Dr. Jeremy J. Kirchman

Curator of Birds and Mammals
jeremy.kirchman@nysed.gov
518-474-1441

I am broadly interested in the evolution and biogeography of birds, but most of my research focuses on populations found on islands. Islands have long been considered “natural laboratories of evolution”, and studying birds on islands teaches us much about speciation, extinction, and adaptation.  I have a special interest in one group of birds, the rails (Rallidae), which are great island colonists, found even on the most remote oceanic islands.  Many rail species have evolved to become totally flightless on islands that lack mammalian predators. Closer to home, I am studying several species of birds that breed in “islands” of coniferous (boreal) forest isolated above 3000 feet of elevation in New York’s mountain ranges. I want to know if these populations of Bicknell’s Thrush, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Spruce Grouse and other boreal forest specialists are genetically isolated and evolving independently of one another. These high-elevation populations may be imperiled as the climate continues to warm.

Publications

2021

P. Drooker 2021, Sources and Significance of Pipestone Artifacts from Fort Ancient Sites, Midcontinenetal Journal of Archaeology 46, 17–52..

2017

P. Drooker 2017, Fabric Fragments from Pine Island, Alabama: Indicator of an Evolving Male Costume Item, Southeastern Archaeology 36, 75-84. 10.1080/0734578X.2016.1247633
Drooker, P., 2017. The Fabric of Power: Textiles in Mississippian Politics and Ritual, in: Waselkov, G., Smith, M. (Eds.), Forging Southeastern Identities: Social Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Folklore of the Mississippian to Early Historic South. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, pp. 16-40.

2012

P. Drooker 2012, European Trade Goods at the Ripley Site: Implications for Interaction Networks and Chronology, Northeast Anthropology 77-78, 89-138.

2011

P. Drooker, V. Steponaitis, S. Swanson, G. Wheeler 2011, The Provenance and Use of Etowah Palettes, American Antiquity 76, 81-106. 10.7183/0002-7316.76.1.81
P. Drooker 2011, Using Replication-Related Techniques to Examine the Significance of Fabrics in Mississippian Society, Ethnoarchaeology 3, 163-186. 10.1179/eth.2011.3.2.163

2010

P. Drooker, J. Hart 2010, Soldiers, Cities, and Landscapes: Papers in Honor of Charles L. Fisher, New York State Museum Bulletin The University of the State of New York, Albany, New York
Bradley, J., Younge, M.H., Kozlowski, A., 2010. The Sundler Sites: Reconstructing the Late Pleistocene Landscape and its People in the Capital Region of New York, in: Drooker, P., Hart, J. (Eds.), Soldiers, Cities, and Landscapes: Papers in Honor of Charles L. Fisher. The University of the State of New York, Albany, New York, pp. 213-224.
Orser, C., 2010. Foreword, in: Drooker, P., Hart, J. (Eds.), Soldiers, Cities, and Landscapes: Papers in Honor of Charles L. Fisher. The University of the State of New York, Albany, New York, pp. xiii-xiv.
Pickands, M., 2010. A Local Industry Reflects a Local Community—The Watts Blacksmith Shop, in: Drooker, P., Hart, J. (Eds.), Soldiers, Cities, and Landscapes: Papers in Honor of Charles L. Fisher. The University of the State of New York, Albany, New York, pp. 281-293.