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September 29, 2025
Schuyler Smith — Shaken, Not Stirred: A Week Birding In Jamaica
In April of this year, I spent a week birding across eastern Jamaica with a small group and two guides. We had a well-defined goal: find all 28 of the island's endemic bird species, and along the way, bonuses for as many regional specialties as possible. Starting in Kingston, we traveled through a variety of habitats, from coastal scrub to cloud forest. In this talk, I'll share highlights from the trip, thoughts on guided birding travel, and reflections on the joys and quirks of international birding as a hobbyist.
Schuyler Smith grew up in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. His interest in birding stemmed from his grandmother, who was a passionate birder her whole life. Schuyler has spent time living in Massachusetts, Iowa, Texas, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Illinois, and has called North Carolina home since the beginning of 2024. Birding has become a hobby that has brought him opportunities to connect more with family, nature, and humanity around the world. His favorite bird is the Cedar Waxwing.
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October 27, 2025
David and Judy Smith—Birding in Angola
The southern African country of Angola has a troubled past, with long wars and government corruption, but it also has a variety of habitats and some good endemic and near-endemic birds. And the tourist infrastructure is improving. Our members David and Judy Smith took a birding trip to Angola earlier this year, and they returned with lots of photos to share. Please join them for a slide show at our regular meeting on October 27.
David and Judy both worked at GlaxoSmithKline, and after retiring in 2010, they have continued to explore the birds of the world with travels abroad. Their popular presentations for our club have included birding in Costa Rica, Bhutan, Namibia, India, and New Zealand and Tasmania. They have been active members of the Chapel Hill Bird Club for a number of years with David serving as president for seven years and Judy serving as vice-president.
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November 24, 2025
Sara Lipshutz—Territorial Agression in Female Cavity Nesters
Uncovering the genomic bases of phenotypic adaptation is a major goal in biology, but this has been hard to achieve for complex behavioral traits like aggression. We leveraged the repeated, independent evolution of obligate cavity nesting in birds, to test the hypothesis that pressure to compete for a limited breeding resource has facilitated convergent evolution in behavior, hormones and gene expression. Our experimental design compared species pairs across five avian families (thrushes, swallows, sparrows, wood warblers, wrens), each including one obligate cavity-nesting species and a related species with a more flexible nest strategy. We find behavioral convergence, with higher levels of territorial aggression in obligate cavity nesters, particularly among females. Across species, levels of testosterone in circulation were not associated with nest strategy nor aggression. Phylogenetic analysis revealed shared patterns of brain gene expression, limited to a small percentage of the genome. Altogether, we find that behavioral convergence in response to shared ecological pressures is associated with largely independent evolution of gene expression across different avian families, punctuated by a narrow set of convergently evolving genes.
Sara Lipshutz is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Duke University. Her lab's research focuses on the evolution of behavior across weird and wonderfully diverse species of birds. This work bridges "muddy boots" experimental fieldwork with a variety of molecular and computational approaches in population genomics, transcriptomics, and neuroendocrinology
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January 26, 2026
Tessa Patton—How Light and Noise Pollution Impact Songbird Physiology, Diet, and Microbiomes
Human activities have transformed a majority of the Earth's land surface, resulting in unprecedented environmental challenges for species that inhabit these areas. An important consequence of land use change is the alteration of sensory landscapes. Sensory pollutants such as artificial light at night and chronic urban noise can disrupt biological processes ranging from individual behavior, fitness, and physiology to broader ecosystem dynamics. Here, I will share ongoing work to determine how several passerines respond to sensory pollutants at the physiological and behavioral levels, potentially affecting survival and reproduction. I am particularly interested in how light and noise pollution impact songbird diet and gut microbiota, and how these factors may affect fitness outcomes.
I graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a BS in Biology and a minor in Climate Change, and began working with birds as an avian monitor for the National Park Service piping plover minotoring program. I then joined the Lipshutz lab at Loyola University Chicago as a master's student in Bioinformatics studying whether mechanisms of female aggression and male parental care are reflected in gene expression in the brain. I am now a Ph.D. student in Biology at Duke University in the Lipshutz Lab, where I study how light and noise pollution shape the avian diet and gut microbiome, as well as the molecular mechanisms that allow some birds to better cope with sensory pollutants. I love field work, lab work, and bioinformatics!
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February 23, 2026
Jennifer Aiton —My Backyard Birding Journey: How to Maximize Your Birding Joy
Jennifer will talk about how she evolved from a casual backyard birder to filling her front and backyard with feeders and native plants. She will talk about what she has learned from feeding birds and how you can elevate your backyard birding experience.
Jennifer is the Co-Manager of Wild Birds Unlimited Chapel Hill. She has been a backyard birder for 20 years. When she isn't at work spreading bird joy, she can be found photographing all the birds visiting her feeders at home. She recently exhibited her photographs at the Coldwell Banker in April and May 2025 for the Hillsborough Art Walk.
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March 23, 2026
Curtis Smalling—Motus Towers and Tracking Birds
We are in a golden age of migration science, with tracking technology revealing new insights into the epic journeys of migratory birds. This session will explore the Motus tower network and Audubon's Bird Migration Explorer, offering guidance on how your chapter can contribute by installing a tower in your community. Motus towers are affordable and easy to set up, but more are needed to build out the network in North Carolina, especially in the Piedmont.
Curtis is a 1985 magna cum laude graduate of Appalachian State University with a Bachelor of
Arts in Biology and in 1996 received a Master of Arts in Appalachian Studies. A life-long bird
watcher, Curtis began watching birds with his grandfather, who was very interested in Purple
Martins. With Audubon NC for more than 23 years, his current position is Vice President and Executive Director.
He is a member of several conservation committees including the International Golden-winged
Warbler working group (including working on this species and others on their wintering grounds in Nicaragua), chair of the NC State Scientific Council Bird Committee, and a member of the steering committee for the Bird Atlas effort in NC. He has been involved in wind and bird interactions for two decades, including service on NC's first wind working group and helping
draft legislation and model local ordinances regarding wind energy in NC.
He is a contributing author or editor for several books, publications, and peer reviewed papers.
He resides in Garner, NC with his wife of 42 years, Mary, and has three children and five
grandchildren.
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April 27, 2026
Tom Driscoll—Birds, Animals, Herps, and Insects of Central and Northern Australia
Our birdwatching tour starts in Alice Springs. We work our way north and then west. Afterwards, we will also be spending 5 days on the west coast swimming with Whale Sharks.
Tom has been bird-watching for a very long time. He is retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is past president of the New Hope Audubon Society and a past board member for the Eno River Association.
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MAY 18, 2026
Jan Hansen—Birding in Northwest Mexico
This presentation will dive into Jan's recent journey living in the states of Sinaloa and Nayarit located in Northwest Mexico. He will share the interesting species he encountered while traveling but also the history of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Jan Hansen is the owner and operator at Otus asio Tours and has been to many birding locations globally during his 26 year tenure, including India, Bhutan, and Angola, among many others.
