BIG day for warbler genomes, with work led by @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social! Whole genomes nearly *every species* of warbler. Warblers the most "Pokémon" of the bird world? Well, they're also trading their coloration genes like valuable collectors cards ... www.psu.edu/news/eberly-... 🦉🧪

Warblers borrow color-related genes from evolutionary neighbors, study finds | Penn State University

A new study has uncovered several instances of wood warblers — some of the most colorful birds in North America — passing color-related genes to other wood warbler species, including those that are no...

psu.edu

I mean, the title says it all: Genetic confirmation of an “uncommon mourningthroat” (Geothlypis philadelphia  ×  G. trichas): A rare but persistent hybrid warbler. Fun stuff with @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social and Kurt Gielow, OA in @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social! 🦉 🧪 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

sorry folks i am indeed a splitter

David Toews@davetoews.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Going to be a big month for warbler science! First out of the gates is @lannhiphung.bsky.social, with song & genomics of Nashville warblers. Eastern and western subspecies: non-overlapping and super distinct. Keep an eye on your life list 😉 🦉🧪@journal-evo.bsky.social academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

???? Help??? What???

Nature@nature.com · last yr.

How is this possible? This ant can lay eggs of two different species, birthed by the same mother

Interested in how new sex chromosomes evolve in birds? Our NSF-funded collaborative work with the (Daven) Presgraves lab at @urochester.bsky.social is out this week in @pnas.org. Check it out! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Super last minute as I’m on my flight to #AOS25 — I will be talking about my work on bowerbirds on Wednesday morning in Genomics 2. Looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing this incredible dataset 🐦‍⬛

#AOS2025 don't miss @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social's talk at 11:15am on Wednesday in the Genomics 2 session (Ballroom C). We're cooking up some cool stuff with @mbtoomey.bsky.social on warbler carotenoid processing enzymes! 🦉🧪

Some good news for a Friday morning: it's been a long road, but this work from my M.S. is now published! Using RAD-seq data, we assessed genetic diversity and the demographic history of the world's second largest migratory wildebeest population in Zambia's Greater Liuwa Ecosystem

A lot of blood sweat and tears put into this one: we revisit Robert MacArthur's classic warbler study—with @eliotmiller.bsky.social and colleagues—using, among other techniques, fecal metabarcoding. 🧪🦉 📸 Ronnie d'Entremont royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @psubiodept.bsky.social

Reassessing niche partitioning in MacArthur’s warblers: foraging behaviour, morphology and diet differentiation in a phylogenetic context | Biology Letters

Owing in large part to Robert MacArthur’s classic research, wood warblers in the family Parulidae are textbook exemplars of species competition and niche partitioning. Conventional wisdom suggests tha...

royalsocietypublishing.org

As a comic relief I present to you the worst name ever for an R package

A PhD position has opened up in my old lab group in Uppsala with Anna Qvarnström! I can't recommend Uppsala and the group highly enough. This is a really great opportunity! If anyone wants to learn more about life in Uppsala or in the department, I'm very happy to talk.

EvolDir@evoldir.bsky.social · 2y ago

Uppsala University seeks a PhD student for climate-change adaptation and speciation research on flycatchers. Applicants must hold a Master's degree in biology. More info: https://www.uu.se/en/department/ecology-and-genetics/research/animal-ecology/qvarnstrom-lab. Apply by March 18, 2025. #phd

I know it's small in the whole scheme of things, but the bloodbath at NPS in Hawaii is almost certainly going to lead directly to the extinctions of no fewer than 4 native Hawaiian songbirds in the next 4-5 years.

To update people on the NSF PRFB situation: despite the court challenge and rescinding the original memo, the NSF has continued to comply with the executive order. They have not communicated with us at all and our paychecks are still canceled indefinitely. I know people who cannot pay their rent.

To expand on this, right now ~200 postdoc fellows directly funded by NSF are locked out of their salary &research funds right before the first of the month. No doubt other NSF funded grads &postdocs are affected as well. All requests for funds put in before the freeze are slowly being cancelled

Kevin Bird@stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 2y ago

As of now, NSF does not appear to be changing course at all given the temporary restraining order or the rescission of the memo. I can't help but feel that the NSF director is failing us and his handling of this is indefensible. new.nsf.gov/executive-or...

This one hour of day seven of the presidency.

I don’t have a definitive source on this yet but it looks like NSF review panels have been canceled. Sixty-some years ago, Eisenhower transformed higher education because he viewed a science education gap as the single greatest threat to national security. This is absolutely an act of sabotage.

If you’re in the US and you’d like to know what projects and vital services federal grants currently fund in your state, you can search here: www.usaspending.gov And you can find the contact information for your elected representatives here: www.usa.gov/elected-offi... They need to hear from you.

Seeing and hearing that NSF panels & reviews shut down. Again, for the love of science, this is not the time for scientists to be quiet..speak up if you can and push Uni administrators to do so as well.

Hey #SICB2025 - interested in adaptive radiation? Morphological evolution? Cool birds? Just trying to figure out where to start tomorrow morning? I’ll be presenting the results of my first dissertation chapter, looking at diversification in Malagasy vangas, in A601 at 8:45am!

At long last, my first paper (ever, first-author, and with @davetoews.bsky.social) is out in @plosone.org 🐦🎶 We quantified and compared song divergence within and between 8 pairs of common North American songbirds—please check it out! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Comparative bioacoustics of multiple eastern versus western songbird pairs in North America reveals a gradient of song divergence

Vocalizations are one of the key premating reproductive barriers that could affect species formation. In song-learning birds, vocal traits are sometimes overlooked in species delimitation, as compared...

journals.plos.org

something coming from me, watch this space tomorrow 👀🐦🎶

I am looking for a postdoc! Pls share #postdoc #genomics #insects #inversions genomicsofoutbreaks.com/?page_id=141

New warbler paper /w Anna María Calderón & Zachary Szpiech. Kirtland's warblers were ESA delisted in part because of 👍 management. What wasn't known at the time—and we show here—is that they have a striking footprint of inbreeding in their DNA🦉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 📸 Nathan Cooper

♥️♥️♥️♥️

Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy@avispatica.bsky.social · 2y ago

Happy holidays from @tropbiolab.bsky.social! We enjoyed our ugly sweater-themed farewell party for wonderful Elsie and Ferro. Grateful for #teamwasp and #teambird!

Are you a Black woman in any subfield of Ecology, Evolution or marine science? Come join BWEEMS, learn about our community and all of the programs we offer! Spread the word, Black women supporting Black women! #BlackSky #BlackinSTEM #BlackSTEM #WomeninSTEM #BlackinAcademia

One annoying thing about historical research is looking up how long it took to get from A to B in the US by train in 1880 and then looking it up now and realizing it was faster in 1880.

I passed my defense! Officially a bird doctor 🧪🐦🎓

Hi friends (or foe, idk how y’all feel about me)! I’m defending my dissertation in exactly three weeks!! There’s gonna be a whole lot of big talk about vocalization—check the word cloud for deeds. DM me if you wanted a zoom link 🐦 May 6, 2024 @ 1PM EDT