Linking diet, song, and evolution in tropical birds
- Datum: 27.05.2025
- Uhrzeit: 11:00 - 12:00
- Vortragende(r): Jeff Podos
- University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Biology
- Ort: MPI BI Seewiesen
- Raum: MPI BI Seewiesen, seminar room, house 4
- Gastgeber: Henrik Brumm
- Kontakt: henrik.brumm@bi.mpg.de

The mating songs of birds serve multiple functions, and are subject to wide-ranging pressures that influence the evolution of song structure.
In this seminar I will discuss our research on how birds' songs may be influenced by divergence in morphology, especially related to diet, and will also explore what diet x song connections might mean for bird evolution. Towards this end I will review some of our work on two tropical bird radiations: Darwin's finches of the Galápagos Islands, and Cotingas (including the world's loudest birds) of mainland South America. Our studies suggest that diet x song connections may impact, as incidental effects, key processes in bird evolution including reproductive isolation, speciation, and sexual selection.