Behavioral Ecology of Tropical Birds

Bridget Stutchbury is a Distinguished Research Professor of Biology at York University in Toronto, Canada. She is an internationally recognized expert on songbird behavior, migration, and conservation. She and her graduate students have studied mating systems, communication, and territory defense in a range of resident passerines in Panama, as well as the non-breeding ecology of migrants in Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica. She has also published numerous papers on the behavioral ecology of temperate-breeding passerines and she pioneered the use of light-level geolocators to track start-to-finish long distance migration of small birds. Dr. Stutchbury is the recipient of numerous research awards, including a Canada Research Chair award, the Margaret Morse Nice Award for lifetime achievement from the Wilson Ornithological Society, the Elliott Coues Award for outstanding and innovative contributions to ornithological research from the American Ornithological Society, and the Jamie Smith Memorial Mentoring Award from the Society of Canadian Ornithology. Eugene Morton is a Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. He received his PhD in Evolutionary Biology from Yale University. He has written several books on avian communication. He has studied tropical birds since 1964, chiefly in Panama, but also in Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela. His tropical research has focused on frugivory, vocal communication and the winter ecology of migrants. Dr. Morton has worked extensively on both Nearctic-Neotropical migratory birds and tropical birds, giving him a unique perspective on the evolution of the bird behavior. Dr. Morton was awarded the William Brewster Medal for his exceptional body of work on birds of the Western Hemisphere from the American Ornithological Society. He has served on the boards on numerous bird and conservation associations and was once President of the Association of Field Ornithologists.

1. Why are tropical birds interesting? 2. Breeding seasons 3. Life history traits 4. Pace of life 5. Mating systems and mate choice 6. Territoriality 7. Migration and movement behavior 8. Communication 9. Biotic Interactions 10. Conservation and behavior 11. Conclusion: Is the temperate zone bias still a problem?