Phylo-birding: How Phylogeny and Biogeography Can Make Birding Better

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Phylo-birding: How Phylogeny and Biogeography Can Make Birding Better

How can phylogeny and biogeography enrich your birding experience? Phylogeny, the tree of relationships among species, is useful on its own but can also be used to help discover biogeography, the patterns of geographic distribution of species. Both can move birding beyond the initial identification of species and observation of behavior. Every species has a story. Where does it fit on the tree of birds? How did the species in an area come to be there? Those questions are the essence of phylo-birding.

This presentation will be given by avian phylogeneticist Dr. John Harshman. After the presentation, you will be able to put phylo-birding into practice by signing up for a field trip led by John at either Joseph D. Grant County Park on May 19 or Ulistac Natural Area on May 25.

A meeting link will be sent out the day of the presentation, within an hour before the start of the talk.

Banner Photo: Wilson's Warbler by Sarah Chang