Thursday Biology Seminar by Dr. Leanne Grieves, Cornell U.

This week’s seminar will be given by Dr Leanne Grieves, Cornell U.

There will be coffee and snacks before the seminar. Please bring your own mug.

Thursday 14 Nov, 4:00PM, in TSH B128 Note unusual room

Olfaction is an underappreciated sensory modality in avian communication – Change my mind

Chemical communication is ancient and taxonomically widespread. Organisms as diverse as microbes and mammals send, receive, and respond to chemical information. However, it is still commonly believed that birds have a poor sense of smell and thus that chemical communication is unimportant for this taxonomic group. In fact, all bird species investigated to date have a fully functional olfactory system, and birds use smell for everything from food location and predator avoidance to kin recognition. Preen oil secreted from the uropygial gland, located at the base of the tail in most bird species, is a waxy secretion composed of a complex chemical mixture that contributes to avian body odour. Numerous factors affect the chemical composition of preen oil and, presumably, avian body odour. In this talk I will discuss i) factors affecting preen oil chemical composition, ii) behavioural experiments testing the ability of passerine birds to discriminate preen oil odour types important for successful reproduction, iii) observational evidence that may implicate odour cues in cuckoo social and breeding behaviour, and iv) future directions for research in avian chemical communication.