2024 AOS Meeting

Burns lab members past and present will be well represented at this week’s meeting of the American Ornithological Society in Estes Park, Colorado. Here is a list of presentations that include former and current Burns lab members (in bold).

Wednesday morning, 2 October 2024, 10:30–12:00 • LONGS PEAK LODGE
5: Diamond East/West
11:45 am
Inter- and intraspecific variation in visible and thermally relevant wavelengths of light
A Shultz, T Lee, M Barrett, L Pilon, T McGlynn
PA: Allison Shultz

Wednesday early afternoon, 2 October 2024, 13:30–15:00 • LONGS PEAK LODGE
8: Granite Pass
13:30
Species limits, systematics, and island biogeography in East Asian white-eyes (Zosterops japonicus, Z. meyeni, Z. montanus, Z. simplex) based on multilocus Sanger and RAD sequencing datasets.
H Mays, B McKay, D DeRaad, I Nishiumi, C Yao, M Boyd, N Hofmeister, L DeCicco, M Venkatraman, F Zou, C Kim, K Kawakami, R Lin, K Garrett, S Aguillon, J McCormack, R Moyle, A Shultz, L Kubatko
PA: Herman Mays

Wednesday Evening, 2 October 2024, Poster Session 1
Poster #101 Temporal and spatial analyses of genetic diversity and stable isotope ecology in the Common Nighthawk (Chordelies minor)
A Harvey, S Bolinger, E Johnson, M Polito, N MasonPA: Amanda Harvey

Poster #131 Admixture mapping reveals genomic underpinnings of behavioral courtship display elements in hybridizing Selasphorus hummingbirds N Nadar, A Brelsford, C Clark, K Burns, B Myers – PA: N Nadar

Poster #171 The structure, reflectance, and bioclimatic associations of iridescent plumage in Sturnidae
S Rutledge, N Mason — PA: Samantha Rutledge

Poster #173 Transcriptomic insights into sexually dimorphic plumage development
M Secor, R Widelitz, P Wu, C Chuong, M Dean, A ShultzPA: Maeve Secor

Thursday morning, 3 October 2024, 10:30–12:00 • EMERALD MOUNTAIN LODGE
11:15
1: East Portal
Evidence for recent inbreeding and historical bottlenecks in multiple threatened California Savannah Sparrow subspecies
E Kirsch, A Shultz, S Edmands, P Benham, C Cicero Studley, J Walsh, R Bowie
PA: Eliza Kirsch

Thursday late afternoon, 3 October 2024, 15:30–17:00 • LONGS PEAK LODGE
8: Granite Pass
16:30
Invasion Genomics of the Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata) Reveals Multiple Introductions and Human-mediated Genetic Swamping in the Native Range
J Alderson, A Shultz, C Hung, C Yao, K Burns
PA: Jonah Alderson

Friday morning, 4 October 2024, 10:30–12:00 • EMERALD MOUNTAIN LODGE
2: Bible Point
11:00
Candidate genes correlated with island gigantism in North American rosy-finches (Leucosticte sp.)
E Funk, W Anderson, G Spellman, K Winker, J Withrow, E Greene, B Lyon, R Montgomerie, S Taylor
PA: Scott Taylor

11:45
Using whole genomes to conserve and understand the Wallowa Rosy-Finch (Leucosticte tephrocotis wallowa)
P Bolton, E Funk, H Watts, S Taylor, B Vernasco
PA: Peri Bolton

Friday late afternoon, 4 October 2024, 15:30–17:00 • EMERALD MOUNTAIN LODGE
1: East Portal
15:30
Whole genome phylogeography of the Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata)
M Tofflemire, P Benham, C Cicero Studley, M Davila, L Smith, M Nachman, R Bowie, K Burns
PA: Michael Tofflemire

Saturday morning, 5 October 2024, 10:30–12:00 • EMERALD MOUNTAIN LODGE
3: Aspen Glen
11:45
Complex genomic patterns underlie subspecific differentiation in the House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)
W Anderson, E Funk, A Theodosopoulos, K Grabenstein, G Spellman, S Taylor
PA: William Anderson

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Burns Lab Updates for 2022-2023 Academic Year

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! 

Burns lab visiting the tanager aviary at the San Diego Zoo; September 2022

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.

Figure from Demery and Burns 2023, showing diversity of tanager beaks

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.

Allen’s Hummingbird, the subject of Brian’s PhD research.

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!!

Kevin and Brian, doing field work in Oregon

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!

Erik Funk, with current Burns lab members Kevin, Jonah, Max, and Michael, during the 2022 Christmas Bird Count

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!

Ornithology students at Mount Laguna with their field notebooks!

More 2023 Ornithology students at Mount Laguna field trip
Peregrine Falcon nest, Ornithology class field trip

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.  

Burns lab past and present at Evolution meetings: Luke, Kevin, Pascal, Brian, Rosalyn, Jonah, and Nick
Past and present SDSU graduate students at the Evolution meetings
American Three-toed Woodpecker

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!

Scaly-breasted Munia, the subject of Jonah’s research

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!

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2023 Evolution Meetings

Burns lab alumni will be well represented at next week’s Evolution meetings in Albuquerque. Here is a list of presentations that include former Burns lab members (in bold). There will be 7 past and present Burns lab members at the meeting. Looking forward to reconnecting!

Thu, June 22. 11:45 am, Mesilla / 235; The population genomics and demography of Oceanic swallows suggest multiple independent origins of commensalism in response to increased human land use; Authors: Brian Myers, Amanda Kathryn Hund, Nicholas Friedman, Dency Flenny Gawin, Farah Modh-Taib, Robert Ong, Chamalka de Silva, Sampath Seneviratne, Thilini Thakshila, and Elizabeth Scordato

Thu, June 22, 5:30 pm, Poster Session 1, Ballroom A/B/C; Investigating patterns of selection in commensal and non-commensal populations of Oceanic swallows (Poster Board 63); Authors: Samantha Sudoko, Brian Myers, Elizabeth Scordato

Fri, June 23, 10:30, Galisteo / 110; Characterizing a new avian hybrid zone and sex chromosome divergence between morphologically cryptic wrens in North America; Authors: William Anderson, Erik Funk, Kathryn Grabenstein, Angela Theodosopoulos, Garth M. Spellman, Scott Taylor

Sat, June 24, 5:50 pm, Poster Session 2, Ballroom A/B/C; Investigating signatures of selection in Oceanic swallows using runs of homozygosity (Poster Board 114); Authors: Dylan Zubieta, Elizabeth Scordato, Brian Myers

Sat, June 24, 5:00 pm, La Cienega / 240; Assembling a new squamate tree of life; Authors: Pascal Title, Sonal Singhal, R. Alexander Pyron, Marc Jones, Stephen A. Smith, Dan L. Rabosky

Sun, June 25, 10:00 am, Ruidoso / 220; Replicate geographic transects reveal parallelism in the architecture of reproductive barriers between hybridizing chickadees; Authors: Georgy Semenov, Michael McQuillan, Alex Van Huynh, Mark Robbins, Alana Alexander, Erik Funk, Ben Sonnenberg, Carrie Branch, Virginia Heinen, Vladimir Pravosudov, Zachary Cheviron, Matthew Carling, Tim Roth, Amber M. Rice, Scott Taylor

Lastly, Rosalyn Price-Waldman already presented her talk earlier this month at the virtual Evolution meetings, as part of the Hamilton Award Symposium; Rosalyn has been nominated for the prestigious Hamilton Award:

A hidden layer of achromatic plumage modulates the brightness and saturation of colorful feathers in tanagers and other birds; Authors: Rosalyn Price-Waldman, Jarome Ali, Allison Shultz, Benedict Hogan, Mary Caswell Stoddard

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AOS & Birds Caribbean Meeting

The Burns lab past and present had a great time at last week’s joint meeting of the American Ornithological Society and Birds Caribbean. See previous posts for all the talks given by Burns lab alumni. We also had some award winners: Rosalyn won an outstanding presentation award, Amelia won an award for best paper in the journal, and Allison was a featured plenary speaker for winning the young investigator award. Congrats all! Beyond the science, it was great to reconnect with colleagues and see some of the amazing birds and habitats of Puerto Rico! 

Burns lab past, present, and future at Ornithology 2022: Kevin, Luke, Allison, Amelia, Rosalyn, Nick V, Sarah, Brian, Max, and Nick M. (not shown)
Puerto Rican Spindalis (Spindalis portoricensis)
El Yunque Rainforest
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2022 Ornithological Conference

Burns lab members past and present will be well represented at next week’s meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico of American Ornithological Society and Birds Caribbean. Here is a list of presentations that include former and current Burns lab members (in bold).

Tuesday 11:00
Island life accelerates geographic radiation in the white eyes (Zosteropidae)
Nicholas T. Vinciguerra, Carl H. Oliveros, Robert G. Moyle, and Michael J. Andersen

Tuesday 14:30
Genomic architecture of a discontinuous contact zone in Bell’s Vireo
Arquitectura genómica de una zona de contacto discontinuo en el Vireo de Bell
Ethan F. Gyllenhaal, Andrew B. Johnson, Matthew J. Baumann, Luke B. Klicka, Kevin J. Burns, Christopher C. Witt, and Michael J. Andersen

Tuesday Poster Session:
The role of altitudinal migration in tropical diversification and speciation
El papel de la migración altitudinal en la diversificación y especiación tropical
David Vander Pluym and Nicholas A. Mason

Tuesday Poster Session:
It was not there, it must be extinct: An approach to estimate extirpation
No estaba allí, debe estar extinto: Una aproximación para estimar la erradicación
Kimberly C. Navarro-Velez and Raúl E. Sedano Crúz

Wednesday 14:45
Genetic variation in Mexican Yellow Grosbeaks (Pheucticus chrysopeplus)
Variación genética en Picogrueso Amarillo Mexicano (Pheucticus chrysopeplus)
Maeve B. Secor, Ben Scott, Kevin J. Burns, and John E. McCormack

Wednesday 16:30
Characterizing macroevolutionary patterns of mutation in Estrildid finches
Caracterización de patrones macroevolutivos de mutación en pinzones Estrildid
Amelia-Juliette C. Demery and Daniel M. Hooper

Wednesday Poster Session:
Genetic signatures of selection for resistance to lead exposure in the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) genome
Firmas genéticas de selección para la resistencia a la exposición al plomo en el genoma del aura tiñosa (Cathartes aura)
Alexandria B. Koedel, Alexandra Gresham, Peter Bloom, Miguel Saggese, Allison Shultz, and Andrea Bonsioli-Alquati

Wednesday Poster Session:
When high dispersal meets high diversification: The case of the White-bellied Cuckooshrike, Coracina papuensis
Cuando la alta dispersión se encuentra con la alta diversificación: El caso del oruguero papú, Coracina papuensis
Lukas B. Klicka, Joseph D. Manthey, Leo Joseph, Christopher E. Filardi, and Robert G. Moyle

Wednesday Poster Session:
Towards a registry of North American ornithological collections
Hacia un registro de colecciones ornitológicas de América del Norte
Nicholas A. Mason, Allison J. Shultz, Jeremy J. Kirchman, John Bates, Carla Cicero, and AOS Collections Committee

Wednesday Poster Session:
Salvage shortcomings? Comparing representation between salvaged and actively collected Californian museum specimens
¿Datos deficientes?: Comparación de la representación entre especímenes recuperados y recolectados activamente en museos californianos
Samantha L. Rutledge, Nicholas A. Mason, Carla Cicero

Wednesday Poster Session:
Integrative taxonomy of Tit-like Dacnis (Xenodacnis parina): Quantifying variation in morphometrics, song, and plumage
Taxonomía integrativa de Xenodacnis parina: Cuantificación de la variación en morfometría, canto y plumaje
Anna G. Borne and Nicholas A. Mason

Thursday 11:00
Demographic responses of commensal oceanic swallows to rapid increases in human land use
Respuestas demográficas de las golondrinas oceánicas comensales a los rápidos aumentos en el uso humano de la tierra
Brian M. Myers, Amanda K. Hund, Nicholas Friedman, Dency Gawin, Farah Modh-Taib, Robert Ong, Chamalka Da Silva, Sampath Seneviratne, Thilini Thakshila, and Elizabeth S.C. Scordato

Thursday 12:15
Genomic analysis of a Southeast Asian swallow clade: cryptic diversity, population structure, founder effects and introgression in a long-distance disperser
Análisis genómico de un clado de golondrinas del sudeste asiático: diversidad críptica, estructura de población, efectos fundadores e introgresión en un dispersor de larga distancia
Grant Broyles, Brian Myers, and Elizabeth Scordato

Thursday 14:15
Microstructures alter the appearance of structurally colored and pigmented feathers in tanagers and other birds
Las microestructuras alteran la apariencia de las plumas pigmentadas y coloreadas estructuralmente en tangaras y otras aves
Rosalyn M. Price-Waldman, Allison J. Shultz, and Mary Caswell Stoddard

Thursday 15:00
Comparative evolution of visual system sensitivity and color diversity in birds
Evolución comparativa de la sensibilidad del sistema visual y la diversidad de colores en las aves
Whitney L. E. Tsai, Noah Medina, Tania Romero, Allison J. Shultz, John E. McCormack, Thomas B. Smith, and Michael E. Alfaro

Friday 9:00 am
***Plenary: AOS 2022 Ned K. Johnson Early Investigator Award winner***
“Flashy Feathers and Microscopic Microstructures: How and Why Birds Are Colorful“
Dr. Allison Shultz

Friday 12:00
Modular trait genetic architecture in a recent radiation of alpine and arctic songbirds
Arquitectura genética de rasgos modulares en una radiación reciente de pájaros cantores alpinos y árticos
Erik R. Funk, Garth M. Spellman, Kevin Winker, Jack J. Withrow, Kristen C. Ruegg, and Scott A. Taylor

Friday 14:30
Phylogenomics and integrative taxonomy of the Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca) species complex
Filogenómica y taxonomía integrativa del complejo de especies del chingolo zorruno (Passerella iliaca)
Nicholas A. Mason, Subir B. Shakya, Emma Arulanatham, Elisa T. Yang, and Rauri C.K. Bowie

Friday 14:30
Community science is a bridge between researchers and the general public
La ciencia comunitaria es un puente entre los investigadores y el público en general
Allison J. Shultz and Sam Tayag

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Burns Lab Updates Spring 2022

Time for an update of recent Burns lab news!

First off, we had a great semester in Biology 524 Ornithology class. It was wonderful to do a full set of in person field trips for the first time since 2018, and we were able to do two sections with the help of Jonah Alderson as TA.  In fact, we saw so many birds that we broke the previous class record of 168 species and saw 169 species this semester. Highlights include this Bald Eagle that we watched fishing at Lake Hodges. More photo highlights of this year’s field trips can be seen here. Thanks to Dr. Nick Barber, Jonah Alderson, and Sarah Hood for field trip help! 

Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle, Lake Hodges

MS student Sarah Hood successfully proposed her thesis on evolution of migration in Allen’s Hummingbirds. Sarah is using genomes and isotope analyses to search for genes underlying migration in these tiny birds. Congrats Sarah!

Allen's Hummingbird
Allen’s Hummingbird, the subject of Sarah’s research

Second year PhD student Michael Tofflemire received grants to support his research from the Chapman fund of the American Museum, the American Ornithological Society, and the Society of Systematic Biologists. Michael is combining species traits with comparative phylogenomics to look at the influence of ecology on generating biodiversity. Way to go Michael! Michael has been spending the academic year at UC Riverside as part of our joint PhD program. Although he is enjoying his time in Riverside, it will be great to have him back full time in San Diego next year.

Wrentit
Wrentit, one of the birds that Michael is studying; photo by Brian Myers

First year MS student Jonah Alderson is off to a great start. He received grants from the American Ornithological Society as well as the Chapman fund of the American Museum to support his research on the genomics of introduced populations of the Scaly-breasted Munia. Way to go Jonah!

Scaly-breasted Munia
Scaly-breasted Munia, the subject of Jonah’s research

Some Alumni News:

Former Burns lab student Brian Myers published another paper from his PhD at SDSU. The paper, published in Animal Behaviour, presents an analysis of complex courtship displays in hummingbirds using a new approach. His analyses reveal how some hybrid hummingbirds show transgressive courtship sequences. You can download the paper here. Brian is currently a post-doc in the Scordato lab at Cal Poly Pomona.

Allen's and Rufous Hummingbird courtship elements, displays, and bouts, from Myers et al. 2022
Allen’s and Rufous Hummingbird courtship elements, displays, and bouts, figure from Myers et al. 2022

Former Burns lab MS student Amelia Demery (now a PhD student at Cornell) received the Florence Merriam Bailey Award, given by the American Ornithological Society to the outstanding article published in Ornithology by an early-career AOS member. She received the award for her paper “Bill size, bill shape, and body size constrain bird song evolution on a macroevolutionary scale”. Amelia’s paper was one of the chapters of her MS thesis at SDSU. Cornell also wrote an article about her study. Congrats Amelia! Here is a link to the paper and here what the AOS has to say about Amelia’s paper and her award:

Description of Amelia's award from the American Ornithological Society

Burns lab associate and former MS student Allison Shultz received the Ned K. Johnson Early Investigator Award from the American Ornithological Society. This is an incredibly prestigious honor and well deserved! Allison will be giving a plenary at this year’s conference in Puerto Rico. Congratulations Allison! Here’s what the AOS has to say about Allison’s many contributions to the field of ornithology:   

Description of Allison's Award from American Ornithological Society

Amelia & Allison, award winners!
Amelia & Allison, award winners!

Lastly, here’s a picture of the Burns lab celebrating Sarah’s successful proposal. First time the 2021-2022 version of the Burns lab was able to get together!

Burns lab 2021-2022; Sarah, Michael, Kevin, and Jonah
Sarah, Michael, Kevin, and Jonah
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Introducing the Inti Tanager – a genus and species of bird new to science!

Inti Tanager (Heliothraupis oneilli); photo by co-author Ryan Terrill

Introducing the Inti Tanager! – a genus and species of bird new to science from the Andes of Peru and Bolivia. The world “Inti” is the Quechua word for Sun, reflecting the bright yellow color of the bird. The bird was spotted back in 2000 by Dan Lane from Louisiana State University. However, it took many years of study for a careful description to be written and finally published. Dan is the lead author of the paper, with several co-authors including Burns lab members. Our lab’s contribution was working on the genetics. The bird is so unusual, it was hard to even figure out to which family the bird belonged just based on its appearance. The most likely candidate family seemed to be tanagers. Tanagers are the largest family of songbirds and the group of birds the Burns lab has been working on for many years. Through analysis of its DNA sequences, we were able to show it is indeed a tanager, and also we were able to pinpoint where exactly within the tanager family the bird belongs. Turns out it’s most closely related to the Black-goggled Tanager and the Gray-head Tanager. Although it clearly belongs with the tanagers, the bird was so different in appearance and DNA from other tanagers, we gave the bird a new genus name. This is noteworthy since only about 10 new genera have been described in the last 50 years. The genus name we chose is Heliothraupis which comes from Greek words that roughly translate to “Sun Tanager”. Thus, the genus name reflects the common name of the bird. The DNA work in our lab was done in two stages. Former Burns lab student Luke Klicka (now a professor at Peru State College) sequenced several mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Several years later, another Burns lab student, Rosalyn Price-Waldman (now a PhD candidate at Princeton), sequenced thousands of genetic loci known as Ultraconserved elements. Together, the data showed where this bird fit within the avian evolutionary tree, and we are excited to finally be able to share this amazing bird with the rest of the world!

Some media coverage:

Slate, Audubon, SDSU Newscenter, Birdwatching Daily, Daily Mail, La Republica, Daily Aztec, extended Slate article

The paper can be downloaded here: https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukab059

Inti Tanager by Daniel Lane
Frontispiece painting of Inti Tanager by Daniel Lane, included with the paper (https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukab059)
Phylogenetic Relationship of Inti Tanager relative to other tanagers, from our paper
(https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukab059); paintings by Daniel Lane

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AOS & SCO-SOC 2021 Meeting

Burns lab members past and present will be well represented at this week’s virtual American Ornithological Society Conference. Here is a list of presentations that include former and current Burns lab members (in bold). Current members also have an asterisk.

All times Eastern:

Monday, 9 August; Session 6; 14:26
Determining bird colors from digital images for high-throughput analyses of color evolution
Whitney L. E. Tsai, Shawn T. Schwartz, Elizabeth A. Karan, Mark S. Juhn, Mackenzie Perillo, Trevor Brokowski, Allison J. Shultz, Thomas B. Smith, and Michael E. Alfaro

Tuesday, 10 August; Session 4; 10:13
Degree of habitat heterogeneity correlates with the evolution of plumage colorfulness (Cardinalidae)
Scott BF*, Shultz AJ, Burns KJ*

Tuesday, 10 August; Session 4; 11:05
Speciation and color evolution in hummingbirds
Beltrán DF, Shultz AJ, Parra JL

Wednesday, 11 August, Session 7; 10:13
Combining genetic, morphometric and ecological-niche modeling methods to assess the evolutionary origins of the Black-throated Gray Warbler Setophaga nigrescens)
Tofflemire MA*, Klicka J, Epperly K

Wednesday, 11 August; Session 8; 14:39
Dorsal color variation among subspecies of the “Oregon” Dark-eyed Junco complex
Yang ET, Unitt P, Mason NA

Wednesday 11 August 11, Session 8; 14:52
Analyzing the population structure of the Pacific Swallow, a highly dispersive island-inhabiting species
Broyles G, Myers B, Scordato E

Wednesday, 11 August; 17:30 – 19:00
Poster Session: Evolution, genomics, and phylogenetics;
A resolved phylogeny of Cardinalidae based on ultraconserved elements
Scott BF*, Klicka J, Burns KJ*

Wednesday, 11 August; 17:30 – 19:00
Poster Session: Annual cycle and breeding biology
Investigating the genetic mechanisms of bill color plasticity and its environmental drivers across time and space
Demery A-JC, Houtz J, Lovette IJ et al.

Thursday, 12 August; Session 7, 14:00 
A supergene underlies phenotypic variation in redpolls
Funk ER, Mason NA, Taylor SA et al.

Thursday, 12 August; Session 7; 14:13
The importance of gene flow in archipelagos: Case study in a Pacific island flycatcher
Gyllenhaal EF, Klicka LB, DeCicco LH et al.  

Friday 13 August 1, Session 8; 10:39
Variations in genomic architecture among Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestris) along an elevational gradient in western USA
Shakya SB, Wang-Claypool CY, Cicero C, Bowie RCK, Mason NA 

Friday 13 August 1, Session 6; 15:05
Demographic inference of commensal swallows in southeast Asia and Oceania
Myers BM, Hund AK, Friedman N et al.

Friday 13 August 1, Session 8; 15:05
Morphology of migration: Associations between wing shape, bill morphology, and migration in kingbirds (Tyrannus)
MacPherson M, Jahn A, Mason NA

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Congrats Nick – a year late!

Nick Vinciguerra is back in San Diego for a visit, so this gave us a chance for a little in-person celebration of his MS defense since we couldn’t celebrate in person last year. Organized by Jenna – a little bird hike at Mission Trails Park (with a surprise hooding!), followed by lunch and cake a Eureka. Congrats Nick!

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Burns Lab Updates Spring 2021

Time for an update of Burns lab news from the past 6 months. First off, I would like to highlight three recent papers by Burns lab students:

Nick Vinciguerra published one of the chapters of his MS thesis, looking at bill evolution in tanagers:

Bill diversity in tanagers, from Vinciguerra et al. 2021

Amelia Demery published one of the chapters of her MS thesis, together with former Burns lab student Nick Mason. She looked at the interplay between song and bill evolution in tanagers:

Figure from Demery et al. 2021, showing vocalizations of Sporophila angoensis

Brian Myers published another paper from his dissertation. This paper focused on Allen’s Hummingbirds, highlighting their colonization from the Channel Islands to mainland California. He also wrote a blog post about it. 

Figure from Myers et al. 2021; Allen’s Hummingbird and distribution on the Channel Islands and mainland California

In addition to papers, huge congratulations to Sarah Hood who received a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Sarah just finished the second year of her MS studying population genetics and migration in the Allen’s Hummingbird.

Sarah Hood and Allen’s Hummingbird

Congrats also to Burns lab undergraduate Aubtin Rouhbakhsh who was admitted to the graduate program at the University of Hawaii. We wish Aubtin the best of luck!

Aubtin watching Allen’s Hummingbirds

Congrats to graduate student Michael Tofflemire who received a grant from LA Audubon’s Schreiber fund for his dissertation research on the comparative phylogeography of California birds.

Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata), one of the birds Michael is studying for his dissertation

Lastly, starting in late March, we were able to resume in-person Ornithology class field trips. It was great to take students in the field again. Below are some photo highlights. Check this link for some more pictures of Ornithology class field trips this year and previous years.

Black-chinned Hummigbird, Mission Trails Regional Park
Greater Roadrunner, Mission Trails Regional Park
Snowy Egret, San Diego River
Acorn Woodpecker, Mount Laguna
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