de la Colina
The Yellow Cardinal (Gubernatrix cristata) is an ‘Endangered’ passerine from southern South America. For the past four years, a management plan for Yellow Cardinals has been implemented in Argentina for rescued individuals from the illegal caged-bird market. Rescued individuals go through a sanitary rehabilitation and an anti-predator training at Fundación Temaiken recovery center and are subsequently released back into areas with suitable habitat within their area of provenance, previously determined by the use of molecular markers. A monitoring program of released individuals helped us identify several factors that account for the success of this management plan, related to characteristics of both the individuals and the habitat, which should be considered in future liberations.
Watch the recorded event here:
Featuring Dan Baldassarre and Brooke Goodman
Humans dominate the global landscape, so we need to understand how our activity affects wildlife. In this AFO Café, Dan will provide a general overview of how urban living affects the visual and vocal communication of Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis). This research is driven exclusively by undergraduate students, one of whom, Brooke Goodman, will talk about her project using automated recorders to quantify cardinal song repertoires.
Watch the recorded event here:
Featuring Leo Campagna, Cecilia Kopuchian, and Adrián Di Giácomo
We combine field experiments and genomics to understand the importance of behavioral isolation in the capuchino seedeaters (Sporophila). The study takes advantage of the recent discovery of a new species in the genus, Sporophila iberaensis, which has a very small breeding range confined to the northern portion of the Esteros del Iberá Wetlands in the province of Corrientes (Argentina).
Watch the recorded event here:
Interested in speaking? Have a topic idea? Contact us at afo.communications@gmail.com with speaker suggestions or to volunteer!
