Our research uses movement ecology as a framework to understand how individuals and populations respond to changes in their environment in order to project how future change may alter a population’s dynamics and evolutionary trajectory.
Our Philosophy
The natural world knows no political boundaries. That means that we are all stakeholders in the conservation of our biodiversity and our lab welcomes the involvement of anyone and everyone, no matter where they come from or how they identify themselves. We are also working to overcome our own biases, as well as those that have long prevailed in the scientific and conservation communities, by learning from and engaging with the communities whose lives intersect with the species we study.
The natural world knows no political boundaries. That means that we are all stakeholders in the conservation of our biodiversity and our lab welcomes the involvement of anyone and everyone, no matter where they come from or how they identify themselves. We are also working to overcome our own biases, as well as those that have long prevailed in the scientific and conservation communities, by learning from and engaging with the communities whose lives intersect with the species we study.
Breaking News
- September 2026 -- When we think of the most important components of migratory stopover sites, we frequently think of food. But, birds need to rest too. If the places to rest are too far from the places where birds eat, they may have to waste value time and energy commuting in between. That is exactly what we found in Maina Handmaker's latest paper in Ornithological Applications. Whimbrel that have to commute the furthest between their nocturnal roost site and diurnal foraging territories while stopped over during northward migration in South Carolina depart for their breeding grounds 3-6 days later than individuals that do not have to commute as far. This is because, despite spending ~1.5 hours more per day foraging, they are unable to make up for the costs of their long commuting flights. These results emphasize the critical importance of conserving roosting and foraging habitat within migratory stopover sites.
- September 2026 -- Thrilled to have our research on Hudsonian Godwits and shorebird migration featured in a new article in The New Yorker. Hoping that this leads to increased interest in shorebirds and their conservation!
- September 2026 -- As a proud Carleton College alum, it was a lot of fun to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Carleton's 'Arb' by participating in a round robin discussion in the Carleton Voice with Dave Willard and Maxima Gomez-Palmer about the role the Arb played in our evolution as ornithologists. Less fun was also having to write about the catastrophe represented by the Trump administration's recent changes to the Endangered Species Act.
- August 2026 -- The American Ornithological Society's annual conference was in Amherst this year and huge congratulations are in order for lab members Rozy Bathrick and Maina Handmaker, who both took home best student presentation awards!! Maina was awarded the Mark E. Hauber Award for best presentation on bird behavior, while Rozy was awarded the Robert B. Berry Award for best presentation on bird conservation. Congrats also to Feipeng Huang, Laura Torezan, Kayla Davis, Paul Dougherty, Teresa Pegan, and Mark Titus for their terrific presentations and posters!
- June 2026 -- This summer our research has showcased how tracking devices can reveal unexpected diversity in the movements of birds. Lab PhD student, Rozy Bathrick, used hundreds of tracking devices deployed across the range of Lesser Yellowlegs to demonstrate how yellowlegs breeding in different regions use the Prairie Pothole Region of the US and Canada differently during southward migration. As a result, protecting wetlands in only one part of the Prairie Pothole Region would not help all Lesser Yellowlegs, but late summer wetlands are especially valuable wherever they are found. Check Rozy's article out in Ornithological Applications. Then, collaborator Sarah Clements showed how tracking devices that are programmed differently can dramatically vary in their ability to identify when birds stopover during migration. In her paper in Ibis, Sarah found that many long-distance migratory shorebirds are actually making very brief stopovers, on the order of only a couple of hours. However, the classic duty cycles used by many researchers to program their tracking devices fail to capture these stopover events, potentially missing important information for migratory bird conservation.
nsenner at umass.edu
Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Holdsworth Hall 219
Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Holdsworth Hall 219
Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A.