Image taken by Daryl Coldren.
Interests
The path toward ornithology is an avenue I regularly tread, but have only recently begun to realize as a professional career avenue. My goals for an ornithological career would be to study ecology and genetics of telluraves to understand the evolutionary pressures on their communities. My goal with this line of research is to promote the conservation of vulnerable taxa and their communities.
Eucavitaves
This group contains some of my favorite birds and my intended focus for initial study—members of the Bucerotiformes and the Coraciiformes. Within this clade, I would like to study how socialization or isolation is expressed in different populations and how it contributes to interactions in the environment.
Tyrannida
Similarly to my goals for the Eucavitaves, I would like to explore the ecology of basal members of the clade within the Pipridae and Cotingidae to drive conservation efforts in the neotropics. Many of this groups members reside in fixed populations, and understanding the anthropogenic impact on these communities is something I would like to study in a professional setting.
Lab & Collections Experience
My lab work consists of working with and preparing skeletons, skins, and alcohol specimens. Along with preparing these specimens, I have worked with the Field Museum’s ornithology collection extensively. I am currently assisting in updating the taxonomy of the skins collection. In the past, I have participated in a larger oVert scan project databasing the Field Museum’s alcohol preserved birds.
Research Experience
My most recent ornithological experience in research is in a multidisciplinary study investigating the effects of diminishing insect populations on swallows. This project was a smaller part of a larger project spanning internationally.
