Tweets - the March meeting of the Washington Ornithological Society will be
this Monday, March 6th.

Mar 6th - Fran Bonier - Stress Physiology in Urban birds. The vast majority
of species are excluded from human-dominated landscapes, but some species
persist and appear to thrive. By studying species that are established in
urban habitat, we may gain insight into the traits that have allowed them to
coexist with us. Here we provide data on variation in a hormonal response to
stress within eight conspecific populations of a Passerine bird breeding in
both urban and rural habitats. Male Zonotrichia leucophrys had significantly
higher basal and stress-induced corticosterone levels in urban habitat than
birds in rural sites, but female birds did not differ. The cause of elevated
corticosterone secretion in males is unknown, as is whether or not this
physiological response is adaptive.

Fran Bonier is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington
in the Biology Dept. She graduated from Lesley College, Cambridge, Ma. In
1998 having got her Masters degree in Zoology at University of Idaho,
Moscow, Id. In 2001

Note: Meetings are held the first Monday of each month (except July,
August, and September) at the Center for Urban Horticulture on the
University of Washington campus, 3501 N.E. 41st Street, Seattle, and are
open to all. The social begins at 7:00 pm, and the program starts at 7:30
pm.

== Michael Hobbs
== Washington Ornithological Society webmaster
== http://www.wos.org
== WOSWeb at wos.org