Research

My dissertation research focuses on the variation within the early developmental environments of mountain chickadees and how it is related to parental quality and the future spatial cognitive performance of the young.

I study mountain chickadees within a long-term field system in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, USA

Reproductive monitoring

I have contributed to six years of data collection surrounding the breeding of mountain chickadees. We track timing of breeding initiation, clutch and brood sizes, and the quality of offspring across years and two montane elevation sites. 

Photo: the photo to the right shows a red/pink nest that was part of a supplemental materials study in which we provided chickadees with sheep's wool.

Measuring Spatial Cognition in the Wild

I am interested in food-caching behaviors and how animals such as chickadees utilize specialized spatial cognitive abilities in order to survive in harsh winter environments. I have helped collect cognitive data from wild mountain chickadees for 6 years and, in the process, encountered quite a bit of snow! 

Photos: show radio frequency identification equipped feeders and the special equipment (skis and snowmobiles) we use to get into the woods to collect data

Developmental conditions and future cognitive performance

Asking how the developmental environment shapes phenotypic variation in wild populations is one of my primary research interests. Chickadees spend a great deal of time in the nest (22 days) and how they cope with perturbations such as ectoparasite loads or non-ideal thermal conditions is still uncertain. I have used techniques such as measuring glucocorticoids in the tail feathers grown during development and blood differential analysis to investigate how chickadees respond to influences from the parent and the environment. These measures can then be related to their future cognitive performance. 

(Photos: avian blood cells, feather with visible dark and light horizontal growth bars, nest components with ectoparasites.)

Chickadee nest building

I am curious in understanding the flexibility of nest building behavior in mountain chickadees and have tracked nests across four years, including two years with field manipulations to available nest substrate materials.

(Photos: early nest building, large natural nest with owl pellet material, nest containing supplemental wool, another natural nest.)

PIT tagged bird

container with RFID tech and battery attached to antenna

internal copper antenna

Parental care

How many times does a chickadee visit its nestlings during development? 4,000 times! I use radio frequency technology to measure the visitation of parents to our nest box population. I am interested in whether or not older or higher quality (better spatial cognitive performance) males and females may invest differently in their young.

(Photos: male chickadee leaving the nest after a feed, an older generation Eli Bridge RFID board, Video of male feeding young.)

moch_feeding.mp4