The citation:

Szabo, I., S. Cavaghan, G. Hurley, and D.E. Irwin. 2014. A call for the preservation of images, recordings, and other data in association with avian genetic samples, and the introduction of a solution: OMBIRDS. The Auk: Ornithological Advances 131: 321-326. Link

Feel free to email Darren Irwin for a PDF.

For more information, please see the OMBIRDS page at the Beaty Museum’s website:

http://beatymuseum.ubc.ca/ombirds

The full citation:

Toews, D.P.L., A. Brelsford, and D.E. Irwin. 2014. Isotopic variation across the Audubon’s–myrtle warbler hybrid zone. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 27: 1179-1191.  Link

On April 23rd, Michelle Chen gave an excellent defense of her Honours Thesis, titled “Song Divergence: the Case of Wilson’s Warblers (Cardellina pusilla). Congrats Michelle!

Dave Toews defended his Ph.D., titled “Hybridization, Speciation and the Biogeography of Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Setophaga Warblers,” with much success on April 14th, 2004. We all wish Dr. Toews all the best with his future work. We have greatly enjoyed Dave’s presence as a M.Sc. and then Ph.D. student, and will miss him very much.

Haley Kenyon defended her MSc thesis, titled “Song in a hybrid zone between Townsend’s and black-throated green warblers,” with much success on Dec. 11th, 2013. Congrats Haley!!

Julie defended her thesis, titled “Understanding parapatric range limits in the Long-toed Salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum),” with much success on Friday, December 7th, 2013.

We wish Julie all the best with her move to Switzerland for a postdoc with Prof. Dr. Yvonne Willi, at the University of Neuchâtel, where Julie will continue studying range limits, this time with plants. She will be missed here at UBC!

Congrats to Dave!

The full citation:

Toews, D.P.L., M. Mandic, J.G. Richards, and D.E. Irwin. 2013. Migration, mitochondria, and the yellow-rumped warbler. Evolution 68: 241-255. Link; PDF

See also:

The UBC press release
The Guardian article
New Scientist article
Science Daily article
10,000 Birds article

Congrats to Julie on a very nice paper!

Lee-Yaw, J.A., and D.E. Irwin. 2012. Large geographic range size reflects a patch-work of divergent lineages in the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum). Journal of Evolutionary Biology, published online ahead of print.

Here is a UBC press release.

Delmore, K.E., J.W. Fox, and D.E. Irwin. 2012. Dramatic intraspecific differences in migratory routes, stopover sites and wintering areas revealed using light-level geolocators. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, published online ahead of print.

This paper is getting quite a bit of coverage in the popular press:

Kira’s CBC Radio interview with Daybreak South host Chris Walker

Articles in:
Huffington Post: “Birds with backpacks help UBC track bird migration“
Maclean’s: “Tiny backpacks show birds don’t always flock together“
Vancouver Sun: “B.C. birds lug backpacks along migration, fill them with data”
The Province: “Backpack-toting birds give UBC researchers something to crow about”
Birdwatch Magazine: “Swainson’s thrushes keep their distance”
ScienceDaily: “Backpack-toting birds help researchers reveal migratory divide, conservation hotspots”

Congrats to Julie, Dave, and Kira on their student talk awards!!! Details below:

Julie Lee-Yaw:  Stoye Award from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, for her talk on ” Evidence for reduced feeding performance in a contact zone between long-toed salamander subspecies,” presented at the World Congress of Herpetology, Vancouver, BC, 8-14 August 2012.

David Toews: Student presentation award from the Society of Canadian Ornithologists, for his talk on “Introgression in the yellow-rumped warbler species complex: can variation in migratory behavior explain differences in mitochondrial genotype and phenotype in a cryptic hybrid zone?” Presented at the 5^th North American Ornithological Conference, Vancouver, BC, 14-18 August 2012.

Kira Delmore: Student presentation award from Bird Studies Canada for her talk on “Tracking Swainson’s thrushes along divergent migratory pathways using light-level geolocators,” presented at the 5^th North American Ornithological Conference, Vancouver, BC, 14-18 August 2012.

Excellent talks were also given at the NAOC-V by MSc student Haley Kenyon (“Can song discriminate between MacGillivray’s and mourning warblers in a narrow hybrid zone?”) and postdoctoral researchers Dr. Sampath Seneviratne (“Phenotypic and genetic variation across hybrid zones between three allospecies of sapsuckers”) and Dr. Miguel Alcaide (“Genomics of a ring species, the greenish warbler Phylloscopus trochiloides“).