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 2025 Virtual Birding SeminarsSpring 2025: March 4th – Bird Behavior
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The funds raised through our virtual birding seminars support our youth program,
Rio Diablo Birding Camp.
Questions? Please email agrilife.birding@gmail.com.
If you are a Texas Master Naturalist, our educational seminars, birding trips, and some special events may count for Advanced Training! TMN AT Request Forms will be downloadable for all 2025 Virtual Birding Seminars.
Spring Virtual Behavior Seminar: Behavior – TMN AT Request Info – 2025
SPRING SEMINAR LINEUP
Tuesday – March 4, 2025
Registration Fee: $20.00
Bird Love: Why identify with birds
Dr. Wenfei Tong – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Presentation Summary
Birds exhibit a wide array of behaviors—from sabotaging budding romances to outsourcing childcare duties. Why do they behave as they do? Using diverse examples from around the world including Texas, Dr. Wenfei Tong will present vignettes about the private lives of birds in an evolutionary context, to show the science behind how much humans and birds have in common. She will discuss stories from her books Bird Love and Understanding Bird Behavior that highlight the work of participatory scientists and female or minority biologists, and illustrate the talk with her art and photographs.
Biography
Dr. Wenfei Tong is a biologist with a passion for understanding and conserving the natural world. She enjoys sharing her love of birds and biology through her paintings, photography, teaching, and writing. Her books, Bird Love and Understanding Bird Behavior, use scientific discoveries to show how much humans and birds share, including some of literature’s most basic themes. Her ultimate aim is to inspire as many people as possible to care for and thus protect nature.
Wenfei grew up in Singapore, where she started birding at 12. She first got hooked on field biology as an undergraduate at Princeton and Oxford, and has a PhD in evolutionary biology from Harvard. She has guided natural history tours in Tanzania, the Galapagos, and Montana, where she is active in the conservation community and takes visitors birding on horseback. She now works at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY.
To find out more: https://www.wenfeitong.com/
Space Use of Male and Female Golden-cheeked Warblers
Michael Gamble – Wildlife Biologist, Kiawah Island, SC
Presentation Summary
Michael will present on one of Texas’ endemic species, the endangered golden-cheeked warbler. Specifically, he will present his thesis research that he conducted on the Kerr Wildlife Management Area studying the space use of male and female golden-cheeked warblers during the breeding season. To conduct this research and track warbler movement, he used new technologies, including the Motus wildlife tracking network. He will also discuss the life history and behavioral ecology of golden-cheeked warblers.
Biography
Michael Gamble is a Wildlife Biologist for the Town of Kiawah Island in South Carolina. He is originally from Charleston, SC where he started birding when he was six years old. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of Charleston and Master of Science degree from Louisiana State University’s School of Renewable Natural Resources. Before attending graduate school, he spent eight years working on several avian ecology projects, primarily focused on grassland, marsh, and migratory bird ecology. During this period, he worked six breeding seasons with golden-cheeked warblers which led to his Master’s research.