The Amazing Ecology of African Birds

 Free.

press release: From the diminutive crombec to the enormous ostrich, Africa is home to some of the world's most remarkable birds. And those remarkable birds do some remarkable things! From his experience living, guiding, and researching in Africa, Josh Engel, assistant researcher at Chicago's renown Field Museum, has had been able to see and photograph many of these birds and witness the amazing things they do.

Join us to hear stories of how Josh and his colleagues are using genetics to untangle some of Africa's migration mysteries, striving to comprehend the relationships between birds and the abundant mammalian megafauna that they live with, and how they are trying to better understand the distribution of a recently described species and the challenges for survival that it faces.  

Josh is a research assistant at the Field Museum, specializing in bird research, and a tour leader for the international birding tour company Tropical Birding. He fell in love with birding while growing up in Chicago, but his pursuit of all things avian was soon taking him all around the world. He ended up spending more than four years as a birding guide based in Ecuador and South Africa, before returning to Chicago to work at the Field Museum. He still actively birds close to home and helps to organize and lead field trips for the Illinois Young Birders.  

*This event is presented in proud partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Undergraduate Zoological Society