The Redbud Audubon Society is pleased to host Dr. Daniel Baldassarre at its Jan. 16, 2025 Zoom program starting at 7 p.m.
Dr. Baldassarre is an Associate Professor and Provost Teaching Fellow in the SUNY Oswego Department of Biological Sciences in New York. The title of his program is “Linking extreme behavior and biodiversity in birds.”
“I am interested in animal behavior and biodiversity, and especially love studying birds,” Baldassarre says. To study avian biodiversity, he focused on small populations of birds and looked for connections between extreme behaviors and broad-scale patterns. For example, how does the promiscuous sexual behavior of subspecies of the Australian Red-backed Fairy-wren affect whether or not they will interbreed? Does the Galápagos Vampire Finch’s bizarre habit of drinking blood mean it is on a trajectory to become a new species?
“In the southwestern USA, is the Phainopepla really two cryptic species that breed in different locations at different times of the year? Come to my seminar to find out!” the scientists urges.
Dr. Baldassarre grew up in Tully, NY, received his undergraduate degree at Syracuse University, attended the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for his PhD, and did postdoctoral research at the University of Miami and Princeton University. He has been fortunate to study birds in Alaska, Namibia, Costa Rica, Australia, The Galápagos Islands, California, and New York. For more information about his research go to: www.danbaldassarre.weebly.com and follow him on Twitter: @evornithology.
To register for the program, click on the registration link on the home page. If you receive the newsletter by email, you can click on the “Redbud Audubon Program Registration,” link on the front page of the newsletter. Please register early, the link to attend will be sent the day of the program.
