Research
Finished papers, ongoing work, and what's coming next.
FINISHED PAPER
Red-vented Bulbul
Range expansion, density, and population estimates of an introduced species in Houston, Texas
I conducted field research on the spatial distribution and population density of invasive Red-vented Bulbuls in Houston Heights, completing 40 line-transect surveys across the study area. I later expanded this work using citizen-science data from eBird and the Texas Invasive Birds Project to map the population's range growth, from 589 km² before 2012 to over 4,600 km² by 2022.
Presented at Rice University's Biodiversity Symposium · Co-authored manuscript published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology · Guest post for the Wilson Ornithological Society
More on where this is headed on the Now page.
ONGOING, PEABODY
Tyrant-Flycatcher Wing Morphology
Wing shape and migratory behavior in the Tyrannidae
I measured 102 specimens across 64 species of tyrant-flycatchers in the Peabody's bird collection, under mentors Kristof Zyskowski and Eric Gulson-Castillo and with collaborator Chase Brownstein. The question was whether pointed wings in this family come from longer primary feathers or shorter secondary feathers.
After controlling for body mass, primary length barely mattered, but secondary length had a strong negative relationship with wing pointedness. So it looks like pointed wings in tyrant-flycatchers come mostly from shortened secondaries, not elongated primaries, which matches a similar 2025 finding in Yellow Warblers by Pegan et al.
Read the full paper here.
More on where this is headed on the Now page.
YALE POLICY INSTITUTE
Emissions Trading Systems
Comparative analysis
Researching the economic and political barriers to emissions trading systems in Africa and other Global South regions, and building a comparative framework to assess how ETS programs play out across different political and regulatory contexts.
Read the full paper here.
BULBULS, PART TWO
Red-vented Bulbuls, Part Two
Working with Dr. Brooks on the ecological side of the bulbul population: diet, reproductive biology, and interspecific interactions with Houston's native birds.
TYRANNIDS, CONTINUED
Tyrant-Flycatchers, Continued
Moving toward phylogenetically-controlled statistical tests and ancestral state reconstruction to see how wing pointedness evolved on a per-clade basis across the family.
LEAP GRANT
Nocturnal Flight Call Monitoring Network
Co-launching a nocturnal flight call monitoring network at Yale, backed by a LEAP grant with Julien Amsellem and Owen Robertson. Getting help confirming tricky identifications from researchers who run similar stations elsewhere in the country.
EXPLORING
Bird-Window Collision Policy
A project on bird-window collisions from the policy and implementation side: how similar bird-safe window policies lead to different outcomes, and how specific differences in policy design or implementation have led to different results across different cities and buildings. Cases like Chicago's McCormick Place and the Javits Center in New York, where retrofits cut mortality by 80-95%, are part of what got me thinking about this. Talking it through with a researcher who studies migration and bioacoustics and has been generous with contacts and direction.