ISCC Webinar: Mary Caswell Stoddard Presents "Inside the Colorful World of Birds"

Inside the Colorful World of Birds

Birds evolved about 150 million years ago, and today they are the most diverse and colorful land vertebrates. In my group, we are fascinated by the ecological and evolutionary processes that drive this variation. Much of our work investigates coloration and color vision birds. A fundamental challenge is that birds see differently from humans: they have tetrachromatic vision (four color cone-types) and ultraviolet sensitivity. To estimate a “bird’s-eye view,” we combine advanced imaging techniques with new computational methods. This has allowed us to test ideas about how birds use color to attract mates, avoid predators and deceive rivals. We also study the mechanisms of color production—involving pigments and structural color (like iridescence)—a pursuit that has led to some surprising discoveries. In the field, we are establishing a system for studying color perception in wild hummingbirds in the Rocky Mountains. These tiny iridescent birds lead colorful lives, performing spectacular courtship dives and pollinating diverse wildflowers. Overall, we apply an interdisciplinary approach, combining tools from mathematics, computer vision and optics, to explore the avian world.

Speaker bio:

Mary Caswell Stoddard (Cassie) is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Stoddard received her undergraduate degree from Yale University. On a Marshall Scholarship, she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge before joining the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow. Stoddard is a research affiliate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She is a 2018 Packard Science and Engineering Fellow and a 2023 Schmidt Sciences Polymath Fellow.