June 5 Monthly Meeting: How do Painted Buntings Express Aggression Vocally? 

The Painted Bunting is a very unusual bird.  It is the smallest species that retains female-like plumage into the second year, when males are old enough to breed.  Since small birds typically only live a few years, why can Painted Buntings keep female-like plumage, which seems to be less likely to attract a mate than the mature male plumage?  What, if any, advantage do subadult Painted Buntings gain from retaining this plumage?  Wayne Meyer will report on his research at Hagerman NWR which has been trying to answer these questions.  The answers are surprising.  Come hear about the research and pose the next great question to be investigated.  Perhaps your input will help move this project forward in a new direction.

About the speaker:

Wayne Meyer is Associate Professor and Chair of the Biology department at Austin College, where he has been teaching for 26 years.  He started birding at 13 in Connecticut.  In 1993 he finally achieved his life’s dream of being paid to look at birds when he joined the faculty of Austin College.  He has birded both coasts of the U.S. extensively and now has spent a quarter century birding in Texas and Oklahoma.  The proximity of Austin College to Hagerman NWR has made research on prairie birds easy and convenient and he has been studying song learning and singing in Painted Buntings for over a decade.  Meyer is also a sought after speaker for Master Naturalist groups and a frequent speaker at the Friends of Hagerman NWR second Saturday programs.

The June 2019 Chapter meeting:

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Schedule:
6:30 Meet and eat
7:00 Introduction and Announcements
7:20 Featured Presentation
8:45 Adjournment

The meeting place for June is:
Brookhaven College Miles Building Room H-125
3939 Valley View Lane Farmers Branch, TX 75244

As always all of our meetings are free and open to the public.

Hope to see YOU there!

wbw 5/19/19