About this Event
Most bird enthusiasts are familiar with the intricate, beautiful songs of male songbirds. However, it is less well known that females of many bird species also sing. While male songbirds sing to attract mates or defend territories, the reasons that females sing can be much broader, including competing for year-round resources for herself and her young. However, there is still a lot to learn about the extent of differences between male and female songs, the reasons that female songbirds sing, and the evolutionary pressures that led female songbirds to sing in the first place. Dr. Karan Odom will provide a glimpse into the world's diversity of female bird songs and explain what these natural divas have to tell us.
Karan Odom is an Assistant Professor at University of the Pacific and a behavioral ecologist. She has a particular interest in the evolution of elaborate bird songs in female as well as male songbirds. She combines phylogenetic comparative methods with field studies to tease apart the evolutionary processes responsible for the sexual dimorphism we see in female and male song today. Karan recently came to Stockton after holding postdoctoral positions at the University of Maryland, College Park and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Karan received her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) studying male and female song in troupials, a tropical oriole in Puerto Rico. She earned her Master's at the University of Windsor in Ontario, studying the function and geographic variation in Barred Owl duets. Karan also runs a citizen science project (the Female Bird Song Project- www.femalebirdsong.org), encouraging wildlife enthusiasts to help document the understudied singing behaviors of female songbirds.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Central United Methodist Church, 3700 Pacific Avenue, Stockton, United States
USD 0.00
