THE LINNAEAN SOCIETY OF NEW YORK SPEAKERS PROGRAM Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 7:30 p.m. The American Museum of Natural History, Linder Theater Speaker: Janis L. Dickinson, Associate Professor in the Departments of Natural Resources and Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University and the Arthur A, Allen Director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Subject: Under the Mistletoe: The Evolution of Families in Western Bluebirds Prof. Dickinson's ongoing research program involves using a long-term study of color-banded Western Bluebirds as a model system for testing key hypotheses regarding the evolution of mating systems, sex ratio, dispersal behavior, cooperative breeding, migration and life-history traits. At the site, mistletoe grows on deciduous oaks and produces a sustained berry crop over the winter. It appears to be a form of wealth that drives family group living in Western Bluebirds. This talk will focus on the relative importance of mistletoe and parental nepotism in driving the first steps of cooperative breeding, the decision of young to remain home for their first winter and breed near parents. Janis Dickinson received her Ph.D. in Entomology/Animal Behavior from Cornell University in 1987. While doing her early research work in the Hastings Natural History Reserve in Carmel Valley, California, she held several positions at UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Her early study was insects, and she has authored or co-authored numerous publications on beetles and butterflies as well as on Western Bluebirds. As she moved from insects to birds and to directing the world's largest citizen science program, her interest has remained on living communities and how they interact with the natural world around them. The meeting is open to the public, without charge. Please join us for what promises to be a very exciting talk. Enter the museum at West 77th Street. If you would like to meet Prof. Dickinson before the talk, join us at Pappardella's Restaurant, 75th St. and Columbus Avenue at 6 p.m. The reservation will be in the name of Jeff. Geoffrey Nulle, Vice President
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