People

Come to OSU and meet people just like you! People who love birds. We're the Flock!

FLOCK Director: Douglas Robinson

I found birds when I was 10. For a long time I thought I was the only kid in my school who liked birds. Once I got binoculars, I remember going on bird walks alone and turning my back on passing traffic because I thought it was embarrassing to be seen birding. But I really loved birds. They were so beautiful. So many different ones to see, changing from winter to spring to summer to fall. I kept finding new species. I memorized my field guide as I learned what birds might be in my area. Then in sixth grade a new kid showed up at my school and he liked birds, too! His dad was a professor of zoology. I was super excited to have a birding partner. We rode our bikes everywhere looking for new birds. Eventually, I went to college and studied wildlife. My friend's dad became my advisor for my Master's degree. I studied Louisiana Waterthrushes and compared the foraging behavior of males and females. I then went to the University of Illinois for my doctoral work where I got to study bird communities along Pipeline Road and on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. It's hard to believe, but my first surveys of BCI launched a now-20-year-old study of how and why birds disappear from tropical forests. In addition to science, I also love birding and contributing to eBird both as a reviewer and as a birder. In my current job I get to combine my birding skills with my love of science through the Oregon 2020 project. My dream for the FLOCK is to create a place where students who love birds feel at home, find people they like, and discover the joy of learning about birds, their behavior, ecology and conservation. 

Oregon State University and Corvallis have very active bird and birding groups. The OSU Bird Nerds, The Fish and Wildlife Club, and the Audubon Society of Corvallis are all super active with regular field trips and other activities. Our state birding listserve, OBOL, is one of the busiest in the country. That's understandable when you know Oregon has more than 535 bird species and eight major biomes including the Pacific Ocean, alpine tundra in the Cascade Mountains, and sagebrush ecosystems. We also have huge wilderness areas that require adventure camping to explore fully. Yet we also have one of the nicest cities in America, Portland.

Most students who study birds at OSU are in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, but they are scattered across campus in other departments as well, such as Forest Ecosystems and Society. Our PhD-level ornithologists are all over Corvallis working for OSU, agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Those ornithologists are often looking to provide internships and research experiences for students. Our large number of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are, too. 

Undergraduate teaching assistants in Systematics of Birds

The Department of Fisheries and Wildlife provides teaching experience for some of our best bird students. They receive a Department fellowship and get to teach fellow students how to identify birds in the lab and field, learn taxonomy and songs, and how to properly handle museum specimens. We have a bird collection with 9000 specimens that is a great resource for FW 312, Systematics of Birds.

Teaching Assistants since our Dept teaching fellow program began:

2014--Mason Wagner

2015--Ian Souza-Cole

2016--Jesse Laney

2017--Azita Roshani

2018--Gabriel Sandoval

2019--Carolyn Coyle and Zac Kendall

In 2019, Douglas and Tara Robinson started the Robinson Ornithology Fellow award. Given to an outstanding student in Fisheries and Wildlife, the award is aimed at recognizing students who excel and show promise for a great career in ornithology.

 

The first recipient, Carolyn Coyle, is working as a teaching assistant in Systematics of Birds. She also conducted an experiment on the importance of warblers as pollinators for maples in the Coast Range near Corvallis. Check our Instagram feed for more details!

The 2021 recipients were Caleb Centanni and Nolan Clements. Caleb is studying the geographic distribution of Red Crossbill call types in Oregon and Nolan is repeating bird surveys conducted in our local McDonald Research Forest 60 years ago to characterize change in species' abundances.

 

 

Below are some of the PhDs who study birds at OSU. Check out their labs and their interests.

 

Name		Affiliation	Website	Specialization/Area of Interest
Lindsay	Adrean	FES		waterbird conservation
John	Alexander	Courtesy	x	conservation, population biology, science delivery
Suzanne	Austin	Courtesy		avian life histories, growth and development
Lisa	Ballance	FW		seabird ecology
Matt	Betts	FES	x	landscape ecology, forest biodiversity and conservation, hummingbird pollination ecology
Jamie	Cornelius	IB		physiological ecology
Jon	Dinkins	ANRS		aridlands songbirds and Sage-Grouse
Misty	Donaghy-Cannon	FW		ecampus advising, fire ecology
Adam	Duarte	FW		environmental change
Bruce	Dugger	FW	x	waterbirds and wetland ecology and conservation
Kate	Dugger	USGS	x	population ecology, effects of climate on survival and reproduction
Susie	Dunham	FW		ecampus advising, grad program coordinator
Collin	Eagles-Smith	USGS	x	contaminants
Eric	Forsman	FW		raptor biology, particularly owls
Julio	Gallardo	FW		tropical conservation, raptor ecology
Jennifer	Gervais	OWI	x	ecotoxicology and risk assessment, population dynamics
Adam	Hadley	FES	x	pollination ecology and genetics
Christian	Hagen	Cascades	x	gamebird conservation and management
Joan	Hagar	USGS	x	forest bird ecology and conservation
Sue	Haig	FW		conservation genetics, wading birds, Micronesian avifauna
Tyler	Hallman	FW		species distribution and abundance modeling
Jeff	Hollenbeck	USGS		spatial modelling
Peter	Konstantinidis	FW	x	vertebrate collections manager
Meta	Landys	IB	x	endocrinology, behavior and physiology
James	Larison	USGS		biogeochemistry of metals and avian ecology
Don	Lyons	NAS	x	seabird/waterbird ecology and conservation
David	Mellinger	HMSC	x	acoustic monitoring, including night flight calls
Randy	Moore	FW		streaked horned lark conservation, avian ecology
Rachael	Orben	FW	x	seabird ecology and conservation
Bill	Ripple	FES	x	conservation biology and trophic cascades
Jim	Rivers	FES	x	behavioral ecology and conservation biology
Douglas	Robinson	FW	x	songbirds, benchmarking biodiversity, citizen science, aridlands and tropical ecology
Dan	Roby	FW	x	ecology and conservation of fish-eating birds, physiology
Dan	Rosenberg	OWI		population biology and statistical ecology
Nathan	Schumaker	EPA	x	spatial and population modeling
Rob	Suryan	FW		seabird ecology
Leigh	Torres	FW	x	seabird behavior, fisheries interactions
Doug	Warrick	IB	x	evolution of flight, functional and ecological morphology
David	Wiens	USGS	x	raptor ecology and conservation
John	Wiens	FW		avian ecology and climate change

Acronym Key

ANRS - OSU Department of Animal and Rangeland Science
Cascades - OSU Cascades Campus
EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
FES - OSU Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society
FW - OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
HMSC - Hatfield Marine Science Center
IB - OSU Department of Integrative Biology
NAS - National Audubon Society
OWI - Oregon Wildlife Institute
USGS - U.S. Geological Survey