Follow me on twitter! @BirdDoc_Merrill 21-September-2018 Article on early-life stress resulting in tighter within and among-trait covariance in zebra finches out in early view in American Naturalist. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/699839
19-Jun-2017 Check out my latest "Behind the Scenes" piece: Bird gets worm, makes history This was a great opportunity to communicate natural history to the general public.
25-May-2017 Our manuscript on how early life stress may force trade-offs between sexual signals has been accepted in Functional Ecology!
23-May-2017 New press release out for our recent paper on fine-scale nest preference of Brown-headed Cowbirds! https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/504077
20-May-2017 Our robins hatched on Monday! The four nestlings now have pin feathers and open eyes.
28-April-2017 Just gave a talk at the Biology Department at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro. I enjoyed meeting excellent faculty and grad students, and I especially enjoyed the bird-watching and Loggerhead Shrike trapping. Thanks to Alix Matthews and Than Boves for the invite and for being such great hosts!
11-April-2017 Our neighborhood American Robins are back to nesting on our balcony. The nest is finally constructed and eggs should be coming soon. It will be interesting to see how the early onset of this year's breeding season affects the health and survival of her offspring. Here's a video of the female robin shaping the cup (keep an eye out for pictures of the nestlings!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=RJU_9IDJEGg 10-April-2017 Volume I of our egg resource dataset was just accepted for publication in Oecologia. Check out the new study when it comes out! "Rates of parasitism, but not allocation of egg resources, vary among and within hosts of a generalist avian brood parasite."
6-April-2017 Gave a talk at the Champaign County Audubon Society: "Global insights from local birds: Research findings and natural history observations from our backyards." Thoroughly enjoyed sharing our science and my nature photography with the local birders!
31-Mar-2017 Kaity Ripple just had her first committee meeting where we discussed her plans to study the effects of invasive plant species on shrubland bird communities and the health of three focal species. Her field season is right around the corner- here's to a smooth and productive season!
30-Mar-2017 Emilie Ospina just successfully defended her Master's Thesis "Incubation Temperature Impacts Growth, Physiology, and Survival in Nestlings of an Open-Cup Nesting Passerine". Congratulations Emilie!!!
19-Mar-2017 Undergraduate Krti Tallam presented her first scientific poster at the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference. "From the Invisible to the Visible: Patterns of Parasitism in Illinois Birds" by Krti Tallam, Tara Stewart, Loren Merrill & T.J. Benson. Go Krti!!!