Congratulations to Nick Mason, who successfully defended his MS thesis on the evolution of song within tanagers. His research compliments other research in the lab on the evolution of plumage, morphology, and ecological niche in tanagers. Specifically, he looked at whether there was a negative correlation between elaborate song and elaborate plumage, and whether plumage was correlated with habitat across the evolutionary history of tanagers. Nick will be leaving the Burns lab soon, to begin PhD studies in Irby Lovette’s lab at Cornell University.

Nick analyzing tanager songs