Full Annual Cycle Ecology

Pioneering research in the 1980’s and 90’s began to highlight the importance of studying birds not only during the breeding season, but throughout their full annual cycles. Continued work over the past few decades has shed much light on avian ecology and conservation during the wintering period, on spring and fall migration, and during the post-breeding period. Our lab’s research often focuses on learning more about each these understudied periods of the annual cycle and how they are connected through carry-over effects and seasonal interactions.

Figure created kindly by Dr. Sally Bornbusch

Key findings include:

American Redstarts with reduced winter food increase fat but reduce muscle mass, delaying their spring migration (Cooper et al. 2015)
Discovery of the spring and fall migration routes of Kirtland’s Warblers and a description of their migration phenology (Cooper et al. 2017)
Kirtland’s Warblers wintering in The Bahamas have weak migratory connectivity with their breeding grounds (Cooper et al. 2018)
First description of wintering grounds distribution in The Bahamas, Cuba, and Turks and Caicos (Cooper et al. 2019)
Saltmarsh productivity predicts timing of Willet annual cycle (Smith et al. 2020)
Kirtland’s Warblers make long-distance prospecting movements during the breeding season (Cooper and Marra 2020)
The gut microbiota of Kirtland’s Warblers changes as individuals migrate from wintering to breeding grounds (Skeen et al. 2021)
Willets show strong migratory connectivity between breeding and wintering grounds at the species and subspecies level and likely require subspecies-specific conservation (Huysman et al. 2022)
Kirtland’s Warblers and three other songbird species use weather information, primarily atmospheric pressure, to make decisions about departure date (Cooper et al. 2023a).
Most songbirds (9 species including Kirtland’s Warblers) that are beginning long-distance migratory flights depart during 69-minute window beginning at civil dusk, while those first making regional flights depart later and more asynchronously (Cooper et al. 2023b).
Poor environmental productivity and drought reduce survival during migration and sometimes beyond in Kirtland’s Warblers and Black-throated Blue Warblers (Cooper et al. 2024).