Join us, along with Dr. Lauryn Benedict from the University of Northern Colorado, for this month’s meeting and presentation on Female Bird Song: Overlooked & Underheard.

In addition to being a source of joy to listeners, bird song offers an important research system for scientists studying the form and function of animal signals, including language. Bird song research, however, is surprisingly narrowly focused on a few bird species and, in particular, on the males of those species. Although more than 60% of songbird females sing, they are rarely studied. In this presentation Dr. Benedict will explore how history and definitions have driven that trend, and she will talk about recent research on singing female birds.

Lauryn Benedict is fascinated by the social lives of birds. She has spent 20+ years researching birds to figure out how they use sounds to signal meaning and coordinate behaviors. Her recent work examines song and other vocalizations in both males and females. Lauryn holds a B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley. She is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado.