Ornithology Lecture 1

• USGS biologist
• president of American Ornithologists' Union

• Neo-Darwinian 
• Biological species concept

Domain:         Eukarya

Kingdom:       Animalia

Phylum:         Chordata

*subphylum*: Vertebrata

Class:            Aves

142

roughly 2,000

Approx 10,000

• Lumpers group species together despite variation
• Splitters separate by variation (esp. DNA)

40,000 year old paintins in Australia, Apache rock paintings, CP, "The Birds", etc

• Englishman who lived in VA
• Published Natural History of Caroline, Florida and the Bahama Islands in mid 1700s.
• First published work on the flora and fauna of NA
• Still pictures

Natural History of Caroline, Florida and Bahama Islands

by Mark Catesby

• Wrote American Onithology (early 1800s)
• "The Father of American Ornithology)
• Son of a Scottish smuggler
• more life in illustrations than Catesby

• Wrote Birds of America
• life-sized prints (elephant-folio)
• more artistic, brought birds to life
• Showed birds in action and detailed life history

• 1859: Origin of Species
• based his theory on morphological characteristics of Galapagos finches

• Wrote The Birds of Oklahoma in 1931; it was the first written organized record of species in OK
• Pioneered the techniques for observing animals in the wild
• Lived in Norman, where her husband was on the OU faculty.
• First female president of the Wilson Ornithological Society

• great illustrator and writer
• Important in OK ornithology

• Ex. Oklahoma Ornithological Society
• publishes the Bulletin of the Oklahoma Ornithological Society (BOOS)

• Founder of Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
• only systematic study of ivory billed woodpeckers (produced only recordings and videos)
• started citizen scientist mvt

1936 study of ivory billed woodpeckers in a Louisianna swap

• extinct in the wild in 1885
• large colonies were easily targeted
• development of railways allowed quick transportation.
• Habitat loss

sold bird feathers for use in hats

• ornithologist who found 40 different species on 700 ladies' hats in N
• started Christmas bird count

published first "Audubon" magazine dedicated to raising awareness of the conservation of native birds.

• first 1,000 ladies who came together to protest the use of wild bird feathers.
• got state to pass a law banning sale of wild bird feathers
• late 1800s

• the long feathers taken from breeding herons/egrets
• prized for hats

• first National Wildlife Refuge at Pelican Island, FL
• set up to protect birds from plume hunters
• American Ornithologists' Union paid to hire a warden 

National Wildlife Federation's highest honor

• 1918
• outlaws the hunt, pursuit, capture, annoyance, trade, etc of migratory birds
• requires permit to hunt, band birds, or pick up feathers.

• fattened up before migration (from Alaska, to New England, to South America)
• "doe birds"
• hunted for food.

• "lover of grubs, principally"
• Ivory Billed Woodpecker
• white spots visible when perched
• flew above forest canopy
• 3rd largest woodpecker in the world

• Broken Bow Lake 
• was later flooded 

• observed by Mark Catesby 
• specimen caught by Wilson
• Audubon expressed concern for the species in the 1820s
• targeted by collectors and for their feathers

• 1935
• Cornell expedition
• estimated 22 individuals left
• Doc Allen, Doc Sutton, Lekkogg, Tanner, and Kuhn.

Year the Ivory Billed Woodpecker went extinct

• area of study for Camp Ephilus
• sold by Singer to Chicago Mill
• Conservation groups gathered enough money to buy it, but the Chicago Mill refused to sell.

• territory required for 36 Pileated Woodpeckers
• and 126 Red-headed Woodpeckers

• a sighting occurred at Pearl River with 2 Ivory Billed Woodpeckers 
• lead to Zeiss Expedition

• Northern Bobwhite
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Field Sparrow
• Grasshopper Sparrow
• ALL OF THEM ARE GRASSLAND BIRDS

• hunting
• landscape conversion
• invasive species
• pollution
• building collisions
• bycatch

• 1-10 individuals per building per year
• schools, Pentagon, all count as 1 building making for a conservative study.
• 100 million- 1 billion bird deaths

• 4 year study
• more deaths during fall migration

x²

social interactions can strongly influence foraging behavior

2.4 billion

• conducted cat predation study 
• incoming faculty member

5 species

• Whooping Crane (E)
• Interior Least Tern (E)
• Red-cockaded Woodpecker (E)
• Black-capped Vireo (E)
• Piping Plover (T)

Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation

USFWS-lef initiatives to build cooperative endeavors among federal agencies, state agencies, NGOs, etc

• proposed new geologic era we are currently in
• characterested by human cultural dominance 
• debated start date; unsure if it starts with agriculture or industrialization.
• primarily proposed by Paul Crutzen

1.7 million

• Primary mechanism for evolutionary chage
• Depends on inherited variability of traits which may be more advantageous and allow individuals to produce more offspring.

acts upon individuals

acts on populations

exchange of genetic material within a population

evolutionary history of an organism

field of study that seeks to reconstruct phylogenies

change over time within a single lingeage (from one ancestor)

• Pre-mating: mating not even attempted
• Post-mating: individuals capable of mating, but either have offspring that are sterile or not viable.

courtship behaviors directed toward phenotypically similar individuals

courtship behaviors directed toward phenotypically dissimilar individuals

• Binomial nomenclature
• each species is given a name in Greek or Latin consisting of a capitalized name indicated the genus and a lower case name indicating the species

• structures that develop though convergent evolution 
• often used in phenetics

indicate a common evolutionary origin, regardless of how the structure appears

process through which one taxon gives rise to many others that exploit availableniches.

two or more discrete phenotypes in a sympatric population

repeated sequences of 1–6 base pairs of DNA. High mutation rates result in lots ofpolymorphisms – in other words, there are lots of different alleles to examine in a microsatellite. Thesecan indicate genetic diversity within populations of the same species.

dispersal is happening without human intervention.