Feathers Down Under: Exploring the Evolution of Sexual Signals in Australian Fairywrens

*THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT*

The 2025 Paul C. Mundinger Distinguished Lectureship will be given by Mike Webster, Robert G. Engel Professor of Ornithology and Director of the Macaulay Library.

Birds are colorful and birds are loud. In large part this is because they use their plumage and voices to communicate with each other. In particular, males of many species use their bright plumage signals and voices to attract mates and repel rivals. Decades of research have revealed a lot about the evolutionary processes that have led to the diversity of avian colors and songs that we see today, yet many puzzles remain. If bright colors attract females, why do some males adopt less attractive drab plumage? What is the role of these sexual signals in the process of speciation? And why do bright colors and elaborate song evolve in females of some species and not just males? Dr. Webster will give a broad overview of his long-term research on Australian fairywrens, all aimed at better understanding the evolution and function of their stunning plumage and songs.

Mike Webster is the Robert G. Engel Professor of Ornithology at Cornell University. He is Director of the Macaulay Library, the world’s largest collection of animal recordings, and is also a faculty member in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. He does research on the evolution of courtship signals and other behaviors in birds, focusing primarily on fairywrens in Australia and wood warblers in North America.

This lectureship was established in honor of the late Paul Mundinger, who received his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. This event is FREE and open to the public and will also be streamed lived via Zoom. Please see event page below for more details and Zoom link:

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/event/feathers-down-under-exploring-the-evolution-of-sexual-signals-in-australian-fairywrens/

You may also like the following events from Sapsucker Woods at the Cornell Lab:

• This Tuesday, 7th October, 09:30 am, Sapsucker Sits in Ithaca
• This Friday, 10th October, 11:00 am, Family Story Time in Ithaca