Behavioral ecology: I am interested in the biology of social behavior, particularly the interactions between the sexes in birds. This is fascinating because such inetractions are often a mix of cooperation and conflict. Their study demands integration across multiple levels of biological organization and requires a diversity of approaches. I like the conceptual challenges of understanding the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social interactions. I also enjoy the insights gained by employing different techniques to answer a particular question. My program involves detailed observations of the behavior of free-living animals, use of molecular and biochemical techniques to uncover processes linked to mating interactions, experimental manipulations of key ecological and social factors, and empirical and theoretical work on the developmental and mechanistic processes producing behavior. Three major phenomena are being studied in my lab