This award supports six graduate students and two senior faculty to collaborate with groups at the Max Planck Research Centers for Ornithology in Seewiesen and Andechs, Germany. The research comprises three main projects: a broad-scale comparison of physiological traits between several bird species that live in the New World tropical zone, a detailed analysis of one species (Saxicola torquata) that occupies many Old World habitats from the equator to the arctic circle, and an effort to understand the energetics of migration of birds between summer and winter habitats. The foreign sites offer a state-of-the-art wind tunnel for energy measurements of birds in flight, laboratory-accustomed birds from four geographically different habitats, unique data sets, hybrid species, and life history data.
