Ornithology

In collaboration with students at the State University of New York at Albany, 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. High-elevation populations may be imperiled by ongoing climate warming, and we want to know if these populations of Bicknell’s Thrush, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and other boreal forest specialists are genetically distinct and evolving independently of one another.