Bird Friendly Coffee

Bird Friendly Coffee (BF® ) is an innovative market-based conservation program that was pioneered by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Thousands of organic, shade coffee farms in Latin America have now been certified as BF® and are contributing to the preservation and creation of habitat for migratory birds and other species while benefiting economically. This win-win strategy is also the centerpiece of the Red Siskin Initiative (RSI) reintroduction plan that aims to recover natural populations across the historic range of this species. The RSI intends to release birds into farms certified as Red Siskin Friendly with support from surrounding communities, private landowners and parks that will participate in monitoring, protection and education to achieve long-term sustainability. Please support bird conservation by purchasing Bird Friendly coffee or ask your local supplier to carry it (use the form here).

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December PhyloPizza

Our next PhyloPizza event will take place on Tuesday, December 8, at 5:30pm in the NMNH Vertebrate Zoology Seminar Room (WG 33). Melanie Hopkins of the American Museum of Natural History will give a talk entitled “Dynamic evolutionary change, morphological trends, and disparity in post-Paleozoic echidnoids”. Join us! Flier for this event here.

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New publication from HC

Congrats to Braun lab postdoc HC Lim on the publication of “Genetic differentiation in two widespread, open-forest bird species of Southeast Asia (Copsychus saularis and Megalaima haemacephala): Insights from ecological niche modeling,” in Current Zoology. Paper available here.

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Brian Coyle presents the Red Siskin Initiative at NMNH

Braun lab postdoc Brian Coyle presented on the Red Siskin Initiative during the Senate of Scientists lightning talks today in Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History. His talk highlighted the major foci of the initiative, including progress already made on surveying populations and improving the genome sequence, as well as the societal importance of the red siskin in Venezuela. For more information see the ‘Red Siskin Conservation’ tab, and check out this website.

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Dr. Coyle on the Red Siskin Initiative

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The crowd in Baird Auditorium

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Taking questions with other speakers from the series