It’s been over a year since our last big update of Burns lab news, so it’s time to post about what has been going on in the lab during the last academic year!

We started the year off with a Burns lab trip to the San Diego Zoo. This was the first time we were all together as a lab in a while. We also welcomed new MS student Max who came to us from Cornell University. Welcome Max! 

I would like to highlight two recent papers by Burns lab students, who are both alumni now:

Amelia published the second paper of her MS thesis, looking at convergence in bill evolution across the tanagers. We have been working on this questions for a long time, so it was great to see this paper get published! Plus, the university wrote a nice article and made a neat little video (see below) describing this work.

Also, former Burns lab PhD student Brian Myers published another paper from his dissertation, focusing on the importance of thorough geographic sampling when assessing demographic history in the presence of gene flow. This is a continuation of his work on Allen’s and Rufous Hummingbirds.

Speaking of Brian, he had some huge news! He recently finished his postdoc and started a tenure-track faculty position at Eastern Oregon University. Congrats Brian!!

In other alumni news, Erik Funk finished his PhD at University of Colorado and is now back in San Diego, working on an NSF postdoc at the San Diego Zoo’s Center for Conservation Research. It’s great to have Erik back in San Diego, regularly attending our lab meetings and going birding with us!

We had an awesome Spring 2023 semester in Biology 524 Ornithology. With the abundant rains we had in the winter and spring, came abundant birds. In fact, we saw 176 total species throughout the semester, destroying the prior record of 169 species. We also had an awesome and enthusiastic group of undergraduates in the class. Bird highlights include Red Crossbill and a Peregrine Falcon nest. Some photos from this year’s field trips can be seen here. Shout out to Dr. Nick Barber and MS student Jonah Alderson for their help this semester on field trips, and undergrad Tiffany Bond for help in the lab!

In summer meeting news, Kevin and Jonah attended the Evolution meetings which were held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in June. We were able to reconnect with former Burns lab MS student Nick Vinciguerra who is now working on his PhD at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Plus, lots of other Burns lab alumni were there, and we had a great turnout of past and present graduate students of the Evolution Biology program at SDSU. It was great to reconnect with all these familiar faces. We even snuck in a little birding, finding some cool birds like American Three-toed Woodpeckers and Crissal Thrasher.  

In August, Max and Jonah attended the Ornithology meetings in London, Ontario where Jonah presented results of a side project he is working on with former Burns lab undergrad Tré Brown and former Burns lab student Allison Shultz. Their study looks at how non-feather color (such as beak and feet color) may or may be not related to feather color evolution in tanagers. And in very exciting news – Jonah and Max’s team won the annual student Quiz Bowl!

And speaking of Jonah, he successfully proposed his thesis last April. Congrats Jonah!

Personally, I passed a big milestone at SDSU. I have now been a professor here for 25 years! It’s gone by quick and I’m looking forward to the next 25!

Lastly, here’s a picture of the Burns lab at the Fall 2023 Evolutionary Biology Welcome Reception. We are ready for another great year!