Our lab studies behavioral ecology, which means that we want to understand how and why animals behave as they do.  We study wild animals in their natural habitats to learn how the environment shapes their behavior, and we study animals in the laboratory to learn about how physiology and development regulate behavior. Much of our work involves the social behavior of songbirds, with a focus on acoustic communication and cognition. Current projects include studying social behavior and communication in Bachman’s sparrows and Northern Cardinals, and studying the relationships among avian microbiomes, cognition, and sexual displays (song, plumage). We also have a colony of zebra finches in the lab at FAU Davie where we run behavioral experiments to test cognitive abilities, vocal development, and mate preferences.