Taylor

How mountain chickadees changed their songs to stand out (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today)

David J Lubinski — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 21:42:43 +0000

How mountain chickadees changed their songs to stand out (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today) David J Lubinski Fri, 10/11/2024 - 15:42

Mountain chickadees in Boulder have evolved a different tune to avoid getting mixed up with their black-capped cousins. The results provide real-time evidence for one of Charles Darwin’s famous theories and shed light on how pressure from human activity can impact wildlife’s evolution. The study was led by members of Scott Taylor's Lab.

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Curious patterns of chickadees (How on Earth)

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:14:55 +0000

Curious patterns of chickadees (How on Earth) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/24/2024 - 12:14

Why do black-capped chickadees mate with mountain chickadees? And how does the sharp memory of these songbirds serve them over winter? Listen to a 25-minute KGNU science show, with Scott Taylor and host Susan Moran.

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The redpoll finch saga: How two bird species just became one (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today)

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 21:56:01 +0000

The redpoll finch saga: How two bird species just became one (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/18/2024 - 15:56

The American Ornithological Society announced that the hoary redpoll finch, a small, plump bird commonly found in the Arctic, will be reclassified as the same species as the common redpoll finch, a smaller bird found in similar habitats. This announcement came as a direct result of a 2021 study led by the Taylor Lab which found that, despite their different looks, very few genetic differences exist between the two types of birds.

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Colorado’s chickadees may lose their good memory to adapt to climate change, researchers find (The Colorado Sun)

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2024 23:24:22 +0000

Colorado’s chickadees may lose their good memory to adapt to climate change, researchers find (The Colorado Sun) Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/28/2024 - 17:24

The common mountain bird has an excellent memory for the right perch for free seeds, and has the flexibility to handle climate change. New research from the University of Colorado and colleagues has tightened a claw around the sets of genes that make mountain chickadees some of the most remarkable return-navigators in nature.

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Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today)

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 17:34:52 +0000

Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/17/2024 - 11:34

A multi-university team of researchers, including four members of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder's Taylor Lab, have identified nearly a hundred genes associated with the birds’ spatial memory, or ability to recall the locations of objects. Their paper, published in the journal Current Biology, also suggests a potential trade-off may exist between having a solid long-term memory and being able to quickly ditch old memories to form new ones.

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Students may learn ecology (and much else) in the wild (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 17:31:44 +0000

Students may learn ecology (and much else) in the wild (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/29/2024 - 10:31

Blake Puscher

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Mountain Research Station is offering six field courses this summer, giving students the opportunity to study a wide range of disciplines in nature

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Contemplating evolution: Why making spaces to be curious was important for this gay scientist (RIO community talk on YouTube)

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 22:21:37 +0000

Contemplating evolution: Why making spaces to be curious was important for this gay scientist (RIO community talk on YouTube) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/15/2023 - 15:21

Scott Taylor (INSTAAR Fellow, EBIO Associate Professor, MRS Director) gave a short TED-style talk at the Boulder Dairy Arts Center on October 18, 2023 as part of the 2023 Faculty Fellows program for �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder's Research & Innovation Office (RIO). In his talk, Scott tells the story of his personal journey to a deeper understanding of his work as a scientist and his own place in the world.

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Educating through an 'exceptional experience' (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 23:59:03 +0000

Educating through an 'exceptional experience' (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/13/2023 - 16:59

Heather Hansen

For decades, the Mountain Research Station has been a stepping-off point for researchers studying plant and animal ecology, biogeochemistry, hydrology, geomorphology and atmospheric science. Much of that research takes place on rugged, nearby Niwot Ridge. Within that area lies every type of alpine and montane ecosystem that exists in the southern Rocky Mountains. That abundance has made Niwot Ridge a rare and important ‘living laboratory.’

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Chickadees crossbreed, despite biological barriers

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Chickadees crossbreed, despite biological barriers Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/29/2023 - 00:00

Vishva Nalamalapu

In a small wooden box strapped to a lodgepole pine sits a plump mountain chickadee. She lifts her small bill and white eyebrows and flies out, revealing five chicks that are a week old. Bony and featherless, they nestle together and breathe as one.

Click to zoom and see captions

This box is one of almost 400 that are scattered from the City of Boulder at 5,300 feet to the tree line above the �鶹��Ѱ��’s Mountain Research Station at 11,000 feet. Researchers in the Taylor Lab set up them up to study interactions between higher-elevation dwelling mountain chickadees and the closely related lower-elevation dwelling black capped chickadees. Along with others in the lab, Kathryn Grabenstein, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recently authored a study in Global Change Biology. It investigates what prevents the two species from mating and what happens when they do.

The Taylor Lab researchers have found that mountain and black capped chickadees tend to mate in areas with more human disturbance, such as cities. This most recent study will help predict how human disturbance affects mating between species and how that affects the populations of both. In this way, Grabenstein says that chickadees are “really handy for studying these big questions in evolutionary biology, but they’re also charismatic and fun in their own right.”

Other than those on the �鶹��Ѱ�� and the Mountain Research Station campuses, all the bird boxes are on private land. This comes with some challenges. Grabenstein says, “We have to manage dogs and kids and what gates to come through and what gates to lock. It’s a lot to keep track of, logistically.” But having most of the boxes on private land also helps the community learn about and get involved in the project. The landowners watch the researchers band the birds and collect blood samples, invite them inside to discuss birds over tea and biscuits, and even collect some data themselves. “One of the greatest returns is getting people who weren’t into birds excited about birds in their backyard,” says Grabenstein.

Since 2019, the Taylor lab has been collecting data on which boxes the chickadees breed in and when, how many eggs they lay, and how many chicks hatch. They have also been drawing small blood samples from the adults and chicks, which they use to sequence their DNA. Combining and analyzing these datasets led to some surprising findings.

It turns out, mountain and black capped chickadees have a large overlap in where and when they breed. Despite that, only one of the 477 chickadees whose DNA they sequenced had one mountain and one black capped chickadee parent. Every other chickadee, however, had some DNA from the other species. These chickadees all looked like typical mountain or black capped chickadees, so sequencing their DNA was essential to this discovery. The one chickadee with a parent of each species looked like a blend of the two and did not lay eggs, but those with just some DNA from the other species seemed to reproduce normally.

So, there is likely a large barrier to mountain and black capped chickadees mating. But when they do overcome that barrier, some of their offspring survive and reproduce. This study shows that even rare mating between two species can have far reaching impacts.

Grabenstein is now turning to the question of what causes mountain and black capped chickadees to mate and when they began doing so. She is eager to learn more about these birds that people see every day but often know little about. For her, that is the heart of this work: “We only protect what we care about. We only care about what we know. So, part of my mission as a scientist is to help people know the things and love the things in their backyard.”

Researchers in the Taylor Lab study interactions between higher-elevation dwelling mountain chickadees and the closely related lower-elevation dwelling black capped chickadees. A recent study in Global Change Biology investigates barriers that prevent the two species from mating and what happens when they do mate and produce offspring.

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A world-class field research station in �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s backyard (�鶹��Ѱ��RIO)

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 22:04:05 +0000

A world-class field research station in �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s backyard (�鶹��Ѱ��RIO) Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/18/2023 - 16:04

Heather Hansen

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Mountain Research Station has a three-pronged mission—host some of the most influential and long-running ecological research in the world, give students a peerless education in mountain environments, and link the public to learning about important ecosystems.

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Taylor

How mountain chickadees changed their songs to stand out (�鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder Today)

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Curious patterns of chickadees (How on Earth)

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The redpoll finch saga: How two bird species just became one (�鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder Today)

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Colorado’s chickadees may lose their good memory to adapt to climate change, researchers find (The Colorado Sun)

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Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why (�鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder Today)

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Students may learn ecology (and much else) in the wild (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

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Contemplating evolution: Why making spaces to be curious was important for this gay scientist (RIO community talk on YouTube)

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Educating through an 'exceptional experience' (�鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder)

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Chickadees crossbreed, despite biological barriers

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A world-class field research station in �鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder’s backyard (�鶹��Ѱ�����RIO)

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How mountain chickadees changed their songs to stand out (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today)

The redpoll finch saga: How two bird species just became one (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today)

Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today)

Educating through an 'exceptional experience' (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

A world-class field research station in �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s backyard (�鶹��Ѱ��RIO)