Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior

SIB's Commitment to Diversity and Equity

2020-06-01

Dear SIB Community, At the end of May, 2020, Chancellor Jones sent out an email with a powerful message of unity for this campus - we must come together and care for one another. He reminds us that the University of Illinois is a "...

When warblers warn of cowbirds, blackbirds get the message

2020-03-31

This is the story of three bird species and how they interact. The brown-headed cowbird plays the role of outlaw: It lays its eggs in other birds’ nests and lets them raise its young – often at the expense of the host’s nestlings. To combat this threat, yellow warblers have developed a special “...

Study tracks genomic changes that reinforce darter speciation

2020-02-07

Researchers sequenced the genome of the orangethroat darter, pictured, and compared it with that of the rainbow darter, a closely related species. They also hybridized the two species to determine the factors that drive them to diverge.

Professor Andrew Suarez elected AAAS Fellow

2019-11-26

man sitting at desk with camera and pencil

Eight professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to include Entomology's and EEB's Andrew Suarez, have been elected 2019 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Suarez, a...

Birds Raised by Other Species Use 'Password' to Recognize Their Own Kind

2019-11-14

Cowbirds outsource parenting to other species, but an innate password tells their children to copy cowbird songs. Chicago's Sarah London, Illinois' Mark Hauber and Tokyo's...

Fish fathers exhibit signatures of “baby brain” that may aid parental behavior

2019-09-30

Many new parents are familiar with terms like “baby brain” or “mommy brain” that hint at an unavoidable decline in cognitive function associated with the hormonal changes of pregnancy, childbirth, and maternal caregiving. A new study of parental care in stickleback fish is a reminder that such...

Bateman’s Cowbirds – A closer look at monogamy and polygamy in brood parasitic birds

2019-09-30

Researchers at the University of Illinois have shown through a multi-year study that cowbirds (Molothrus ater) conform to Bateman’s Principle, which holds that reproductive success is greater in males than in females when they have more mates. Cowbirds are distinct from 99% of other bird...

Illinois Units, Foundation Fund Purchase of Animal MRI at Beckman Institute

2019-06-27

A Bruker 9.4 Tesla preclinical animal MRI system will be sited at the Beckman Institute. The addition of the system to the institute’s Biomedical Imaging Center will aid in research in many areas, including brain development and function, and cellular mechanisms in cancer. The installation project...

Left eye? Right eye? American robins have preference when looking at decoy eggs

2019-07-24

Just as humans are usually left- or right-handed, other species sometimes prefer one appendage, or eye, over the other. A new study reveals that American robins that preferentially use one eye significantly more than the other when looking at their own clutch of eggs are also more likely to detect...

Taking bird research to new heights

2019-05-01

Mark Hauber broadens our understanding of the avian world

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