OLLI at UCSC Sunday Speaker Meeting

OLLI at UCSC Hosts Bruce Lyon, Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Santa Cruz invites the public to an in-person presentation from 10:00 to noon on Sunday, March 15th, in the Colleges Nine/Lewis Multipurpose Room at UCSC.

Join us for a social hour and a presentation titled, Sparrows in the Mist: Complex Winter Social Behavior in a Little Brown Bird.

Ornithologists often study breeding birds, and as a result, the winter ecology and social behavior of migratory birds is relatively understudied. A 22-year study of a population of golden-crowned sparrows that winter in the Arboretum of the University of California, Santa Cruz was conducted. Each sparrow was given a unique combination of color bands, which allowed us to identify individual birds in the wild and monitor their behavior and survival. Given that they survive migration and breeding, individual sparrows return winter after winter to the arboretum and flock together with the same individuals as in previous years. We used innovative social network methods to understand the patterns of social organization and discovered remarkable social complexity in these birds that is similar in some ways to the societies of mammals, including primates.

Professor Lyon seeks to understand the ecological and evolutionary basis of reproductive strategies and social behavior in animals, particularly reproductive parasitism, parental care, and mating systems. One focus is to understand patterns of cooperation and reproductive parasitism in birds and insects. His passion for photography has also been very useful in his research.

OLLI at UCSC is a community of adults from diverse educational, occupational, and geographic backgrounds who are devoted to the pursuit of learning. This event is free and open to the public. Bring a friend. Coffee and nibbles will be served.

For directions and free parking information, visit: https://olli.ucsc.edu/monthly-gatherings/location-directions-and-parking/

Free and open to the public

Presented by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Santa Cruz.