Sept 29 (Thursday) Kimberley Bostwick (Museum of Vertebrates, Cornell)

Bird sings with stridulating wing feathers

Abstract:

Recent research has shown that the males of one species of bird, the Club-winged Manakin, produce a sustained (0.3 s) tonal note with their wings. In this talk I describe the unique mechanism that male M. deliciosus use to produce their wing-feather sounds.  Conventional and high-speed digital video reveal that male M. deliciosus produce sustained, harmonic notes by an  interaction among oscillating secondary feathers. I hypothesize, based on the acoustic structure, feather morphology, and kinematics witnessed in the video, that specialized feathers function as a “pick” and “file” stridulatory mechanism that can excite resonance in specialized, thickened feather shafts.  After presenting this story, I will switch gears in an effort to stimulate a conversation and solicit ideas on ways to continue my research on the evolution of morphology in this and other species.  Specifically, I am looking for creative methods that will allow me to infer the functional morphology of this, or any other bird, whose bodies can be examined in detail in the lab, but whose living behavior must be studied in the wild.