Hi Everyone! I am hiring a 2 year Postdoctoral Research Associate in Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics at my lab at Rice University! You can read more about the position here: emdz.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... Please reach out with any questions!

🚨🚨🚨 NOW OUT at @globalchangebio.bsky.social! "Continental‐Scale Biodiversity Predictions Are Influenced by Climatic Variability and Extreme Weather" – collab with @diegoellissoto.bsky.social and others from Yale BGC! 🧪🌐🪶 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Paleogenomic insight into the collapse, recovery, and management of American bison www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Paleogenomic insight into the collapse, recovery, and management of American bison

American bison (Bison bison) were nearly hunted to extinction by the 20th century. This rapid decline and the fragmented nature of remnant populations pose challenges to their recovery and resilience,...

science.org

Do you study female birds? What field approaches have you used to target females? Join our conversation about considerations and methods for field work on female birds! americanornithology.org/studying-fem...

Studying female birds in the field: Challenges, suggestions, and shared experience - American Ornithological Society

At the AOS 2024 annual meeting, fellow ornithologists and I were invited to present academic talks during a female bird symposium organized by Joanna Wu aimed at highlighting recent research on female...

americanornithology.org

New research from #ProcB: Female North American passerine birds have lower apparent survival than males doi.org/10.1098/rspb... | #Ecology #Aves

FRAME: Fine-Resolution Asymmetric Migration Estimation www.nature.com/articles/s41...

FRAME: Fine-Resolution Asymmetric Migration Estimation - Nature Communications

Understanding spatially varying patterns of asymmetric gene flow is essential for deciphering complex population structures. This study introduces FRAME, a penalized likelihood framework for estimatin...

nature.com

Avian traits link divergent population responses to environmental change across North America | Jennings et al. 2026 Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Avian traits link divergent population responses to environmental change across North America

Jennings et al. show that local bird population trends across North America are shaped by multiple forms of environmental change, including light pollution, air quality, climate, and urbanization. Spe...

cell.com

I'm looking for PhD student to join my lab at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Fall 2027)! If you're interested in evolutionary genomics, conservation genetics, or biogeography, please reach out. I'll also be at #AOS2026 this week talking about sexual selection in small populations.

The AOS awards seven 2026 Kessel Fellowships for Ornithological Research. Congratulations to our grantees Drs. Audrey Le Pogam, Carrie Ann Adams, David Diez-Méndez, Jennifer L. Houtz, Abby Kimmitt, Amy Yanagitsuru, and Laura E. Nuñez–Rosas! #AOSgrants americanornithology.org/aos-awards-s...

Here are some summer fieldwork highlights from Arizona and New Mexico’s beautiful sky islands in search of some colorful warblers with my buddy Kevin Bennett

Kevin Bennett@kevinfpbennett.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is me (right) and my buddy Leilton (left). @leiltonluna.bsky.social This summer we headed into the mountains of the American Southwest to find some cool birds and hopefully learn something interesting about them.

Our paper is out! 📣 we find that molecular measures of genetic variation do not predict heritable genetic variation across species - important implications for the application of genomic data for conservation! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Nucleotide diversity is a poor predictor of short-term adaptive potential | PNAS

The capacity to adapt is essential for a population to avoid extinction in a changing world and is recognized as a global conservation priority. Ad...

pnas.org

New story on the Avian Hybrids blog! At the edge of speciation: Exploring the past and present of a peripheral Sooty Swift population avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2026/06/03/a... Based on the Journal of Ornithology paper by @leiltonluna.bsky.social et al. | #ornithology

At the edge of speciation: Exploring the past and present of a peripheral Sooty Swift population

Are the evolutionary changes driven by selection or drift?

avianhybrids.wordpress.com

Hybridization mitigates climate change risk in mountainous birds | www.nature.com/artic... | Nature Climate Change | #ornithology 🪶

Hybridization mitigates climate change risk in mountainous birds

Nature Climate Change - Using population and ecological genomic approaches, the authors demonstrate the potential for interspecific introgression—the transfer of genetic material following...

nature.com

Looking forward to collaborating with Andrew Carroll and Google Research as we work to develop AI tools for genome sequencing and assembly! www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wfn...

Decoding Life on Earth | Google and the Earth Biogenome Project

YouTube video by Google Research

youtube.com

Genetic offset and vulnerability modeling under climate change scenarios: common misinterpretations and violations of evolutionary principles academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Genetic offset and vulnerability modeling under climate change scenarios: common misinterpretations and violations of evolutionary principles

Abstract. Genetic offset models have become a popular component of the landscape genetics toolbox, with over 600 peer-reviewed publications applying these

academic.oup.com

#AOSMembers: Join us for "Revealing migration strategies of high-latitude breeding myrtle warblers using multi-sensor geolocators & stable isotopes" on 11/17 at Noon (ET) with Steph Szarmach; AOS Student Research Grant, 2022. REGISTER: americanornithology-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #AOS_SRGS

Parental Age, Inbreeding and Incubation Method Influence Extremely Low Hatching Success in the Ex-Situ Population of the Extinct in the Wild Sihek | doi.org/10.1111/acv.... | Animal Conservation | #ornithology 🪶

Parental Age, Inbreeding and Incubation Method Influence Extremely Low Hatching Success in the Ex‐Situ Population of the Extinct in the Wild Sihek

Reproductive success rates are a key parameter determining the recovery potential of ex-situ managed threatened species, with high rates often being required to produce offspring for wild releases wh...

doi.org

Genomes from museum specimens reveal hidden lineages and ancient connections in the endangered Pacific pocket mouse—reshaping what 'historic range' means for it's recovery. academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...

Past Genomes Guide Future Conservation: Insights from Extinct Populations of the Endangered Pacific Pocket Mouse

Abstract. Efforts to recover endangered species often rely on restoring populations to their historical range, yet reestablishing lost genetic variation is

academic.oup.com

Happy to see this out in early view in Evolution! We tested the roles of signaling and camouflage in the evolution of iris color in Tyranni songbirds. Our findings suggest that bright irises are social/sexual signals mostly associated with species less vulnerable to predation doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Evaluating the roles of signaling and camouflage in the evolution of iris color in Tyranni passerines

Abstract. Iris color is a conspicuous and diverse trait across animals, but its evolutionary drivers are poorly understood. In over 1000 species of Tyranni

doi.org

Our paper on tinamou evolution is finally out in @systbiol.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Super excited to release this virtual field / lab experience called "VRmivora": davetoews.com/vrmivora/ It's free to download via SideQuest for a Meta VR headset: sidequestvr.com/app/44760/vr... Thanks to all involved, especially the Center for Immersive Experiences: immersive.psu.edu 🦉🧪

VRmivora

This VR experience—created by Penn State and the National Science Foundation—drops you into a young forest to find wood-warblers. Explore the landscape as you find and identify wood-warblers, which…

davetoews.com

New and improved! (as of today, now with page numbers and an issue number ;) "Evidence for ancient selective sweeps followed by differentiation among three species of Sphyrapicus sapsuckers" Led by Dr. Libby Natola: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Evidence for ancient selective sweeps followed by differentiation among three species of Sphyrapicus sapsuckers

Abstract. Genomic differentiation usually accompanies speciation, but that differentiation is often highly heterogeneous across the genome. Understanding w

doi.org

Our November Issue is now live: www.nature.com/natecolevol/... Featuring research on 🧪 🦆Threats to migratory shorebirds 🌍Phosphorus constraints on global photosynthesis 🦠Evolution of the meerkat MHC Cover shows a larva of an emperor moth, from Li et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cuckoo eggs match the eggs of their adoptive hosts thanks to (mostly) loci inherited from their mothers, who put them there — impressive multifaceted genomic study buff.ly/r8xpxaR

Latest articles from the WJO: Exploring the expression of genes potentially involved in stress response of the endemic Galapagos Yellow Warbler. #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

AAAS reports future-focused #conservation index suggests more emphasis must be placed on #reptiles over #amphibians as a priority 🌍 www.eurekalert.org/news-release... #BiodiversityConservation #Herpetology #Ecology

Future-focused conservation index identifies reptiles as highest conservation priority

Reptiles could overtake amphibians as the highest priority for conservation among vertebrates as threats like climate change and invasive species worsen in the future, according to a new conservation ...

eurekalert.org

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Genomic architecture of egg mimicry and its consequences for speciation in parasitic cuckoos

Host-parasite arms races facilitate rapid evolution and can fuel speciation. Cuculus cuckoos are deceptive egg mimics that exhibit a broad diversity of counterfeit egg phenotypes, representing host-ad...

science.org

ECR Feature: postdoctoral researcher Axel Arango investigates how ecological specialization shapes #diversification in #Emberizoidea songbirds . Read more about his recent work and plans for further study here: biogeographynews.org/2025/10/30/e...

ECR feature: Axel Arango

Axel Arango is a postdoctoral researcher at the Universität Würzburg, Germany. He is a evolutionary biologist with special focus on Macroecology and Macroevolution. Here, Axel shares his recent wor…

biogeographynews.org

One minute, you're just living your life, and the next, you're mimicking bird calls. Here’s how it happens: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jSPKeM

New story on the Avian Hybrids blog! Flipping the script: Another inversion in the Common Quail genome avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/f... Based on the Molecular Ecology study by Sara Ravagni, Santiago Montero-Mendieta and their colleagues | #ornithology

Flipping the script: Another inversion in the Common Quail genome

What are the phenotypic effects of this newly discovered inversion?

avianhybrids.wordpress.com