Research in the Morbey Lab

The Morbey Lab is part of the Centre for Animals on the Move at Western University, and we're also proud to be part of the vibrant ecology & evolution research ecosystem in Canada.

Current Research

Andrew Beauchamp & Patricia Rokitnicki tracking birds in Georgian Bay

Post-breeding and migration behaviour in songbirds – Ph.D student Jessica Deakin is looking at sex differences in wing shape and how this might contribute to flight performance differences in migratory songbirds. M.Sc. student Patricia Rokitnicki tested for differences in stopover duration and flight speed between sex and age classes in Black-throated Blue Warblers. Ph.D. student Andrew Beauchamp is looking at stopover ecology of migratory songbirds in New Brunswick in collaboration with Acadia University and others. He also led a Motus tracking study on several species of birds in collaboration with the Georgian Bay Land Trust. Much of our work uses the Motus Wildlife Telemetry System and is done in collaboration with Birds Canada, Long Point Bird Observatory, and Western's Advanced Facility for Avian Research.

Jessica

Jessica Deakin with a male Baltimore Oriole, Long Point, Ontario (photo: L. Negrazis)

Patricia Rokitnicki with a Black-throated Blue Warbler, Long Point, Ontario

BeauchampAndrew Beauchamp listening for birds in Georgian Bay.

Jessica Deakin and Marek Allen in Georgian Bay.

 Post-breeding movement of survival of Bank Swallows - M.Sc. student Christian Buchanan-Fraser used Motus to track adults and juvenile Bank Swallows during the post-breeding period in southern Ontario.

Christian Buchanan-Fraser removing a Bank Swallow from a mist net. (photo: Megan Hiebert)


 

A Bank Swallow colony along the Lake Erie lakeshore. (photo: Megan Hiebert)