Our Papers and Why We Published Them. A personal reflection project, motivated by my friend David Lahti. A fun walk down on memory lane.
Peer-reviewed Publications (with former and current mentees*):
325. Clark DL, Hauber ME, Anderson PSL (2021) Nest substrate and tool shape significantly affect the mechanics and energy requirements of avian eggshell puncture. Journal of Experimental Biology (online).*
This was a paper produced by our Hawkes' Award from SIB/Illinois with Phil Anderson, and conducted/penned by the talented Daniel Clark as our undergrad research students.
324. Lopez AV, Reboreda JC, Fiorini VD, Gerschenson LN, Hauber ME (in press) A comparative study of the structural and mechanical properties of avian eggshells amongst hosts of obligate brood parasitic cowbirds (genus Molothrus). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.*
Ana has been working with us on eggshells of brood parasites in the USA and Argentina for 5+ years and I joined her thesis committee in Buenos Aires, too. Excited to see more of her thesis work published in the peer-reviewed literature.
323. Lawson SL, Enos JK, Antonson ND, Gill SA, Hauber ME (2021) Do hosts of avian brood parasites discriminate parasitic vs. predatory threats? A meta-analysis. Advances in the Study of Behavior 53 (in press).*
This is Shelby's intro chapter from her dissertation on referential alarm calling, funded by NSF. Thanks to Marc Naguib for inviting us to contribute to this series and all the referees, including the one who asked this to become a meta-analysis.
322. Pollock HS, Hoover JP, Uy FMK, Hauber ME (2021) Brood parasites represent a heterogeneous and functionally distinct class of natural enemies. Trends in Parasitology (online).*
This was a labor-of-love project with Jeff, started 5+ years ago and rejected twice before from an ornithological journal. Now it's found a great home, thanks to Henry's re-conceptualization of our main message. Great to continue working with Flo, as well.
321. Scharf HM, Hauber ME, Mommer BC, Hoover JP, Schelsky WM (in press) The effect of avian brood parasitism on physiological responses of host nestlings. Oecologia.*
Hannah, Wendy, and I joined efforts to analyze critical but older endocrine data on the Prothonotary Warblers to fit in with our lab's current focus on hormones and host-parasite interactions since I moved to Illinois.
320. Magory Cohen T, Major RE, Kumar S, Nair M, Ewart KM, Hauber ME, Dor R (2021) Rapid morphological changes as agents of adaptation in introduced populations of the common myna (Acridotheres tristis). Evolutionary Ecology (online).
Paper no. 2 from our BSF grant with Roi, led by Tali's vast data set on myna morphometrics across continents and native/introduced ranges.
319. Fulmer AG, Hauber ME (2021). Autopreening behavior may convey information about internal social state in Arabian Babbler (Turdoides squamiceps) allopreening dyads. Behaviour (online).*
Andrew's penultimate chapter from his dissertation with me is now published, using, with permission, some of the late Amotz Zahavi's handwritten data notes on babblers.
318. Scharf HM, Abolins-Abols M, Stenstrom KH, Tolman DT, Schelsky WM, Hauber ME (2021) Exposure to a mimetic or non-mimetic model avian brood parasite egg does not produce differential glucocorticoid responses in an egg-accepter host species. General and Comparative Endocrinology 304: 113723 (with cover).*
Hannah and I trialed this experiment together in the field with the Prothonotary Warblers in the Cache swamps in Southern Illinois and had little resistance in peer review to publish these novel data with endocrine implications for host-parasite (non) co-evolution.
317. Ducay RL, Luro AB, Hansen ES, Hauber ME (2021) Multicomponent shell traits are consistent with an individual recognition function of the appearance of common murre (Uria aalge) eggs: A biological replication study. Ecology & Evolution Ecology and Evolution 11: 2402-2409.*
My mid-2010s field trip to Iceland to stay with Erpur's and his family paid off scientifically--this is our 3rd paper that we published with Erpur on murre egg coloration, penned by the talented Rebecca Ducay, an undergraduate research student in the lab.
316. Lawson SL, Enos JK, Mendes NC, Gill SA, Hauber ME (2021) Pairing status moderates both the production of and responses to anti-parasitic referential alarm calls in male yellow warblers. Ethology (online).*
Shelby has developed a special talent to ask novel questions in a well studied field-based system; this time it was about unmated males and their responses to cowbirds and referential seet calls. Another field-playback study that yielded strong data to test our hypotheses.
315. Colombelli-Negrel D, Hauber ME, Evans C, Katsis AC, Brouwer L, Adreani NM, Kleindorfer S (in press) Prenatal auditory learning in avian vocal learners and non-learners. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B.
Our ongoing ARC grant with Sonia and Diane yielded more comparative and more surprising results on embryonic parent-offspring communication in diverse bird species.
314. Martin LB, Hanson HE, Hauber ME, Ghalambor CK (2021) Genes, environments, and phenotypic plasticity in immunology. Trends in Immunology 42: 198-208.
While preparing our eLife House Sparrow model-species paper, Marty suggested that we also think about the use of model -systems in immunological research. Here's the resulting primer on reaction norms for evolutionary immunology.
313. Withers SJ, Parsons S, Hauber ME, Kendrick A, Lavery S (in press) Genetic divergence between isolated populations of the North Island New Zealand Rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris granti) implicates ancient biogeographic impacts rather than recent habitat fragmentation. Ecology & Evolution.*
When peer-reviewers and request by them for more data make for better science: this paper includes both mt and nDNA analyses to assess genetic fragmentation of existing rifleman population in the North Island of New Zealand.
312. Hauber ME, Winnicki SK, Hoover JP, Hanley D, Hays IR (2021) The limits of egg recognition: Testing acceptance thresholds of American robins in response to decreasingly egg-shaped objects in the nest. Royal Society Open Science 8: 201615 (with cover).*
Another paper from the summer of isolated 2020 Covid field work; Sarah had many robin nests active on the same day which sped up the data generation process.
311. Li D, Hauber ME (2021) Parasitic begging calls of nestmate-evictor common cuckoos stimulate more parental provisions by red-winged blackbirds than calls of nest-sharing brown-headed cowbirds. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 11.
Donglai's summer project during his year-long visiting scholar position at Illinois paid off with another great set of data generated by playbacks and video recordings from the south end of the campus grounds.
310. Moskat C, Taylor DM, Hauber ME (2021) Effective conspecific communication with aberrant calls in the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 7.*
What is an "aberrant" call, part 2? This time from common cuckoos in Hungary. With analyses by long-term lab undergrad student, David.
309. Marton A, Fulop A, Ban M, Hauber ME, Moskat C (2021) Female common cuckoo calls dampen the mobbing intensity of great reed warbler hosts. Ethology 127: 286-293 (with cover).*
Attila and team "Hungarian-cuckoo" used cuckoo-call playbacks and our favorite control calls, dove-coos, to generate data paralleling Jenny York's work with Nick Davis on reed warblers.
308. Hauber ME, Elek Z, Moskat C (2021) Advancing onset of breeding dates in brood parasitic common cuckoos and their great reed warbler hosts over a 22-year period. Ethology Ecology & Evolution (online).
For our international collaboration grant from Hungary with Csaba, we had aimed to study the long-term patterns of climate change on cuckoo-host breeding phenology. We got this paper done just before the grant ended!
307. Winnicki SK, Strausberger BM, Antonson ND, Burhans DE, Lock J, Kilpatrick AM, Hauber ME (2021) Developmental asynchrony and host species identity predict variability in nestling growth rates of an obligate brood parasite: a test of the “growth-tuning” hypothesis. Canadian Journal of Zoology (online).*
Marm's 2002 Canadian J Zoology paper has always been a treasure trove of cowbird growth data; we then added to it new observational and old experimental data from the coauthors and Sarah spearheaded all the analyses and writing to generate this provocative new paper for their thesis work, too. It almost makes me forget that the experimental data set alone was reviewed twice back in Am Nat in 2011...
306. Hauber ME, Hoover JP, Rhodes OR, Ducay RL, Hanley D (2021) The blunt pole is not a source of more salient recognition cues than the sharp pole for the rejection of model eggs by American robins (Turdus migratorius). Journal of Vertebrate Biology 70: 20111.*
Another 2021 Covid summer paper: a 10+ year old hypothesis, conceived in the Czech Republic, studied and assessed by our team in the USA, and published in a Czech open access journal. Full circle!
305. Rutledge S, Carr DE, Hauber ME, Hanley D (2021) Best of a bad job or masters of illusion: do nest light conditions make the eggs of brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) more similar to the eggs of its hosts? Ethology 127: 117-124.*
Finally assessing a question, that Nick Davies asked me about several time, from an avian perspective, whether cowbird eggs are mimetic? They are not, but cowbirds do seem to use hosts whose nesting light environment reduces cowbird-egg detectability.
304. Hauber ME, Taylor DM, Brawn JD (2021) Variable or atypical? Comparing unusual songs of the Tufted Titmouse with a citizen-science database. Journal of Ornithology 162: 313-316.*
What is an "aberrant" call, part 1? Using Xeno-canto to characterize unusual titmouse calls from Jeff's backyards via the spectrogram correlation function in Raven.
303. Hauber ME (2020) Natural and artificial scents do not increase egg rejection rates of model brood parasitic eggs by American Robins (Turdus migratorius). Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 66: 309-317.
After many years, another sole-authored paper, thanks to the Covid 2021 summer and isolated field work. And I learned the term "cloacal-lavage".
302. Luro AB, Fernandez-Juricic E, Baumhardt P, Hauber ME (2020) Visual acuity and egg spatial chromatic contrast predict antiparasitic egg rejection behavior of American robins. Journal of Experimental Biology 223: jeb229609.*
A great collaboration with Alec and his innovately patterned egg rejection stimulus design, Esteban and his team of robin visual measurements from Purdue, and field work by yours truly on the robins of Urbana.
301. Czeisel J, Hauber ME (2020) Seasonal and anthropogenic factors predict breeding success in Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) in shared greenspace. Kingbird 70: 102-119.*
Field work in New York City is never easy, but Jay's job gave us access to the Fort in Queens and the gun-tunnels. Inspired by Jay's readings of Becca Safran's original thesis work on Barn Swallow nests.
300. Antonson ND, Rubenstein DR, Hauber ME, Botero CA (2020) Ecological uncertainty favours the diversification of host use in avian brood parasites. Nature Communications 11: 4185.*
Large scale comparative studies can lead you into unexpected directions. A multi-year project, finalized by Carlos and all the data collation and writing by Nick and Dustin, with 1,700X3 data points entered by me and an undergrad before the last draft was drawn up, when asked by an otherwise supportive referee. It all made the paper even better!
299. Feng S, Stiller J, Deng Y, Armstrong J, Fang Q, Reeve AH, Xie D, Chen G, Guo C, Faircloth BC, Petersen B, Wang Z, Zhou Q, Diekhans M, Chen W, Andreu-Sanchez S, Margaryan A, Howard JT, Parent C, Pacheco G, Sinding M-HS, Puetz L, Cavill E, Ribeiro AM, Eckhart L, Fjeldsa J, Hosner PA, Brumfield RT, Christidis L, Bertelsen MF, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Tietze DT, Robertson BC, Song G, Borgia G, Claramunt S, Lovette IJ, Cowen SJ, Njoroge P, Dumbacher JP, Ryder OA , Fuchs J, Bunce M, Burt DW, Cracraft J, Meng G, Hackett SJ, Ryan PG, Jonsson KA, Jamieson IG, da Fonseca RR, Braun EL, Houde P, Mirarab S, Suh A, Stervander M, Hansson B, Sigeman H, Ponnikas S, Sigeman H, Stervander M, Frandsen PB, van der Zwan H, van der Sluis R, Visser C, Balakrishnan C, Clark AG, Fitzpatrick JW, Bowman R, Chen N, Cloutier A, Sackton TB, Edwards SV, Foote DJ, Shakya S, Sheldon FH, Vignal A, Soares AER, Shapiro B, Gonzalez-Solis J, Ferrer-Obiol J, Rozas J, Riutort M, Tigano A, Friesen V, Dalen L, Urrutia AO, Szekely T, Liu Y, Campana MG, Corvelo A, Fleischer RC, Rutherford KM, Gemmell NJ, Dussex N, Mouritsen H, Thiele N, Delmore K, Liedvogel M, Franke A, Hoppner MP, Krone O, Fudickar AM, Mila B, Ketterson ED, Fidler AE, Friis G, Parody-Merino AM, Battley PF, Cox MP, Lima NCB, Prosdocimi F, Parchman TL, Schlinger BA, Loiselle BA, Blake JG, Lim HC, Day LB, Fuxjager MJ, Baldwin MW, Braun MJ, Wirthlin M, Dikow RB, Ryder TB, Camenisch G, Keller LF, DaCosta JM, Hauber ME, Louder MIM, Witt CC, McGuire JA, Mudge J, Megna LC, Carling MD, Wang B, Taylor SA, Del-Rio G, Aleixo A, Vasconcelos ATR, Mello CV, Weir JT, Haussler D, Li Q, Yang H, Wang J, Lei F, Rahbek C, Gilbert MTP, Graves GR, Jarvis ED, Paten B, Zhang G (2020) Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics. Nature 287: 252-257 (with cover).*
What can I say, one of ~100 authors, but with some unique and parasitic full-genome contributions from our NSF brood parasite grant with Chris and Matt.
298. Hauber ME, Heath SK, Tonra CM (2020) Direct estimates of breeding site fidelity and natal philopatry in brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds Molothrus ater. Ardea 180: (online).
Never give up, never surrender. A paper finally published with some very old data from Chris' master's thesis, Sacha's field operations at Mono Lake, and my postdoc days at UC Berkeley in the early 2000s.
297. Novcic I, Krunic S, Stankovic D, Hauber ME (2020) Duration of ‘peeks’ in ducks: how much time do Pochard Aythya ferina spend with eye open while in sleeping posture? Bird Study 67: 256-260.
Ivana was a favorite doctoral mentee at GC CUNY, and we continue to collaborate on topics and data that appeal to our interests in natural history.
296. Antonson ND, Hauber ME, Mommer BC, Hoover JP, Schelsky WM (2020) Physiological responses of host parents to rearing an avian brood parasite: An experimental study. Hormones and Behavior 125: 104812.*
Nick's first endocrine paper using Wendy's old data on an experimental parasitism study of Prothonotary Warblers by Brown-headed Cowbirds. Fits well into the cowbirdlab's new direction in host-parasite hormonal dynamics.
295. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2020) Endocrine regulation of egg rejection in an avian brood parasite host. Biology Letters 16: 20200225.*
72 hours of field work for a single p-value (according to Mikus' calculations); thank you for all the hard work! It was definitely worth the effort to get these data into BL, after 2 previous rejections from the same journal.
294. Hauber ME, Kim CR, Goethe C, Hanley D (2020) Self-referent phenotype matching is a poor predictor of egg rejection by American Robins. Journal of Field Ornithology 91: 254–262.*
Working with fantastic and independent Illinois undergrads in the field beats few other things in research and mentoring. Thank you Caterina and Cam for your help with data and editing!
293. Louder MIM, Schelsky WM, Hoover JP, Louder ANA, Hauber ME (2020) A seasonal shift in offspring sex ratio of the brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). Journal of Avian Biology 51: e02560.*
What PCR-sexing hundreds of DNA samples in the lab can get you. Amber ran a tight ship with the undergrads and we discovered the first evidence of cowbird-chick sex ratio biases in the field.
292. Hauber ME, Abolins-Abols M, Kim CR, Paitz RT (2020) Inter-individual variation in anti-parasitic egg rejection behavior: a test of the maternal investment hypothesis. Integrative Organismal Biology 2: obaa014.*
This paper got a compliment from Christie Riehl, one of my favorite ornithologists! So we must have done something right by coming up with a new hypothesis for egg rejection in hosts of brood parasitic birds.
291. Lawson SL, Leuschner N, Gill BJ, Enos JK, Hauber ME (2020) Loss of graded enemy recognition in a Whitehead population allopatric with brood parasitic Long-tailed Cuckoos. Avocetta Journal of Ornithology 44: 3-10.*
An almost-lost Tiritiri Matangi master's project from New Zealand, rescued by Shelby and her incredible conceptualization and writing abilities.
290. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2020) Proximate predictors of variation in egg rejection behavior by hosts of avian brood parasites. Journal of Comparative Psychology 134: 412-422.*
Year 1 of Mikus' field work with us in Illinois: an observational study surveying potential egg rejection predictors in American Robins, including baseline corticosterone prior to rejection decisions.
289. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Ruzickova J, Marton A, Ban M, Elek Z (2020) Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos. The Science of Nature 107: 28.
An awesome new use of 3D printed model cuckoos with dimorphic adult female plumage colors. Now if we could only figure out the genetic basis of rusty color morphs in Cuculus cuckoos...?
288. Enos JK, Hyland-Bruno J, Hauber ME (in press) Aggressive responses of Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) and American Robins (Turdus migratorius) towards brood parasites and nest predators. Wilson Journal of Ornithology.*
Julia's long-ago rotation project in Ithaca through my lab at GC CUNY has come to fruition thanks to the analytical and writing skills of Janice! Thank you both!
287. Scharf HM, Suarez AV, Reeve HK, Hauber ME (2020). The evolution of conspecific acceptance threshold models. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 375: 20190475.*
My first paper with former PhD committee member, Kern Reeve; so proud of being able to celebrate his 1989 Acceptance Theory paper with this special issue in Phil Trans B.
286. Suarez AV, Scharf HM, HK Reeve, Hauber ME (2020) Theme Issue Introduction: Signal detection, acceptance thresholds, and the evolution of animal recognition systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 375: 20190464 (with cover).*
An introduction by Andy et al. to the Phil Trans B special issue on signal detection theory in behavioral ecology. We got the cover (lol!).
285. Luro A, Hauber ME (2020) Invited Commentary: The ecological context and fitness impact of categorical perception: a comment on Green et al. Behavioral Ecology 31: 869-870.*
Always fun to write a short commentary on an innovative Perspective piece in BE. Thanks to Alec for thinking about categorical perception in color vision in the lab and in the field.
284. Hays I, Ljubcic I, Hauber ME (2020) The shape of avian eggs: Assessment of a novel metric for quantifying eggshell conicality. Auk: Ornithological Advances 137: ukaa021.*
A labor of love from Ian's master's thesis with me at Hunter/CUNY. Lots of math, lots of 3D printing, lots of imaging!
283. Lawson SL, Enos JK, Mendes NC, Gill SA, Hauber ME (2020) Heterospecific eavesdropping on an anti-parasitic referential alarm call. Communications Biology 3: 143.*
A true discovery by Shelby! On one of the most common North American birds, nonetheless. Brava!! Also, the basis of our latest National Geographic grant award.
282. Hanson HE, Mathews NS, Hauber ME, Martin LB (2020) The natural history of model organisms: the house sparrow in the service of basic and applied biology. eLife 9: e52803.
I solicited eLife to commission us to write this model-species review, and worked with Marty and his talented lab to get it done!
281. Luro A, Hauber ME (2020) Avian diet and foraging ecology constrain foreign egg recognition and rejection. Avian Biology Research 13: 24-31.*
Alec mastered Bayesian comparative analyses for this paper, and Charles Demming kindly edited this paper until it was ready for publication in ABR.
280. Louder MIM, Lafayette M, Louder AA, Uy FMK, Balakrishnan CN, Yasukawa K, Hauber ME (2020) Shared transcriptional responses to con- and heterospecific behavioral antagonists in a wild songbird. Scientific Reports 10: 4092.*
Can you study behaviorally-driven gene-expression patterns in wild birds without collecting them. Sure thing!! Thank you Ken for offering us your study system for this project.
279. Magory Cohen T, Kumar S, Nair M, Hauber ME, Dor R (2020) Innovation and decreased neophobia drive invasion success in a widespread avian invader. Animal Behaviour 163: 61-72.
A paper that started at the highest calibre of journals, but was even rejected from a behavioral journal because the comparison of a native range and an introduced range was deemed as n=1 pair. Alas, it's in Anim Behav now!
278. Ismar-Rebitz SMH , Daniel C, Stephenson BM, Raubenheimer D, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2020) Sex-specific reproductive benefits of early arrival to the breeding colony in a seabird. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 132: 29-38.*
Steffi's PhD thesis with the gannets at Cape Kidnapepers never ceases to yield exciting data: this one, after a period of dormancy, shows how the early male gets the mate.
277. Manna TJ, Hanley D, Honza M, Capek M, Rutila J, Samas P, Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2020) Fitting different visual models to behavioral patterns of parasitic egg rejection along a natural egg color gradient in a cavity-nesting host species. Vision Research 167: 54-59.*
Tommy stopped talking to me half-way through publishing this paper. Anyone knows why and what happened to him? A very sad end for me as a mentor to an otherwise very productive PhD by Tommy at GC CUNY.
276. Louder MIM, Balakrishnan CN, Louder ANA, Driver RJ, London SE, Hauber ME (2019) An acoustic password enhances auditory learning in juvenile brood parasitic cowbirds. Current Biology 29: 4045-4051.*
So proud!! After 18 years we returned to the Password Hypothesis, and got some male cowbirds slightly 'misimprinted' on canary songs coupled with chatter calls!
275. Hauber ME, Dainson M, Luro A, Louder AA, Hanley D (2019) When are egg rejection cues perceived? A test using thermochromic eggs in an avian brood parasite host. Animal Cognition 22:1141–1148.*
A super cool method with thermochromic eggs, and complex interpretation of the results--took us a few years to make sense of the data, but it's out now for everyone to ponder about.
274. Louder MIM, Hauber ME, Louder ANA, Hoover JP, Schelsky WM (2019) Greater opportunities for sexual selection in male than in female obligate brood parasitic birds. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 32: 1310-1315 (with cover).*
The Bateman gradient is well and alive even in parasitic cowbirds! And also: female cowbirds are pretty genetic mate-consistent within each year. What's that about?
273. Nagy J, Hauber ME, Hartley IR, Mainwaring MC (2019) Correlated evolution of nest and egg characteristics in birds. Animal Behaviour 158: 211-225.
This was the first of an exciting collaboration with Mark M and Jeno N, that's still ongoing to this day. Maybe one day we'll meet in person!
272. Scharf HM, Stenstrom K, Dainson M, Benson TJ, Fernandez-Juricic E, Hauber ME (2019) Mimicry-dependent lateralization in the visual inspection of foreign eggs by American robins. Biology Letters 15: 20190351.*
Our first fully-Urbana based paper, with some intense video-analyses by Hannah and Katie. Thanks to Esteban for asking for the extra-analyses and to TJ for the double-head video camera set-up.
271. Abolins-Abols M, Hanley D, Moskat C, Grim T, Hauber ME (2019) Anti-parasitic egg rejection by great reed warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) tracks differences along an eggshell color gradient. Behavioural Processes 166: 103902.*
It's hard to trick a Great Reed Warbler. Most artificially painted model eggs are rejected by them. But the few ones they accepted were bluer than predicted by chance.
270. Louder MIM, Lawson S, Lynch K, Balakrishnan CN, Hauber ME (2019) Neural mechanisms of auditory species recognition in birds. Biological Reviews 94: 1619-1635.*
Last minute help from Shelby made this long-overdue review timely and accurate. A great editorial process at BR, too.
269. Hauber ME, Bond AL, Kouwenberg A-L, Robertson GJ, Hansen EJ, Holford M, Dainson M, Luro A, Dale J (2019) The chemical basis of a signal of individual identity: shell pigment concentrations track the unique appearance of Common Murre eggs. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 16: 20190115.*
Very proud of a first-authored paper so long after sourcing these eggs from our Canadian team members. Thanks Miri for running the chemical analyses in Mande's lab.
268. Moskat C, Hauber ME (2019) Sex-specific responses to simulated territorial intrusions in the common cuckoo: a dual function of female acoustic signaling. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 73: 60.
My carrying a parabola antenna across the Atlantic was just the beginning of our vocalizations paper-series with Csaba on the cuckoos.
267. Mackay JWB, Russell JC, Murphy EC, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2019) See how they run: increased ranging behavior counters potential Allee effects in experimentally introduced house mice on an island. Biological Invasions 21:1669-1681.*
Starting high in PNAS with this one too, but then landing a long-overdue solid contribution in Bio Invasions from Jamie's thesis at Auckland Uni.
266. Hanley D, Gern K, Hauber ME, Grim T (2019) Host responses to foreign eggs across the avian visual color space. American Naturalist 194: 17-27.*
When doing the same project in Ithaca, we called it the 'crazy egg' colors experiment. But we learned so much from it about the European blackbirds, too.
265. Hanley D, Lopez AV, Fiorini VD, Reboreda JC, Grim T, Hauber ME (2019) Variation in multicomponent recognition cues alters egg rejection decisions: a test of the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 374: 20180195.* (Faculty of 1000 Prime Recommended).
Perhaps the first quantitative demonstration of how much acceptance thresholds shift (5 JND) by increasing multi-component egg mimicry between host and model parasitic eggs. Thanks Ana and team Buenos Aires University for doing the field work.
264. Moskat C, Ban M, Fulop A, Bereczki J, Hauber ME (2019) Bimodal habitat use in brood parasitic Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) revealed by GPS telemetry. Auk: Ornithological Advances 136: 1-12.
Inspired by Steve Rothstein's original work on commuting cowbirds in the Sierras, we were excited to run similar analyses on the cuckoos in Hungary.
263. Rivera M, Cealie M, Hauber ME, Kleindorfer S, Liu W (2019) Neural activation in response to conspecific songs in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) embryos and nestlings. NeuroReport 30: 217–221.*
Embryonic zebra finches can hear! IEG demonstration by my PhD student at GC CUNY Moises in Wan-chun's lab of what our suspicions were all along.
262. Hauber ME, Luro A, McCarty CJ, Barateli K, Cassey P, Hansen E, Dale J (2019) Interannual repeatability of eggshell phenotype in individual female Common Murres (Uria aalge). Canadian Journal of Zoology 97: 385-391.*
After nasty and combatant (same) referee report in Biol Letters and RS Open Science, finally we landed a solid home for this long-term project on captive murres. Thanks CJ for all those photos year-after-year.
261. Manna TJ, Moskat C, Tong L, Ban M, Aidala Z, Low J, Hauber ME (2019) Multiple parasitism reduces egg rejection in the host of a mimetic avian brood parasite. Journal of Comparative Psychology 133: 351-358.*
A paper that we should have published back in 2013 to parallel Stevens et al. 2013 Nat Comms. on the same concepts.
260. Withers S, Armstrong D, Ward-Smith T, Parsons S, Hauber ME (2019) Improved methods for reducing translocation mortality and obtaining reliable population projections for reintroduction of the New Zealand rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris). Bird Conservation International 29: 542-557 (with cover).*
How to translocate this smallest New Zealand passerine without losing too many of them in the process. I worked on the permits moving them to Cape Kidnappers and to Tiritiri Matangi Island, both.
259. Aidala Z, Strausberger B, Hauber ME (2019) Increased Egg-Nest Visual Contrast Does Not Induce Egg Ejection in the Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), an Accepter Host of the Brood Parasitic Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). Journal of Comparative Psychology 133: 46–55.*
Zak is now a tenured prof., but this was still one of our unpublished projects when he was still my PhD student at GC CUNY.
258. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2018) Invited Commentary: Applying the framework and concepts of parasitology to avian brood parasitism: a comment on Aviles. Behavioral Ecology 29: 520–521.*
The first writing project with Mikus after he joined our lab at Illinois. Great fun.
257. Kleindorfer S, Evans C, Hauber ME, Colombelli-Negrel D (2018) Could prenatal sound discrimination predict vocal complexity later in life? BMC Zoology 3: 11.
An outcome of our ARC grant, to show how embryonic communication changes future vocal phenotype in fairy-wrens.
256. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2018) Host defenses against avian brood parasitism: an endocrine perspective. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 285: 20180980 (with cover).*
More of a perspective than a review. But just before the proofs were corrected, we were able to add Ruiz-Raya et al. 2018's latest paper on this topic.
255. Dainson M, Mark M, Hossain M, Yoo B, Holford M, McNeil S, Riehl C, Hauber ME (2018) How to make a mimic? Brood parasitic Striped Cuckoo eggs match host shell color but not pigment concentration. Journal of Chemical Ecology 44: 940-946 (with cover).*
Had a bit of fight with an other journal's editor whether colorful pigments should even count as a topic in chemical ecology or not. Clearly, they should!
254. Masello JF, Martínez J, Calderón L, Wink M, Quillfeldt P, Sanz V, Theuerkauf J, Ortiz-Catedral L, Berkunsky I, Brunton D, Díaz Luque JA, Hauber ME, Ojeda V, Barnaud A, Casalins L, Jackson B, Mijares A, Rosales R, Seixas G, Serafini P, Silva-Iturriza A, Sipinski E, Vásquez R, Widmann P, Widmann I, Merino S (2018): Can the intake of antiparasitic secondary metabolites explain the low prevalence of hemoparasites among wild Psittaciformes? Parasites & Vectors 11: 357.*
Another output from our mentor-mentee-collaborator relationship with Luis and his productive PhD project at Massey University in New Zealand.
253. Katsis AC, Davies MH, Buchanan KL, Kleindorfer S, Hauber ME, Mariette MM (2018) Prenatal exposure to incubation calls affects song learning in the zebra finch. Scientific Reports 8: 15232.
A collaboration with Sonia and Kate as a follow up to our repeated ARC grant applications. Andrew also became our ARC postdoc with Sonia and Diane.
252. Rivera M, Louder MIM, Kleindorfer S, Liu W, Hauber ME (2018) Avian prenatal auditory stimulation: progress and perspectives. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 72: 112.*
An important review of the state-of-the field, commissioned by Nicky Clayton as reviews' editor at BES.
251. Hauber ME, Dainson M, Baldassarre DT, Hossain M, Holford M, Riehl C (2018) The perceptual and chemical basis of egg discrimination in communally nesting greater anis Crotophaga major. Journal of Avian Biology 49: e01776 (with cover).*
My first collaboration with Christie and Dan; a fun chemical analysis too of the ani's vaterite-based eggshell cover material.
250. Lynch KS, Louder MIM, Hauber ME (2018) Species-specific auditory forebrain responses to non-learned vocalizations in juvenile blackbirds. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 91: 193-200.*
An important parallel to our earlier study on juvenile vs. adult parasitic cowbirds with Kathleen, this time on juvenile non-parasitic icterids.
249. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Ban M, Fulop A, Geltsch N, Marton A, Elek Z (2018) Are both notes of the common cuckoo’s call necessary for familiarity recognition? Behavioural Processes 157: 685-690.*
When not searching for host nests, Csaba is the master of recordings and playback studies to cuckoos. One of our many papers from our OTKA international collaborative grant through Hungary.
248. Besel D, Hauber ME, Hunter C, Ward-Smith T, Raubenheimer D, Millar CD, Ismar SMH (2018) Multifactorial roles of interannual variability, season, and sex for foraging patterns in a sexually size monomorphic seabird, the Australasian gannet (Morus serrator). Marine Biology 165: 72.*
Steffi's supervision of a master's student at Geomar, Kiel, has yielded my latest Marine Biology paper (for which I used to be the seabird biology assoc. editor before).
247. Hays IR, Hauber ME (2018) How the egg rolls: a morphological analysis of avian egg shape in the context of displacement dynamics. Journal of Experimental Biology 221: jeb.178988.*
Countless 3D printed eggs and a beautifully designed adjustable sloping surface (Ian was trained as an architect) made this paper possible.
246. Louder MIM, Hauber ME, Balakrishnan C (2018) Early social experience alters transcriptomic responses to species-specific song stimuli in female songbirds. Behavioural Brain Research 347: 69-76.*
I insisted that we make the title more exciting for this paper--it turned out well, don't you think?
245. Dinets V, Sokolovskis K, Hanley D, Hauber ME (2018) Striking difference in response to expanding brood parasites by birds of western and eastern Beringia. Journal of Field Ornithology 89: 117–125.*
Mostly field work in Alaska by Vladimir and a lot of use of 3D printed eggs on both sides of the Bering Sea.
244. Canniff L, Dainson M, Lopez AV, Hauber ME, Grim T, Samas P, Hanley D (2018) Probing the limits of egg recognition using egg rejection experiments along phenotypic gradients. Journal of Visualized Experiments 138: e57512.*
A how-to paper to instruct folks on making series of natural-egg color relevant artificial colors. Let's make use of it all even more broadly!
243. de la Colina MA, Pompilio L, Hauber ME, Reboreda JC, Mahler B (2018) Parasitic egg rejection decisions of chalk-browed mockingbirds Mimus saturninus are independent of clutch composition. Animal Cognition 21: 301–305.*
Another follow up paper from Alicia's earlier visit to New Zealand and our ongoing collaborations on her thesis papers.
242. Luro A, Igic B, Croston R, Lopez AV, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2018) Which egg features predict egg rejection responses in American robins? Replicating Rothstein’s (1982) study. Ecology & Evolution 8: 1673-1679.*
A replication study of the classic Rothstein paper which should have been published in BES, but alas, it was "only a replication" data set. Hmmmm.
241. Hauber ME, Daniel C, Stephenson BM, Millar DC, Ismar SMH (2018) Genetic mating system of Australasian Gannets (Morus serrator). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 130: 763-770.*
Old school: DNA fingerprinting! Thanks Craig for teaching Claire and me how to read radiographs back in our Auckland Uni days!
240. Kopp M, Servedio MR, Mendelson TC, Safran RJ, Rodriguez RL, Hauber ME, Scordato EC, Symes LB, Balakrishnan CN, Zonana DM, van Doorn GS (2018) Synthesis: Mechanisms of assortative mating in speciation with gene flow: connecting theory and empirical research. American Naturalist 191: 1-20.
My first Am Nat paper. Sweet times! So many rejections, so many attempts. Thank you NESCENT and Michael & Maria for taking on some of my ideas on self-referencing and social recognition systems.
239. Ban M, Moskat C, Fulop A, Hauber ME (2018) Return migration of Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) between breeding grounds in Hungary and wintering grounds in Africa as documented by non-PTT GPS technology. Journal of Ornithology 159: 337-344.
This happens when your cuckoos carry a solar-panel rechargeable battery for their GPS tags--some of these birds flew to Namibia even!
238. Dearborn DC, Page SM, Dainson M, Hauber ME, Hanley D (2017) Eggshells as hosts of bacterial communities: an experimental test of the antimicrobial egg coloration hypothesis. Ecology & Evolution 7: 9711–9719.*
Always fun to collaborate with Don and Daniel on egg colors; Miri and I did the pigment chemistry analyses for this paper.
237. Dainson M, Hauber ME, Lopez A, Grim T, Hanley D (2017) Does contrast between eggshell ground and spot coloration affect egg rejection? The Science of Nature (Naturwissenschaften) 104: 54.*
More robin egg rejection papers, thank you Miri and Ana, for not getting arrested during your field work in Ithaca and its neighborhoods.
236. Cuthill I, Allen W, Arbuckle K, Caspers B, Chaplin G, Hauber ME, Hill GE, Jablonski N, Jiggins C, Kelber A, Mappes J, Marshall J, Merrill R, Osorio D, Prum R, Roberts N, Roulin A, Rowland H, Sherratt T, Skelhorn J, Speed M, Stevens M, s MC, Stuart-Fox D, Talas L, Tibbetts E, Caro (2017) The Biology of Color. Science 357: 470 (eaan0221).
A conversation with Tim Caro on a ski chairlift at WABC led to my invitation to WIKO and this Science paper. Not bad for scientific small-talk!
235. Crystal Ornelas R, Lockwood JL, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2017) The establishment threat of the obligate brood-parasitic Pin-tailed Whydah (Vidua macroura) in North America and the Antilles. The Condor: Ornithological Applications 119: 449-458.*
An output of our National Geographic grant on the whydahs with Julie and Phill. Covered in the New York Times, even. Thanks Rob for the modeling work.
234. Lynch K, Gaglio A, Tyler E, Coculo J, Louder MM, Hauber ME (2017) A neural basis for password-based species recognition in an avian brood parasite. Journal of Experimental Biology 220: 2345-2353.*
An awesome follow up to Hauber et al. 2001, the Password paper. This time using IEG in the brains of juvenile and adult parasitic cowbird males.
233. Luro AB, Hauber ME (2017) A test of the nest sanitation hypothesis for the evolution of foreign egg rejection in an avian brood parasite rejecter host species. The Science of Nature (Naturwissenschaften) 104: 14.*
Scooped in Anim Cognit by one of our original referees, but we marched on! Thanks Alec for persisting and publishing this awesome individual repeatability study.
232. Stoddard MC, Hauber ME (2017) Colour, vision and coevolution in avian brood parasitism. Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society of London B 372: 20160339.
Cassie is writes the most beautiful scientific text; an honor to work with her on this first collaborative paper.
231. Hanley D, Grim T, Igic B, Samas P, Lopez AV, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2017) Egg discrimination along a gradient of natural variation in eggshell coloration. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 284: 20162592.*
This is the first of a series of egg-rejection studies using natural ranges of egg color variation painted atop model parasitic eggs. Thanks Daniel for championing all this work.
230. Strausberger BM, Hauber ME (2017) Encounters with adult brood parasitic cowbirds at nests, not costly parasitic eggs, elicit nest desertion by Chipping Sparrows (Spizella passerina). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 129: 554-559.
Bill has awesome data sets and I always enjoy collaborating with him on his great questions about cowbird and host biology.
229. Moskat C, Elek Z, Ban M, Geltsch N, Hauber ME (2017) Can common cuckoos discriminate between neighbours and strangers by their calls? Animal Behaviour 126: 253-260.
The dear enemy effect in a non-oscine bird--it's there! Complex experiments but was feasible because of the mostly linear (channel-side) habitats of the cuckoos!
228. d’Alba L, Torres R, Waterhouse GIN, Eliason C, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2017) What Does the Eggshell Cuticle Do? A Functional Comparison of Avian Eggshell Cuticles. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 90: 588-599.
A side-project of our HFSP grant with Auckland and Ghent Universities, thank you Liliana for asking new questions about old eggs.
227. Nelson Slater M, Hauber ME (2017) Olfactory enrichment and scent cue associative learning in captive birds of prey. Zoo Biology 36: 120-126.*
Melissa's rotation project on avian olfaction with me was super fun, wrapping up pieces of meat for captive raptors in t-shirts and paperbags, at the Bronx Zoo!
226. Ismar SMH, Raubenheimer D, Bury SJ, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2017) Sex-specific foraging during parental care in a size-monomorphic seabird, the Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 129:139-147.*
My favorite part of this paper was the 10-cent dive-depth meter/gage made out of plastic tubing, superglue, and confectionary sugar. It worked!
225. Manna T, Grim T, Cooper C, Baylis S, Waterhouse GIN, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2017) Does the House Sparrow Passer domesticus represent a global model species for egg rejection behavior? Journal of Avian Biology 48: 346–352 (with cover).*
This paper included free-nesting sparrows in Miranda from New Zealand, captive sparrows in Tel Aviv, and citizen science data from across the USA. Fun!
224. Overbeek A, Hauber ME, Brown E, Cleland S, Maloney R, Steeves TE (2017) Evidence for brood parasitism in a critically endangered Charadriiform with implications for conservation. Journal of Ornithology 158: 333-337.
The kaki/black stilt will always be my favorite shorebirds from my first summers in New Zealand.
223. Igic B, Hauber ME, Grim T, Prochazka P, Moskat C, Shawkey MD, Honza M (2017) Brood parasite and host eggshells undergo similar levels of decalcification during embryonic development. Journal of Zoology 301: 165-173 (with cover).*
An awesome collaborative project with Marcel and Brani using eggshells of fresh and hatched cuckoo eggshells. I was the interneuron and courier!
222. Louder MIM, Voss HU, Manna TJ, Carryl SS, London SE, Balakrishnan CN, Hauber ME (2016) Shared neural substrates for song discrimination in parental and parasitic songbirds. Neuroscience Letters 622: 49-54.*
My first fMRI project on birds. It only took 15 years to get done since I applied for fMRI-based postdocs (and didn't get them) from grad school.
221. Mendelson TC, Fitzpatrick CL, Hauber ME, Pence CH, Rodgriguez RL, Safran RJ, Stern CA, Stevens JR (2016) Cognitive phenotypes and the evolution of animal decisions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 11: 850-859.
Rainbow unicorns! What does the fox say (inside joke with Tami and Team NSF NESCENT)? It's rare that you write both a funded grant and a resulting paper with the exact same title!
220. d’Alba L, Rafael M, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2016) The evolution of eggshell cuticle in relation to nesting ecology. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 283: 20160687.
Sourcing eggshells for this collaboration on our HFSP grant was my main role. Thanks Liliana for a great paper.
219. Hanley D, Sulc M, Brennan P, Hauber ME, Grim T, Honza M (2016) Dynamic egg colour mimicry. Ecology & Evolution 6: 4192-4202.*
Does the cuckoo's egg become a better or worse (worse) mimic as time goes on? Now you know!
218. Colombelli-Négrel D, Webster MS, Dowling JL, Hauber ME, Kleindorfer S (2016) Vocal imitation of mother's calls by begging Red-backed Fairy-wren nestlings increases parental provisioning. The Auk: Ornithological Advances 133: 273–285.
Extending fairy-wren embryonic communication to another fairy-wren species and system. Thanks Diane and Mike!
217. Yasukawa K, Lindsey-Robbins J, Henger CS, Hauber ME (2016) Antiparasitic behaviors of Red-winged Blackbirds in response to simulated Brown-headed Cowbirds: further tests of the frontloaded parasite-defense hypothesis. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 128: 475-486 (with frontispiece).*
After super-rude peer-reviewers in PeerJ, we turned to the welcoming Wilson J Ornithology and got this meta-replication paper published with Ken.
216. Hebets EA, Barron AB, Balakrishnan C, Hauber ME, Mason P, Hoke K (2016) A systems approach to animal signaling. Proceeding of the Royal Society of London B 283: 20152889.
Another high profile output from our NSF NESCENT workshop. Thanks Eileen and Andy for leading the conceptual way.
215. Brulez K, Miksik I, Cooney CR, Hauber ME, Lovell PG, Maurer G, Portugal SJ, Russell D, Reynolds J, Cassey P (2016) Eggshell pigment composition co-varies with phylogeny but neither with life history nor with nesting ecology traits of British passerines. Ecology & Evolution 6: 1637-1645.
How to make the most of uncatalogued eggshells at Tring? Dissolve them in acid and detect their pigments! Thanks Phill for another comparative eggshell pigment paper.
214. Ryan A, Hauber ME (2016) Group compositional changes impact the social and feeding behavior of captive hamadryas baboons Papio hamadryas hamadryas. Zoo Biology 35: 137-146.*
I'm so proud of Amy, after this paper from in the zoo, she moved onto a neuroscience PhD at Amherst, a human/primate postdoc at UC Davis, and a full time job at NIH. Nice career arc!
213. Fulmer AG, Santema P, Hauber ME (2016) Intrabrood rank, age, and adult presence predict novelty seeking in individual Arabian Babblers, Turdoides squamiceps. Animal Behaviour 114: 93-99.*
Guided by Profs. Zahavi in the Negev while funded by his NSF GRFP, Andrew got this really nice cognition-in-the-wild experimental paper put together for Anim Behav.
212. de la Colina MA, Hauber ME, Strausberger BM, Reboreda JC, Mahler B (2016) Molecular tracking of individual host use in the Shiny Cowbird – a generalist brood parasite. Ecology & Evolution 6: 4684-4696.*
With Bill's microsatellite primers and all of Alicia's work in New Zealand and Argentina, we finally got this paper churned out in E&E.
211. Manna TJ, Hauber ME (2016) Recent progress in brood parasitism research among social insects. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 12: 1-5.*
Tommy was hoping to do his full PhD thesis on parasitic insects. But at least this review was nicely published.
210. Geltsch N, Ban M, Hauber ME, Moskat C (2016) Optimal timing of egg laying by Common Cuckoos Cuculus canorus: when should parasitic eggs be laid to precede the host eggs in hatching? Bird Study 63: 46-51.
My first paper in Bird Study; a nice follow up to one of our early papers with Csaba from EEE 10 years before.
209. Fidler AE, Aidala Z, Anderson MG, Ortiz-Catedral L, Hauber ME (2016). Pseudogenisation of the short-wavelength sensitive 1 (SWS1) opsin gene in two New Zealand endemic passerine species: the Yellowhead (Mohoua ochrocephala) and Brown Creeper (M. novaeseelandiae). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 128: 159-163.*
Andrew (Fidler) worked out what our sequencing results meant for opsin genes in the Mohoua genes. Followed up by more analyses in the 2020 Nature paper above!
208. Fulmer AG, Hauber ME (2016) A siblicidal origin for avian brood parasitism? Journal of Ornithology 157: 219–227.*
Andrew (Fulmer) wanted to work on a complex model of the evolutionary origin of obligate brood parasitism; another thesis chapter published.
207. Larson LR, Cooper C, Hauber ME (2016) Emotions as drivers of wildlife stewardship behavior: Citizen science nest monitors’ responses to invasive house sparrows. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 21: 18-33.
Our internally funded Project House Sparrow with Caren, then at Cornell, yielded an exciting assessment of human feelings about invasive House Sparrows in North America.
206. Louder MIM, Ward MP, Schelsky WM, Hauber ME, Hoover JP (2015) Out on their own: a test of adult-assisted dispersal in fledgling brood parasites reveals solitary departures from hosts. Animal Behaviour 110: 29-37.*
Matt was on his way to become our postdoc for the NSF brood parasite project, and this test of his of the First-contact hypothesis rejected my original predictions. All good, though, that's what science is about!
205. Dinets V, Samas P, Croston R, Grim T, Hauber ME (2015) Predicting the responses of native birds to trans-oceanic invasions by avian brood parasites. Journal of Field Ornithology 86: 244-251.*
Sending and importing model cuckoo and cowbird eggs from/to Europe can yield some true surprises in the nests of American Robins and Common Redstarts.
204. Verdes A, Cho W, Hossain M, Brennan PLR , Hanley D, Grim T, Hauber ME, Holford M (2015) Nature’s palette: Characterization of shared pigments in colorful avian and mollusk shells. PLoS ONE 10: e0143545.*
Detecting porphyrin based shell (whatever that means) pigments in distant phylogenetic taxa!
203. Hauber ME, Aidala Z, Igic B, Shawkey MD, Moskat C (2015) Experimental shifts in nest-egg contrasts do not predict egg rejection responses in an avian host-parasite system. Animal Cognition 18: 1133-1141.*
A parallel study to Zak's similar work on American Robins in J Exp Biol, but this time on Great Reed Warblers in Hungary. Thanks Csaba for painting all those nest linings.
202. Igic B, Zarate E, Sewell MA, Moskat C, Cassey P, Rutila J, Grim T, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2015) A comparison of egg yolk lipid constituents between parasitic Common Cuckoos and their hosts. Auk: Ornithological Advances 132: 817–825.*
A great use of Mary Sewell's lipid-instrument at Auckland Uni to ask basic questions about maternal programming of eggs in host vs. parasitic birds.
201. Thomas DB, Hauber ME, Hanley D, Waterhouse GIN, Fraser S, Gordon KC (2015) Analysing avian eggshell pigments with Raman spectroscopy. Journal of Experimental Biology 218, 2670-2674.*
A how-to paper not to destroy (i.e. dissolve in sulphuric acid) your valuable study specimens (e.g., extinct species, endangered species) for eggshell pigment analyses.
200. Hanley D, Grim T, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2015) Not so colourful after all: eggshell pigments constrain avian eggshell colour space. Biology Letters 11: 20150087.*
After I wrote the Book of Eggs (2014), I realized the ground-colors of avian eggshells are quite invariant (white, blue, beige, or brown). Daniel's analysis of 600+ avian eggshell spectra confirms this!
199. Igic B, Nunez V, Voss HU, Croston R, Aidala Z, Lopez AV, Van Tatenhove A, Holford ME, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2015) Using 3D printed eggs to examine the egg-rejection behaviour of wild birds. PeerJ 3:e965.*
This paper's earlier draft had such a rude set of referee comments that we almost broke down and gave up. But the paper's simple message was too important for us, and the published article was eventually picked up for interviews by the Washington Post and the National Public Radio in the USA.
198. Barron AB, Hebets EA, Cleland TA, Fitzpatrick CL, Hauber ME, Stevens J (2015) Embracing multiple definitions of learning. Trends in Neurosciences 38: 405-407.
This was one of our first paper outputs from a NESCENT/NSF workshop on the evolution of animal decision systems. Thanks Andy for spearheading such a brave approach to learning.
197. Hauber ME, Tong L, Ban M, Croston R, Grim T, Waterhouse GIN, Shawkey MD, Barron AB, Moskat C (2015) The value of artificial stimuli in behavioral research: making the case for egg rejection studies in avian brood parasitism. Ethology 121: 521-528.*
Both a conceptual and empirical piece advocating for the use of multiples/series of egg stimulus presentations in egg-rejection research.
196. Fecheyr-Lippens DC, Igic B, D'Alba L, Hanley D, Verdes A, Holford ME, Waterhouse GIN, Grim T, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2015) The cuticle modulates ultraviolet reflectance of avian eggshells. Biology Open 4: 753-759.*
Another output from Matt Shawkey's new lab at Ghent and our HFSP grant funding. Thanks Matt for collaborating.
195. Croston R, Hauber ME (2015) Experimental shifts in intraclutch egg color variation do not affect egg rejection in a host of a non-egg-mimetic avian brood parasite. PLoS ONE 10: e0121213.*
An elegantly designed experiment, with negative results. Published in the hey-days of PloS ONE's prominence in behavioral research.
194. Hanley D, Samas P, Heryan J, Hauber ME, Grim T (2015) Now you see it, now you don’t: flushing hosts prior to experimentation can predict their responses to brood parasitism. Scientific Reports 5: 9060.*
As some things change, others stay the same. Flushing matters for European Blackbird egg rejection, but doesn't negate previous research's findings, either.
193. Igic B, Fecheyr-Lippens D, Xiao M, Chan A, Hanley D, Brennan PR, Grim T, Waterhouse GI, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2015) A nanostructural basis for gloss of avian eggshells. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 12: 20141210.*
Tinamous eggs are glossy, and Brani's work carefully dissected its nanostructural mechanisms experimentally. Thank you stage 2 of the HFSP grant.
192. Croston R, Hauber ME (2015) A recoverable cost of brood parasitism during the nestling stage of the American robin (Turdus migratorius): implications for the evolution of egg rejection behaviors in a host of the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater). Ethology Ecology & Evolution 27: 42–55.*
Cowbirds do not do well in robin nests (if they survive the high anticowbird egg-rejection rates during incubation), but robins still take a hit to their fitness by having an extra chick in the nest.
191. Aidala Z, Croston R, Schwartz J, Tong L, Hauber ME (2015) The role of egg-nest contrast in the rejection of brood parasitic eggs. Journal of Experimental Biology 218, 1126-1136.*
Very proud of this paper by Zak which yielded negative results, but was still published in a great journal.
190. Hanley D, Samas P, Hauber ME, Grim T (2015) Who moved my eggs? An experimental test of the clutch arrangement hypothesis for the rejection of brood parasitic eggs. Animal Cognition 18: 299-305.*
A follow-up to Lenka's observational project (see below) using experimental shuffling and a complex visual analysis of the eggs by Daniel and Peter in Tomas' lab.
189. Maurer G, Miksik I, Portugal SJ, Hauber ME, Russel D, Cassey P (2014) First light for avian embryos: eggshell thickness and pigmentation mediate variation in development and UV exposure in wild bird eggs. Functional Ecology 29: 209-218.
Sure enough, eggshells reflect different colored lights--but what about what the embryo sees. Well here's your answer from Golo's project funded by the Leverhulme grant with Phill.
188. Shaw RC, Feeney WE, Hauber ME (2014) Nest destruction elicits indiscriminate con- vs. heterospecific brood parasitism in a captive bird. Ecology & Evolution 4: 4500-4504.*
Will's idea about the unpublished components of Rachael's honor's thesis results yielded a 3rd paper from her studies at Auckland Uni with me as her mentor.
187. Portugal S, Maurer G, Thomas GH, Hauber ME, Grim T, Cassey P (2014) Nesting behaviour influences species-specific gas exchange across avian eggshells. Journal of Experimental Biology 217: 3326-3332.
An elegant comparative paper from Steve's invention of working with evaporation and eggshell fragments in Birmingham.
186. Hauber ME (2014) Mafia or Farmer? Coevolutionary consequences of retaliation and farming as predatory strategies upon host nests by avian brood parasites. Coevolution 2, doi: 10.1080/23256214.2014.913974.
I remember modelling this paper's content and message during cold winter days in Ithaca in grad school. Sadly, the journal where I published it, no longer exists.
185. Ortiz-Catedral L, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2014) Haematologic reference ranges of two remnant populations of red-fronted parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) in New Zealand. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 61: 131-136.*
More psittacine veterinary science, courtesy of Luis' interests from his PhD thesis.
184. Kleindorfer SM, Hoi H, Evans C, Mahr K, Robertson J, Hauber ME, Colombelli-Negrel D (2014) The cost of teaching embryos in superb fairy-wrens. Behavioral Ecology 25: 1131-1135.
A great experimental paper for a great journal: even if we tried elsewhere, but this is where it belongs truly.
183. Moskat C, Zölei A, Ban M, Elek Z, Tong L, Geltsch N, Hauber ME (2014) How to spot a stranger’s egg? A mimicry-specific discordancy effect in the recognition of parasitic eggs. Ethology 120: 616-626.*
This is such an exciting finding: evidence for both template-matching and discordancy-based egg rejection in Great Reed Warblers. A truly unique paper.
182. Ismar MEH, Daniel C, Igic B, Morrison-Whittle P, Ballard G, Millar CD, Fidler A, McGraw KJ, Wakamatsu K, Stephenson BM, Cassey P, Dearborn DC, Hauber ME (2014) Sexual plumage dichromatism in a size monomorphic seabird. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126: 417-428 (with Frontispiece).*
If we only counted the variably black-or-white tail feathers of Australasian Gannets from the get-go. They are sexually dimorphic in their extent of melanization...
181. Moskat C, Ban M, Hauber ME (2014) Naïve hosts of avian brood parasites accept foreign eggs, whereas older hosts fine-tune foreign egg discrimination during laying. Frontiers in Zoology 11: 45.
Super long and painful project to run egg-rejection experiments and then catch and age female Great Reed Warblers. But the results supported Arnon Lotem's 1990s' findings!
180. Portugal SJ, Hauber ME, Maurer G, Stokke BG, Grim T, Cassey P (2014) Early hatching of an avian brood parasite’s embryo cannot be explained by enhanced gaseous exchange across the eggshell. Journal of Zoology 293: 219-226 (with cover).
I remember visiting Steve in Birmingham and him showing me how to glue eggshells to eppendorf tubes. The result is this paper from Steve's efforts.
179. Henger C, Hauber ME (2014) Variation in antiparasitic behaviors of Red-winged Blackbirds in response to simulated Brown-headed Cowbirds. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126: 488–499.*
Day 1 of the project: The first redwing nest that I found and showed to Carole for this project had a cowbird egg in it, right next to a busy highway in Queens, New York!
178. Samas P, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Grim T (2014) Host responses to interspecific brood parasitism: a by-product of adaptations to conspecific parasitism? Frontiers in Zoology 11: 34.
If there are/were no Turdus-specific European cuckoo gentes, then why do blackbirds and song thrush reject foreign eggs from their nests. We think it's because of potential conspecific brood parasitism.
177. Grim T, Samas P, Hauber ME (2014) The repeatability of avian egg ejection behaviors across different temporal scales, breeding stages, female ages and experiences. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68: 749-759.
An instant classic paper with Tomas and Peter on measuring repeatability of egg rejection within and between breeding attempts, inculding across years, too.
176. Baylis SM, de Lisle M, Hauber ME (2014) Inferring maximum lifespan from maximum recorded longevity carries substantial risk of estimation bias. Ecography 37: 770–780.*
A statistical treatise by Shane on the dangers of using banding/recapture data to estimate avian species-specific longevity maxima.
175. Croston R, Hauber ME (2014) High repeatability of egg rejection in response to experimental brood parasitism in the American robin (Turdus migratorius). Behaviour 151: 703-718.*
A super important experiment by Beki for many of our future projects on robins, includign Alec's master's thesis.
174. Colombelli-Negrel D, Hauber ME, Kleindorfer SM (2014) Prenatal learning in an Australian songbird: habituation and individual discrimination in superb fairy-wren embryos. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 281: 20141154.
Non-associative learning is still learning! Prenatally shown in humans and fairy-wrens, only, thus far.
173. Machovsky Capuska GE, Hauber ME, Libby E, Amiot C, Raubenheimer D (2014) The contribution of private and public information in foraging by Australasian gannets. Animal Cognition 17: 849-858.*
Are Australasian Gannets the honeybees of the sea? Probably not. The output from our National Geographic grant with David.
172. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Elek Z, Gommers M, Ban M, Groenewoud F, Versluijs T, Hoetz CWA, Komdeur J (2014) Foreign egg retention by avian hosts in repeated brood parasitism: why do rejecters accept? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68: 403-413.
There're a lot of Dutch summer field researchers on this paper! That's all I'm saying.
171. Croston R, Hauber ME (2014) Spectral tuning and perceptual differences do not explain the rejection of brood parasitic eggs by American robins (Turdus migratorius). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68: 351-362.*
Our first of many-many American Robin egg rejection papers, first starting field work in and around Ithaca while I was still working in New York City.
170. Galbraith JA, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2014) Nest-site use by an introduced parrot in New Zealand. Emu – Austral Ornithology 114: 97-105.*
Josie's critical data chapter from her master's on the rosellas introduced to New Zealand. She went onto doing a fantastic PhD too!
169. Hauber ME, Samas P, Anderson MG, Rutila J, Low J, Cassey P, Grim T (2014) Life-history theory predicts host behavioural responses to experimental brood parasitism. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 26: 349-364.*
What happens in New Zealand Turdus nests, doesn't stay in New Zealand (and, apparently, doesn't happen in Spain)... A fully magic-marker based egg rejection project from Auckland City and beyond.
168. Machovsky-Capuska GE, Hauber ME, Dassis M, Libby E, Wikelski MC, Schuckard R, Melville DS, Cook W, Houston M, Raubenheimer D (2014) Foraging behaviour and habitat use of chick-rearing Australasian Gannets in New Zealand. Journal of Ornithology 155: 379-387.*
There are mainland nesting gannets on the South Island of New Zealand, too. Here's what they feed to their chicks and where they go fishing to.
167. Ortiz-Catedral L, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2013) Growth and survival of nestlings in a population of red-crowned parakeets (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) free of introduced mammalian nest predators on Tiritiri Matangi Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 37: 370-378.*
A vast analysis of all the kakariki reproductive data from Luis' thesis work on Tiritiri Matangi, my by-far favorite island in New Zealand.
166. Thrimawithana A, Ortiz-Catedral L, Rodrigo A, Hauber ME (2013) Reduced total genetic diversity following translocations? A metapopulation approach. Conservation Genetics 14: 1043-1055.*
Another output from my Kermadic research sea-voyage; this one is a modeling project of an idea that I had while sailing back to Wellington.
165. Aidala Z, Chong N, Anderson MG, Ortiz-Catedral L, Jamieson IG, Briskie JV, Cassey P, Gill BJ, Hauber ME (2013) Phylogenetic relationships of the genus Mohoua, endemic hosts of New Zealand's obligate brood parasitic Long-tailed Cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis). Journal of Ornithology 154: 1127-1133.*
Though I didn't rediscover the moa in New Zealand, we got to re-establish another endemic avian family for my adopted home country.
164. Polacikova L, Takasu F, Stokke BG, Moksnes A, Roskaft E, Cassey P, Hauber ME, Grim T (2013) Egg arrangement in avian clutches covaries with the rejection of foreign eggs. Animal Cognition 16: 819-828.
Do messy house-keeping hosts reject more or fewer eggs fro the nest? Fewer!
163. Gill BJ, Hauber ME (2013) Distribution and age-specific plumage states of the long-tailed cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis). Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 60: 158-170.
Where do young Long-tailed Cuckoos molt into their adult plumage. Brian knows best!
162. Allen KR, Hauber ME (2013) Self-referencing and mate choice among college students: epiphenomenon or consistent patterns of preference across populations? Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology 7: 163-174.*
One of my handful of human papers, with a visiting student from my Auckland Uni days. Didn't make it into PNAS like Buston and Emlen's paper did on this, but it was nice to replicate their results with an independent sample size from New Zealand.
161. Hauber ME, Woolley SMN, Cassey P, Theunissen FE (2013) Experience dependence of neural responses to different classes of male songs in the primary auditory forebrain of female songbirds. Behavioural Brain Research 243: 184-190.
Finally, my other half of the UC Berkeley postdoc research is published. One of just a handful of female song-perception neurophysiology papers at that time.
160. Mackay JWB, Alexander A, Hauber ME, Murphy EC, Clout MN (2013) Does genetic variation among invasive house mice in New Zealand affect eradication success? New Zealand Journal of Ecology 37: 18-25.*
Often times the answer to a question-based title in scientific publishing is "NO". It's the same here, too. But did you know that New Zealand has all three house mouse subspecies introduced?
159. Ban M, Moskat C, Barta Z, Hauber ME (2013) Simultaneous viewing of own and parasitic eggs is not required for foreign egg rejection by a cuckoo host. Behavioral Ecology 24: 1014-1021.
What's a non-significant pattern in one researcher's book with, is a significant result using a repeated-measures Friedman ANOVA in another's practice. Here's what it yielded.
158. Samas P, Grim T, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Weidinger K, Evans KL (2013) Ecological predictors of reduced avian reproductive investment in the southern hemisphere. Ecography 36: 809-818.
Ecography is hard to crack (as I'm not an ecologist), but comparing our Turdus clutch size data from Europe and New Zealand should surely count for it. And it did!
157. Wagner GF, Aidala Z, Croston R, Hauber ME (2013) Repeated brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) at Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) nesting sites across non-consecutive years. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 125: 389-394.*
The title original had "long-term" in it, but an obnoxious referee told us that ~10-years do not count as long-term in cowbird research.
156. Anderson MG, Gill BJ, Briskie JV, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2013) Latitudinal differences in the breeding phenology of Grey Warblers covary with the prevalence of parasitism by Shining Bronze-Cuckoos. Emu – Austral Ornithology 113: 187-191.*
We never found a parasitized Grey Warbler nest at Tawharanui... so we wrote a paper about the differences between the Kaikoura and Tawh-nesting warblers' breeding phenology.
155. Aidala Z, Chong N, Anderson MG, Hauber ME (2012) Predicted visual sensitivity for short-wavelength light in the brood parasitic cuckoos of New Zealand. Chinese Birds 3: 295-301 (Special Issue on Brood Parasitism).*
New Zealand (and likely other cuckoos) have Violet-sensitive visual perception of colors. That's all, that's the message of this paper.
154. Samas P, Polacikova L, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Grim T (2012) Egg rejection behavior and clutch characteristics of the European Greenfinch introduced to New Zealand. Chinese Birds 3: 330-338 (Special Issue on Brood Parasitism).
In short, Greenfinches don't really reject foreign eggs. I wish they did, because there are so many of them established in New Zealand.
153. Horton BM, Hauber ME, Maney DL (2012) Morph matters: aggression bias in a polymorphic sparrow. PLoS ONE 7: e48705.
Another paper that should have been published in Biology Letters but found its way to PLoS ONE. Great behavioral collaboration on the white-throated sparrow system, though.
152. Colombelli-Negrel D, Hauber ME, Robertson J, Sulloway FJ, Hoi H, Griggio M, Evans C, Kleindorfer S (2012) Embryonic learning of vocal passwords in superb fairy-wrens reveals intruder cuckoo nestlings. Current Biology 22: 2155-2160 (Faculty of 1000: 3rd most viewed article in Ecology).
After a promise in Science that if we just only conducted one more year's of experimentation, we would get the paper accepted there--we got rejected. No matter, it's found a great home in Current Biology.
151. Henger C, Wallace SB, Hauber ME (2012) Comparison of two field data collection methods in recording avian behavior. Kingbird 62: 198-211.*
Development and application of the WhatISee iPhone-based behavioral data logging system with 2 master's students from Hunter College's ABC program.
150. Machovsky Capuska GE, Howland HC, Raubenheimer D, Vaugh R, Wursig B, Hauber ME, Katzir G (2012) Visual accommodation and active pursuit of prey underwater in a plunge diving bird: the Australasian gannet. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 279: 4118-4125 (with cover).*
I was fortunate to mentor Gabriel in his transition from Argentina to New Zealand and his PhD project with David, working on the iconic gannet foraging system. Also, nice to reconnect with Howie Howland from my Cornell grad school days to publish a paper together.
149. Massaro M, Ortiz-Catedral L, Julian L, Galbraith JA, Kurenbach B, Kearvell J, Kemp J, van Hal J, Elkington S, Taylor G, Greene T, van de Wetering J, van de Wetering M, Pryde M, Dilks P, Heber S, Steeves TE, Walters M, Shaw S, Potter J, Farrant M, Brunton DH, Hauber ME, Jackson B, Bell P, Moorhouse R, McInnes K, Varsani A (2012) Molecular characterisation of beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) in New Zealand and its implications for managing an infectious disease. Archives of Virology 157: 1651-1663.*
Another collaboration with Luis, Melanie, and Arvind on psittacine disease prevalence in New Zealand.
148. Gill BJ, Hauber ME (2012) Piecing together the epic transoceanic migration of the long-tailed cuckoo Eudynamys taitensis (Aves: Cuculidae): an analysis of museum and sighting records. Emu – Austral Ornithology 112: 326-332.
Supported by our Marsden grant, Brian visited nearly all museums with long-tailed cuckoo specimens around the world. The result is support for a new hypothesis on the annual migration routes and directions of this 1 of 2 migratory landbird species in New Zealand.
147. Krull CR, Ranjard L, Landers TJ, Ismar SMH, Matthews JL, Hauber ME (2012) Analyses of sex and individual differences in vocalizations of Australasian gannets using a dynamic time warping algorithm. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 132: 1189–1198.*
No population or sex differences in adult gannet calls. Published in a great acoustic journal where I always wanted to be published in.
146. Cassey P, Miksik I, Portugal SJ, Maurer G, Ewen JG, Zarate E, Sewell MA, Karadas F, Grim T, Hauber ME (2012) Avian eggshell pigments are not consistently correlated with colour measurements or egg constituents in two Turdus thrushes. Journal of Avian Biology 43: 503–512.
A rejection of the sexually-selected blue egg hypothesis--one of many such papers from us and from others.
145. Cassey P, Thomas GH, Portugal SJ, Maurer G, Hauber ME, Grim T, Lovell PG, Miksik I (2012) Why are birds’ eggs colourful? Eggshell pigments covary with life history and nesting ecology among British birds. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 106: 657-672.
A vast project by Phill and nearly everyone supported by our first-time HFSP grant, published in a journal where Darwin had also published before us.
144. Geltsch N, Hauber ME, Anderson MG, Ban M, Moskat C (2012) Competition with a host nestling for parental provisioning imposes recoverable costs on parasitic cuckoo chick's growth. Behavioural Processes 90: 378– 383.*
A follow-up video-begging and growth study to Hauber and Moskat 2008 BE. More ontogenetic coverage--different conclusions!
143. Hargitai R, Costantini D, Moskat C, Ban M, Muriel J, Hauber ME (2012) Variation in plasma oxidative status and testosterone level in relation to eviction effort and age of brood parasitic common cuckoo nestlings. Condor 114: 782-791 (with cover).
How to measure variation in the cost of egg-eviction by cuckoo chicks? What about the steepness of the nest walls? A Tomas Grim idea, applied to Hungarian cuckoo chicks here.
142. Hauber ME, Strausberger BM, Feldheim KA, Lock J, Cassey P (2012) Indirect estimates of breeding and natal philopatry in an obligate avian brood parasite. Journal of Ornithology 153: 467–475.*
Bill's microstat data on our Ithaca cowbird chicks is finally put to a good use in this important host nest-reuse paper by the same female cowbirds.
141. Croston R, Tonra CM, Heath SK, Hauber ME (2012) Flange color differences of brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds from nests of two host species. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124: 139-145.*
Nearly 10-year old Mono Lake cowbird chick data, reanalyzed by Beki for a side-project along her PhD thesis.
140. Lock J, Hauber ME (2012) A predation risk-and-avoidance model of nestling responses to parental vocalizations. Evolutionary Ecology Research 14: 235–245.*
Justin was my last formal master's student from Auckland Uni, but he and I were already based in the USA when we worked together on this theoretical paper.
139. Aidala Z, Huynen L, Brennan PLR, Musser J, Fidler A, Chong N, Machovsky Capuska GE, Anderson MG, Talaba A, Lambert D, Hauber ME (2012) Ultraviolet visual sensitivity in three avian lineages: paleognaths, parrots, and passerines. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 198: 495-510 (with Erratum DOI 10.1007/s00359-012-0752-z).*
We were the first ones to (correctly) show that ratites, including ostriches (and extinct moas), have (had) UV-sensitive color vision. But make sure to use the primer sequences from the Erratum only if you'd like to replicate our lab work.
138. Zolei A, Hauber ME, Geltsch N, Moskat C (2012) Asymmetrical signal content of egg shape as predictor of egg rejection by great reed warblers, hosts of the common cuckoo. Behaviour 149: 391-406.
Some of the strangest-shaped 3D model eggs can tell you a lot about egg color perception in host egg-rejection decisions. It's a bit like studying synesthesia in birds!
137. Shaw RC, Hauber ME (2012) Linking nest predation with brood parasitism in captive zebra finches: a multi-pair study. Journal of Ethology 30: 255-262.*
Rachael's experiments with Zebra Finch aviaries have also panned out and we, again, detected intraspecific parasitism in Zebra Finches.
136. de la Colina MA, Pompilio L, Hauber ME, Reboreda JC, Mahler B (2012) Different recognition cues reveal the decision rules used for egg rejection by hosts of a variably mimetic avian brood parasite. Animal Cognition 15: 881-889.*
A Royal Society-funded visit to New Zealand renewed our collaboration with the Reboreda group in Buenos Aires.
135. Hickey AJR, Jullig M, Phillips A, Hauber ME, Loomes K (2012) Birds and longevity: Does flight driven aerobicity provide an oxidative sink? Ageing Research Reviews 11: 242-253.
Why birds don't get cancer. Discussions with Tony on birds have yielded this paper.
134. Igic B, Cassey P, Grim T, Greenwood DR, Moskat C, Rutila J, Hauber ME (2012) A shared chemical basis of avian host-parasite egg colour mimicry. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 279: 1068-1076.*
Just in time! This paper was published just before our final report for the HFSP egg color pigment grant was due. Thanks Brani for getting in done in a timely manner. We got renewed for the grant, too!
133. Baylis SM, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2012) Capsaicin as a deterrent against introduced mammalian predators. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124: 518-524.*
As a native Hungarian, I have felt obliged to use sweet paprika as the control treatment in this study.
132. Cassey P, Hauber ME, Maurer G, Ewen JG (2012) Sources of variation in reflectance spectrophotometric data: a quantitative analysis using avian eggshell colours. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3: 450-456.
In my next life, I would like to be an ecologist. Here's a stop-the-longing paper in this BES' journal.
131. Landers TJ, Dennis TE, Hauber ME (2011) Gender assignment of Westland Petrels (Procellaria westlandica) using linear discriminant function analysis. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 123: 720-725.*
I didn't choose for gender to be in the title of this paper--it was the editor's decision!
130. Landers TJ, Bannock CA, Hauber ME (2011) Dynamics of behavioural rhythms in a colonial, nocturnal, burrowing seabird: a comparison across different temporal scales. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 58: 81-89.*
Utilizing an ethogram to study a poorly known nocturnal large petrel breeding at a single colony in the world.
129. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Steeves TE, Lawrence HA, Thompson DR, Sagar PM, Bury SJ, Landers TJ, Phillips RA, Ranjard L, Shaffer SA (2011) Contemporary and historical separation of transequatorial migration between genetically distinct seabird populations. Nature Communications 2: 232.*
Matt's postdoc project was a winner. I remember sitting with him at the AMNH, sampling toe-pads of Cook's Petrels for mtDNA analyses during his visit to NYC.
128. Igic B, Braganza K, Hyland MM, Silyn-Roberts H, Cassey P, Grim T, Rutila J, Moskat C, Hauber ME (2011) Alternative mechanisms of increased eggshell hardness of avian brood parasites relative to host species. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 8: 1654-1664.*
Heather Silyn-Roberts is a pioneering avian eggshell structural scientist and she was my colleague at Auckland Uni--this is the resulting paper!
127. Galbraith JA, Fraser EA, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2011) Survey duration and season influence the detection of introduced eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 38: 223-235.*
Josie's 2nd paper with me, after the kaki project; this time from her Master's with Mick Clout and me.
126. Neate H, Dowding JE, Parker K, Hauber ME (2011) Breeding success of northern New Zealand dotterels (Charadrius obscurus aquilonius) following mammal eradication on Motuihe Island, New Zealand. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 58: 17-21.*
A summer undergrad project turned into an exciting report of conservation effectiveness for endemic New Zealand plovers on Motuihe Island.
125. Samas P, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Grim T (2011) Repeatability of foreign egg rejection: testing the assumptions of co-evolutionary theory. Ethology 117: 606-619.
A heroic effort by team HFSP and Czech (Slovak) grad student Peter to test the same breeding pairs of Turdus repeatedly in New Zealand.
124. Polacikova L, Hauber ME, Prochazka P, Cassey P, Honza M, Grim T (2011) A sum of its parts? Relative contributions of different eggshell regions to intraclutch variation in birds. Journal of Avian Biology 42: 370-373.
A quantitative study on a hypothesis that I got to test myself 10 years later in the field in Urbana (Hauber et al. 2021 JVB).
123. Curtin P, Hauber ME, Moller P (2011) Factors influencing mutual gaze in captive female Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). Journal of Ethology 29: 487-491.*
Paul came to me to be rescued for his prior mentorship at Hunter's ABC program. It was a pleasure to publish my second primate paper with him.
122. Nakagawa S, Hauber ME (2011) Great challenges with few subjects: statistical strategies for neuroscientists. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 35: 462-473.
I always wanted to write this paper, and Shinichi's collaboration made it possible. Thanks for working on it together Shinichi!
121. Landers TJ, Rayner ME, Phillips RA, Hauber ME (2011) Dynamics of seasonal movements by a trans-pacific migrant seabird, the Westland petrel. Condor 113: 71-79 (with cover).*
I never got to do field work with Todd in the New Zealand winter on the rainy west coast of the South Island at night on these petrels. But enjoyed learning about their natural history from Todd.
120. Ismar SMH, Phillips RA, Rayner MJ, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2011) Geolocation tracking of the annual migration of adult Australasian Gannets (Morus serrator) breeding in New Zealand. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 123: 121-125.*
Two pure and one hybrid gannet tracked overwinter commuting between New Zealand and Australia.
119. Ismar SMH, Chong NL, Igic B, Baird K, Ortiz-Catedral L, Fidler AE, Hauber ME (2010) Visual sensitivity, coloration and morphology of red-tailed tropicbirds Phaeton rubricauda breeding on the Kermadec Islands. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 38: 29-42 (with cover).*
We initially discovered several tropicbirds nesting on the Kermadecs while heading to capture the boobies. Here're more data and analyses.
118. Ismar SMH, Baird K, Patel S, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2010) Morphology of the recently re-classified Tasman Booby Sula dactylatra tasmani breeding on the Kermadec Islands. Marine Ornithology 38: 105-109 (with cover).*
More data from the Kermadec seavoyage with Steffi and Karen on the Tasman subspecies of the majestic Masked Booby.
117. Aidala Z, Hauber ME (2010) Avian egg coloration and visual ecology. Nature Education Knowledge 1: 4.*
Zak was my first PhD student at GC CUNY, and we still collaborate 12 years later when he is a tenured professor of Psychology.
116. Richardson K, Ewen JG, Armstrong DP, Hauber ME (2010) Sex-specific shifts in natal dispersal dynamics in a reintroduced hihi population. Behaviour 147: 1517-1532 (Special Issue on Dispersal and Sociality).*
What can you do when you know the identity and sex of each adult and fledgling on small island? Test classic avian dispersal theory!
115. Croston R, Hauber ME (2010) The ecology of avian brood parasitism. Nature Education Knowledge 1: 3.*
I always recommend to grad students to publish a review/overview paper that also becomes their intro thesis chapter. Open access in Nature Education Knowledge.
114. Ranjard L, Anderson MG, Rayner MJ, Payne RB, McLean IG, Briskie JV, Ross HA, Brunton DH, Woolley SMN, Hauber ME (2010) Bioacoustic distances between the begging calls of brood parasites and their host species: a comparison of bioacoustic techniques. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64: 1915-1926.*
So proud of a paper with Robert B. Payne of cuckoo, cowbird, and indigobird fame! Thanks for your tape recordings from Australia, Bob.
113. Cassey P, Maurer G, Duval C, Ewen JG, Hauber ME (2010) Differential impacts of time since collection on eggshell colour components relevant to perceptual modeling in museum collections of song thrush (Turdus philomelos) eggs. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64: 1711–1720.
A must-read for anyone who is interested in using museum-specimens of eggs for ground color analyses.
112. Krull CR, Hauber ME (2010) Two voice system found in the Australasian gannet (Morus serrator). Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 57: 162-165.*
Another discovery article, this time by Cheryl analyzing gannet spectrograms from Cape Kidnappers and Muriwai both.
111. Igic B, Hauber ME, Galbraith JA, Grim T, Dearborn DC, Brennan PLR, Moskat C, Choudary PK, Cassey P (2010) Comparison of micrometer- and scanning electron microscope-based measurements of avian eggshell thickness. Journal of Field Ornithology 81: 402-410.*
Nothing makes a paper better than a statistician's oversight in the analyses. Thanks Josie and Brani for collecting the data.
110. Cassey P, Portugal SJ, Ewen JG, Boulton RL, Hauber ME, Blackburn TM (2010) Variability in eggshell colour: a comparative study of museum eggshells. PLoS ONE 5: e12054.
Breaking down variance into its components: technical, biological, individual, species, and family level replications! Great figure by Phill Cassey.
109. Sorenson MD, Hauber ME, Derrickson SR (2010) Sexual imprinting misguides species recognition in a facultative interspecific brood parasite. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 277: 3079-3085.
As the editor (the fabulous Darren Irwin) put it: old data, like old wine, only get better with age. I contributed to behavioral work to this project in 1994 spring break.
108. Safran RJ, Vitousek MN, Hauber ME, Ghalambor CK (2010) Sexual selection: a dynamic state of affairs. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 429-430.
Another of my handful of commentary/critique papers. They come once every 5-10 years...
107. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Phillips RA (2010) Testing predictions of dual foraging theory in a unimodal species: foraging trip characteristics, diet, and provisioning behavior in the Cook’s petrel Pterodroma cookii. Marine Biology 157: 2187-2194.*
How to make the most of a species with only two breeding populations? Compare them, of course! Theory-driven comparisons are even best.
106. Moskat C, Hauber ME (2010) Chick loss from mixed broods reflects severe nestmate competition between an evictor brood parasite and its hosts. Behavioural Processes 83: 311-314.
After the nestmate eviction instinct ceases in cuckoos, both hosts and cuckoos still have a grave risk to fall out of the nest if it's too crowded.
105. Hauber ME, Campbell DLM, Woolley SMN (2010) Functional role and female perception of male song in zebra finches. Emu – Austral Ornithology 110: 209-218 (Special Issue Honouring Richard Zann).*
I met Richard Zann when I invited him to Auckland before he perished in a fire in Australia. An honor to be able to honor him.
104. Moskat C, Ban M, Szekely T, Komdeur J, Lucassen RWG, van Boheemen L, Hauber ME (2010) Discordancy or template-based recognition? Dissecting the cognitive basis of the rejection of foreign eggs in hosts of avian brood parasites. Journal of Experimental Biology 213: 1976-1983.
A complex experiment and data to write up, but probably still one of the most important test of these alternatives for egg rejection decision rules to this day. I also paid for much of the summer's expenses for Csaba this year, and it was important for me to be senior author because I wasn't even tenured yet at Hunter College.
103. Hubbard JK, Uy AC, Hauber ME, Hoekstra HE, Safran RJ (2010) Vertebrate pigmentation: from underlying genes to adaptive function. Trends in Genetics 26: 231-239 (with cover).
This paper just became my 2nd best cited paper of my career. Thank you Joey and co-authors. Loved writing the Box about egg pigmentation.
102. Anderson MG, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2010) Reliable information content and ontogenetic shift in begging calls of Grey Warbler nestlings. Ethology 116: 357-365.*
Jim Briskie thought this should have gone to a higher-tiered journal. We were excited about the ontogenetic component of the analyses!
101. Parker KA, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2010) Contemporary cultural evolution of a conspecific recognition signal following serial translocations. Evolution 64: 2431-2441.
Honestly, a shock! Thank you Kevin for NOT taking my advice and sending this paper to Evolution. Good use of Grey Warbler calls as controls, too.
100. Rayner MJ, Carraher CJF, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2010) Phylogeographic isolation in two distant New Zealand Cook’s petrel (Pterodroma cookii) populations. Conservation Genetics 11: 2073–2077.*
MtDNA data only, but helpful to delineate the subspecies of the modern-day Cook's Petrel. Also was much needed genetic data for Matt's Nat Comms paper above.
99. Ismar SMH, Hunter C, Lay K, Ward-Smith T, Wilson PR, Hauber ME (2010) A virgin flight across the Tasman Sea? Satellite tracking of post-fledging movements in the Australasian gannet Morus serratorbreeding at Cape Kidnappers. Journal of Ornithology 151:755-759.*
A two year, $10K paper, but the data were worth it at end. Plus it's so exciting to get daily emails from the French satellite about where our current gannet fledglings were detected at!
98. Igic B, Greenwood DR, Palmer DJ, Cassey P, Gill BJ, Grim T, Brennan PR, Bassett SM, Battley PF, Hauber ME (2010) Detecting pigments from the colourful eggshells of extinct birds. Chemoecology 20: 43-48.*
What can you get by collecting fragments of extinct moa's green and blue eggshells from storage containers at the Otago Museum? Well, a Chemoecology paper, for sure!
97. Ortiz-Catedral L, Kurenbach B, Massaro M, McInnes K, Brunton DH, Hauber ME, Martin DP, Varsani A (2010) Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV): a new strain isolated from wild red-fronted parakeets (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) in New Zealand. Archives of Virology 155: 613-620.*
I enjoyed working with both Luis and Arvind on writing up this multi-authored study. The trick is--do contribute! Edit, write, read-through. That's what earns co-authorship.
96. Woolley SMN, Hauber ME, Theunissen FE (2010) Developmental experience alters information coding in auditory midbrain and forebrain neurons. Developmental Neurobiology 70: 235-252.
A write-up of Sarah's old postdoc data from UC Berkeley, with contributions by me to provide her with the cross-fostered zebra finch males needed for this study. The midbrain where it's happening at.
95. Anderson MG, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2010) Species-specificity of grey warbler begging solicitation and alarm calls revealed by nestling responses to playbacks. Animal Behaviour 79: 401-409.*
I will never forget the ability of Mike in the field at Tawharanui to use his giant fingers to handle the smallest nestlings in New Zealand, pulling them out of the enclosed nest safely and effective. A great playback paper, too.
94. Igic B, Leuschner N, Parker KA, Ismar SMH, Gill BJ, Lovegrove TG, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2010) Size dimorphism and avian-perceived sexual dichromatism in a New Zealand endemic, the whitehead (Mohoua albicilla). Journal of Morphology 271: 697-704 (with cover).*
Nora's master's thesis was already done, but then Brani applied his magic, visual-perception analysis skills to these data. Thank you both!
93. Ismar SMH, Baird K, Favell E, Hauber ME (2010) Patterns of offspring sex-ratio in a re-establishing black-winged petrel population. Emu – Austral Ornithology 110: 104-108.*
Male-biased natal philopatry predicts a sex ratio bias in re-colonizing seabirds; and that's what we found with Black-winged Petrel chicks in the Kermadecs.
92. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2010) Behavioural correlates of female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) responses to multimodal species recognition cues. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 22: 167-181 (winner of 2010-2011 EEE prize for best article published by a young scientist).*
A super-clever experiment generated by Dana to parallel our J Comp Psych paper below. Rejected from Anim Behav, then got the best prize award from EEE!
91. Ismar SMH, Daniel C, Stephenson B, Hauber ME (2010) Mate replacement entails a fitness cost for a socially monogamous seabird. Naturwissenschaften 97: 109-113.*
So much for life-long pairbonding in Australasian Gannets. It's more like a musical chairs scenario. Wait, that's exactly what we wrote...
90. Steeves TE, Holdaway RN, Hale ML, McLay E, McAllan IAW, Christian M, Hauber ME, Bunce M (2010) Merging ancient and modern DNA: extinct seabird taxon rediscovered in the North Tasman Sea. Biology Letters 6: 94-97.
Ancient DNA, sample-collecting field work on the Kermadecs, and assistance with lab expenses--these all together get you co-authorship in this paper. Introducing the Tasman Booby subspecies!
89. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2010) Conspecific-only experience during development reduces the strength of heterospecific song discrimination in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata): a behavioural test of the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis. Journal of Ornithology 151: 379-389.*
An opportunistic project from birds kept outdoors vs. birds kept in a basement lab. Guess which birds behaved more "naturally"?
88. Ortiz-Catedral L, Kearvell JC, Hauber ME, and Brunton DH (2009) Breeding biology of the critically endangered Malherbe’s Parakeet on Maud Island, New Zealand following the release of captive-bred individuals. Australian Journal of Zoology 57: 433-439.*
Another of Luis' thesis papers; sadly I never got to accompany him to Maud Island myself. A true regret.
87. Igic B, Cassey P, Samas P, Grim T, Hauber ME (2009) Cigarette butts form a perceptually cryptic component of Song Thrush Turdus philomelos nests. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 56: 134-138.*
This is Brani's first paper using perceptual modeling approaches using avian perceivable coloration! Also, don't litter if you're a smoker, please.
86. Cassey P, Boulton RL, Ewen JG, Hauber ME (2009) Reduced clutch size is correlated with increased nest predation in exotic Turdus thrushes. Emu - Austral Ornithology 109: 294-299.
Why do Southern Hemisphere birds have smaller clutch sizes, even in the temperate zone, than Northern Hemisphere birds? What better test than Turdus thrushes introduced to New Zealand from the UK 150 years ago!
85. Krull CR, Parsons S, Hauber ME (2009) The presence of ultrasonic harmonics in the calls of the Rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris). Notornis – Ornithology of the Southern Pacific 56: 158-161.*
Hummingbirds do it, rifleman do it, too! Ultrasounic calls that may or may not be perceived by the avian ear.
84. Anderson MG, Moskat C, Ban M, Grim T, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009) Egg eviction imposes a recoverable cost of virulence in chicks of a brood parasite. PLoS ONE 4: e7725.*
A similar experiment to Grim et al. 2009 below in BE, but couldn't get it published in any behavioral journal; hence the choice of PLoS ONE. Oh well.
83. Hauber ME (2009) Does the removal of avian brood parasite eggs increase host productivity? A case study with brown-headed cowbirds Molothrus ater and song sparrows Melospiza melodia near Ithaca, New York, USA. Conservation Evidence 6: 83-88.
At my new (untenured) job in New York City, I was again told that first/sole authored papers will be important for tenure. So here's to publishing some experimental evidence of avian mafia and farming behavioral practices by Brown-headed Cowbirds from my PhD thesis research.
82. Ortiz-Catedral L, Ismar SMH, Baird K, Ewen JG, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2009) No evidence of Cambylobacter, Salmonella and Yersinia in free-ranging populations of the red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae). New Zealand Journal of Zoology 36: 376-383.*
A treatise on how to publish important negative results. Thank you Luis for your persistence.
81. Grim T, Rutila J, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009) The cost of virulence: an experimental study of egg eviction by brood parasitic chicks. Behavioral Ecology 20: 1138-1146.
How many (plaster) host eggs can the same cuckoo chick evict from the nest cup in a cavity nester? Well, 20+ is certainly the record!
80. Ortiz-Catedral L, McInnes K, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2009) First report of Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV) in wild Red-crowned Parakeets (Cyanoramphus novaezealandiae) in New Zealand. Emu – Austral Ornithology 109: 244-247.*
Luis helped me learn about veterinarians' concerns of having an endemic wild species also kept as a legal pet in New Zealand. We should end the practice.
79. Ortiz-Catedral L, Ismar SMH, Baird K, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2009) Recolonization of an oceanic volcano by parakeets after eradication of invasive predators. Conservation Evidence 6: 26-30.*
The first of several papers related to my sea-voyage to the Kermadec Islands. What a 3 week period without internet it was!
78. Cassey P, Ewen JG, Marshall NJ, Vorobyev M, Blackburn TM, Hauber ME (2009) Are avian eggshell colours effective intraspecific communication signals? A perceptual modeling approach. Ibis – International Journal of Avian Science 151: 689-698 (Top 10 most cited article in 2011).
This paper with Phill using avian-perceptual modeling was rejected from something like 10 publications before it was published in the Ibis. Then it became an instant citation-record. Go figure.
77. Low J, Burns KC, Hauber ME (2009) Wild number sense in brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds. Ibis – International Journal of Avian Science 151: 775-777.
This paper introduced me to Jason, my future Master's in Psychology adviser at Victoria University; inspired by all the captive work on cowbird cognition by Dave White!
76. Shaw RC, Hauber ME (2009) Experimental support for the role of nest predation in the evolution of brood parasitism. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22: 1354-1358.*
Rachael was an extraordinary honors student, working daily with the zebra finches in the basement of the Psych dept. at Auckland Uni for nearly 6 months in a row. The resulting paper is an impressive test of one of the origins-for-brood-parasitism hypotheses in the literature!
75. Anderson MG, Ross HA, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2009) Begging call matching between a specialist brood parasite and its host: a comparative approach to detect co-evolution. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 98: 208-216.*
This is an awesome paper that included sending tape recorders for nestling begging calls to high-up cavity nests of Yellowheads and mountaintop nests of Rock Wrens. I still regret not having recorded a line-up of tame Chatham Warbler fledglings when I met them myself.
74. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2009) Disassociation of visual and acoustic conspecific cues decreases discrimination by female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Journal of Comparative Psychology 123: 310-315.*
A super-clever experiment by Dana using male cross-fostered and magic-marker dyed zebra finch subjects as stimuli. They sure confuse the female zebra finches!
73. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Aviles JM, Ban M, Hargitai R, Honza M (2009) Increased host tolerance of multiple cuckoo eggs leads to higher fledging success of the brood parasite. Animal Behaviour 77: 1281-1290.
An awesome paper that Csaba had done the math for: multiple parasitism is not THAT costly for the host because they reject more of the cuckoo's eggs.
72. Campbell DLM, Weiner SA, Starks PTB, Hauber ME (2009) Context and control: behavioural ecology experiments in the laboratory. Annales Zoologici Fennici 46: 112-123 (Special Issue on Methods in Ecological Research).*
Collaborations, collaborations: how to bring a wasp and a bird lab together? Here's how.
71. Grodzinski U, Hauber ME, Lotem A (2009) The role of feeding regularity and nestling digestive efficiency in parent-offspring communication: an experimental test. Functional Ecology 23: 569-577.
I had visited Israel before I moved to NYC; and while discussing Uri's experiment, we realized that the control experiments yielded an interesting observational pattern. My first paper in Functional Ecology, too!
70. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2009) Cross-fostering diminishes song discrimination in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Animal Cognition 12: 481-490.*
Dana did over 1,100 experiments to generate a 3-year to-the-date PhD thesis at Auckland Uni. Unfortunately, the Graduate Dean rejected it initially because it was "just a series of first-authored papers put together". Then the Dean yelled at me. But Dana got her well-earned PhD at the end, so we won!
69. Campbell DLM, Shaw RC, Hauber ME (2009) The strength of species recognition in captive female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata): a comparison across estrildid heterospecifics. Ethology 115: 23-32.*
Dana's first submitted thesis chapter; its publication was made possible by some positive control data sourced from summer student Rachael's own undergrad summer research project at Auckland Uni.
68. Grim T, Rutila J, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009) Experimentally constrained virulence is costly for common cuckoo chicks. Ethology 115: 14-22.
How to raise a cuckoo chick in a crowded redstart nest? Tomas and Jarkko's tour-de-force experiment from Finland also funded by our HFSP grant.
67. Tonra CM, Johnson MD, Heath SK, Hauber ME (2009) Does nesting habitat predict hatch synchrony between brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds Molothrus ater and two host species? Ecography 32: 497-503.
Rejected from the Wilson Bulletin, published in Ecography. Not a bad trade! Also, an exercise in AIC tables!
66. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2009) Spatial and behavioural measures of social discrimination by captive male zebra finches: implications of sexual and species differences for recognition research. Behavioural Processes 80: 90-98.*
My last paper with a fully New Zealand affiliation; I was on my way to New York City!
65. Rubenstein DR, Hauber ME (2008) Dynamic feedback between phenotype and physiology in sexually selected traits. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23: 655-658.
Highlighting Becca's lab paper with Dustin in TREE. I did get lucky with my Cornell grad school mates, for sure!
64. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Clout MN, Seldon DS, Van Dijken S, Bury S, Phillips RA (2008) Foraging ecology of the Cook’s petrel Pterodroma cookii during the austral breeding season: a comparison of its two populations. Marine Ecology Progress Series 370: 271–284.*
I never got to go to Codfish Island (for kakapo or for Cook's petrel research). But I appreciated talking about his field trips with Matt.
63. Hauber ME, Sewell MA, Zuk M (2008) Gender genomics and equality. Heredity 101: 395.
Always wanted to publish in Heredity. I got this chance with two great women scientists!
62. Cassey P, Honza M, Grim T, Hauber ME (2008) The modeling of avian visual perception predicts behavioural rejection responses to foreign egg colours. Biology Letters 4: 515-517.
The arms-race for the first avian visual-modeling paper to be published in the context of brood parasitism and egg rejection. But alas, also see Jesus Aviles' 2008 paper in Proceedings B...
61. Matthews JL, Ismar SMH, Hauber ME (2008) Seaweed provisioning behaviour confers thermal benefit for nesting Australasian gannets (Morus serrator). Behaviour 145: 1823-1837 (with cover).*
Using a thermal camera is so much fun! Even if it is to detect a mere 1C differential effect in nest temperatures.
60. Cassey P, Ewen JG, Blackburn TM, Hauber ME, Vorobyev M, Marshall NJ (2008) Maternal investment of yolk carotenoids is not related to eggshell color variation in European thrushes. Naturwissenschaften 95: 713-721.
The sexually-selected blue egg hypothesis is just wrong. There, I said it. Here's some data to reject it.
59. Hauber ME, Moskat C (2008) Shared parental care is costly for nestlings of common cuckoos and their great reed warbler hosts. Behavioral Ecology 19: 79-86 (with cover).
Thanking my mother in the acknowledgement. We watched these begging videos together at her home in Budapest and she took notes for me.
58. Tonra CM, Hauber ME, Heath SK, Johnson MD (2008) Ecological correlates and sex differences in early development of a generalist brood parasite. Auk 125: 205-213.
How to grow a baby cowbird... Chris' master's at Humboldt State and my Miller postdoc at UC Berkeley got joined for this project.
57. Fraser EA, Hauber ME (2008) Higher call rates of morepork, Ninox novaeseelandiae, at sites inside an area with ongoing brodifacoum poisoning compared with matched non-managed sites. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 35: 1-7 (with cover).*
Who knew that this honors project write-up would turn into the standard Dept. of Conservation method to detect owls in the New Zealand night?
56. Corfield JR, Wild JM, Hauber ME, Parsons S, Kubke MF (2008) Evolution of brain size in the Palaeognath lineage, with an emphasis on New Zealand ratites. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 71: 87-99 (with cover).
One of the roadkill or otherwise scavanged kiwis scanned for this project didn't have a brain to scan. Another had 3 legs! No kidding!
55. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Imber MJ, Stamp RK, Clout MN (2007) Spatial heterogeneity of mesopredator release within an oceanic island system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104: 20862-20865.* Highlighted by Faculty of 1000.
The rare editorial gratitude: "Thank you for sending this important paper to PNAS." Congrats to Matt for making this paper come through.
54. Daniel C, Millar CD, Ismar SMH, Stephenson B, Hauber ME (2007) Evaluating molecular and behavioural sexing methods for the Australasian gannet (Morus serrator). Australian Journal of Zoology 55: 377-382.*
I'm a seabird biologist! Thanks Claire, Brent, and Craig, for introducing me to this fantastic system with the gannets in New Zealand.
53. Anderson MG, Hauber ME (2007) A recognition-free mechanism for reliable rejection of brood parasites. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22: 283-286.*
Tomas Grim's innovate Proceedings B paper, highlighted by Massey PhD student Mike and me, working out of Auckland.
52. Galbraith JA, Sancha SE, Maloney RF, Hauber ME (2007) Alarm responses are maintained during captive rearing in chicks of endangered kaki. Animal Conservation 10: 103-109.*
My own lab's first fully New Zealand-based project with the fantastic Josie! Here's how to study experimentally the chicks of one of the world's rarest shorebirds.
51. Hauber ME, Woolley SMN, Theunissen FE (2007) Experience-dependence of neural responses to social versus isolate conspecific songs in the forebrain of female Zebra Finches. Journal of Ornithology 148 (Suppl 2): S231-S239.
A trip to the IOC in Hamburg, a special issue invitation, and another postdoc paper published on female zebra finch brains.
50. Hoover JP, Hauber ME (2007) Individual patterns of habitat and nest-site use by hosts promote transgenerational transmission of avian brood parasitism status. Journal of Animal Ecology 76: 1208-1214.
Always wanted to publish in JAE--such a great journal. Thanks to Jeff's vast mother-daughter database, we did it on vertical transmission of brood parasitism status in Prothontary Warblers. Still hadn't met in person at this time!
49. Yeh PJ, Hauber ME, Price TD (2007) Alternative nesting behaviours following colonisation of a novel environment by a passerine bird. Oikos 116: 1473-1480.
Are urban juncos special? A proud project on adaptive nest-reuse behaviors with Pam and Trevor on their UCSD junco project.
48. Rayner MJ, Clout MN, Brunton DH, Imber M, Stamp RK, Hauber ME (2007) Predictive habitat modelling for the population census of a burrowing seabird: a study of the endangered Cook's petrel. Biological Conservation 138: 235-247.*
My first introduction to AIC methods, thanks to Matt. Led to the justified down-grading of the conservation status of the Cook's Petrel.
47. Hauber ME, Cassey P, Woolley SMN, Theunissen FE (2007) Neurophysiological response selectivity for conspecific songs over synthetic sounds in the auditory forebrain of non-singing female songbirds. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 193: 765-774.
Took a while, but my UC Berkeley skills to learn neurophysiology have come to fruition. Thanks Sarah and Federic for the training and advice.
46. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Clout MN (2007) Breeding habitat of the Cook’s petrel (Pterodroma cookii) on Little Barrier Island (Hauturu), New Zealand: implications for the conservation of an island endemic. Emu – Austral Ornithology 107: 59-68.*
Superb work by superb grad student at Auckland Uni, Matt Rayner! I was lucky to be his co-mentor for the thesis along with Mick Clout.
45. Safran RJ, Hauber ME (2007) Dispatch/Evolutionary Biology: Variation isn’t always sexy. Current Biology 17: R368-R370.
A foray into discussions of sexual selection. In my next life I'll study sexual selection, I think.
44. Moskat C, Hauber ME (2007) Conflict between egg recognition and egg rejection decisions in common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) hosts. Animal Cognition 10: 377-386.
When should the hosts rejection foreign eggs? Great reed warblers can tell you about it all. A well cited experimental work with Csaba.
43. Hauber ME, Kilner RM (2007) Who mimics whom? Communication, co-evolution, and chick mimicry in parasitic finches. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61: 497-503 (10 most downloaded article in 2012).
A conceptual reinterpretation of classic Vidua-host finch gape mimicry work by Bob Payne and also by Justin Schuetz. The story hasn't ended yet!
42. Hauber ME (2007) Fame, fortune, and fitness at the Academy Awards. Journal of Ethology 25: 201-204.
I was hoping to get an invitation to the red carpet... But alas, I did get some coverage in Science magazine itself: Who's your daddy (that was the title...)?
41. Hauber ME, Safran RJ (2006) Dispatch/Behavioural Ecology: Promiscuous fathers sire young that recognize true family. Current Biology 16: R797-R800 (with cover).
The first of several highlight pieces with Becca Safran, describing some of the latest and brightest research in our fields.
40. Latif Q, Grenier JL, Heath S, Ballard G, Hauber ME (2006) First evidence of conspecific brood parasitism in Song Sparrows accompanied by egg ejection and discussion of methods sufficient to document these behaviors. Condor 108: 452-458.*
Team project with friends and with data from the San Francisco Bay area, Mono Lake, and Ithaca! Song Sparrows rule.
39. Hauber ME, Moskat C, Ban M (2006) Experimental shift in hosts’ acceptance threshold of inaccurate-mimic brood parasite eggs. Biology Letters 2: 177-180.
This paper was conceived, written, and published in, with Biology Letters in mind! Sometimes these things just work out.
38. Cassey P, Ewen JG, Karadas F, Hauber ME (2006) Repeatability of laboratory measurements for maternally derived yolk carotenoid concentrations in bird eggs. Australian Journal of Zoology 54: 381-384.
This was the period when Phill Cassey was also an oologist (he still is in my book). The beginnings of our $1M HFSP grant collaborations basedon out of Auckland Uni!
37. Hoover JP, Yasukawa K, Hauber ME (2006) Spatial and temporal structure of avian brood parasitism affects the fitness benefits of egg ejection and nest abandonment. Animal Behaviour 72: 881-890.
How to write a paper with a collaborator that you had never met? Jeff and I got along just fine on the phone! Of course, we became colleagues and ongoing collaborators, as well as family friends in 2017 when I moved to Illinois.
36. Hauber ME (2006) A future cost of misdirected parental care for brood parasitic young? Folia Zoologica 55: 367-374.
As a new PI I was still told that first-authored papers are as important as last-authored (senior-authored) papers. So this was my 2006 contribution in the journal now called Journal of Vertebrate Biology.
35. Moskat C, Barta Z, Hauber ME, Honza M (2006) High synchrony of egg laying between common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) and their great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) hosts. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 18: 159-167.
The beginning of a long-running collaboration with Csaba Moskat working on Hungarian cuckoos and their great reed warbler hosts. Cuckoos know when to lay their eggs--even 20 years later (see Hauber et al. 2021 Ethology Ecology & Evolution).
34. Servedio M, Hauber ME (2006) To eject or to abandon? Brood parasite virulence and host clutch sizes interact to influence the fitness payoffs of alternative rejection strategies. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19: 1585-1594. The authors contributed equally to this work.
My first "equal contributions" paper. Maria was shocked how rude our referees were on the earlier drafts that included empirical data, too. The final version only has modelling simulations.
33. Shawkey MD, Hauber ME, Estep LK, Hill GE (2006) Evolutionary transitions and mechanisms of matte and iridescent plumage coloration in grackles and allies (Icteridae). Journal of the Royal Society Interface 3: 777-786.
A paper that took years to evolve: started with a simple comparison of cowbird black feathers and evolved into an icterid-wide survey! With future HFSP collaborator, Matt Shawkey.
32. Hauber ME, Lacey EA (2005) Bateman’s principle in cooperatively breeding vertebrates: the effects of non-breeding alloparents on variability of female and male reproductive success. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45: 903-914.
2005--a year with just one paper published in my career. New PI at Auckland Uni, frantic few months to get settled. But perhaps this paper has been cited by more Nature papers than any of my other papers..!
31. Kilner RM, Madden JR, Hauber ME (2004) Brood parasitic cowbird nestlings use host young to procure resources. Science 305: 877-879.
Science!! Thank you Becky and Jo for making me part of this project! Some sleepless nights at UC Berkeley running those PCR sexing gels for the cowbirds, though.
30. Hauber ME, Yeh PJ, Roberts JOL (2004) Patterns and coevolutionary consequences of repeated brood parasitism. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271: S317-S320.
Writing a paper with a deceased coauthor (John Roberts) has its odd moments, like having to call his surviving wife to ask which day and month of the year he passed away...
29. Goth A, Hauber ME (2004) Ecological approaches to species recognition in birds through studies of model and non-model species. Annales Zoologici Fennici 41: 823-842. (Special Issue on Recognition Systems).
Brood parasites and megapodes share developmental social contexts with each other. I had met Ann in Australia and we wrote this review together.
28. Hauber ME, Ramsey CK (2003) Honesty in host-parasite communication signals: the case for begging by fledgling Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Journal of Avian Biology 34: 339-344.*
Cowbird chicks of different sexes grow up to be fledglings of different sizes! And they also beg differently. Data supported by an NSF DDIG grant (may the program rest in peace).
27. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (2003) Designing and interpreting experimental tests of self-referent phenotype matching. Animal Cognition 6: 69-71.
A response to our Canadian colleagues' 'Airing out the armpit effect" commentary in Animal Cognition. Never thought I would have to defend myself as being able to tell female and male adult cowbirds apart from each other visually...
26. Hauber ME (2003) Hatching asynchrony, nestling competition, and the cost of interspecific brood parasitism. Behavioral Ecology 14: 224-235 (with cover).
After initial review, a referee suggested another summer's of field work and experimentation. And so I did! Then the paper was accepted. Was worth it, as it also become a cover-featured article!
25. Hauber ME (2003) Interspecific brood parasitism and the evolution of host clutch sizes. Evolutionary Ecology Research 5: 559-570.
Oh, to be wrong! There's a follow-up Am Nat paper nearly 15 years later by Iliana Medina and Hanna Kokko that break down my hypothesis and use a formal model to show just how mistaken I was in this paper.
24. Hauber ME (2003) Lower begging responsiveness of host vs. cowbird nestlings is related to species identity but not to early social experience in parasitized broods. Journal of Comparative Psychology 117: 24-30.
A rarely cited paper that took a lot of nest searching and shows experience-independence in Song Sparrow chick responses to acoustic stimulation with or without a cowbird in their nest.
23. Hauber ME (2003) Egg-capping is a cost paid by hosts of interspecific brood parasites. Auk 120: 860-865.
There are few things better in behavioral ecology than citing the Nobel-prize winning pioneers. This one cites Tinbergen's 1950s-1960s papers accordingly! Also, the power of Fisher's exact tests.
22. Hauber ME, Pilz KM (2003) Yolk testosterone levels are not consistently higher in the eggs of obligate brood parasites than their hosts. American Midland Naturalist 149: 354-362.
After sharing an office as HHMI predoctoral fellows at Cornell for 6 years, Kevin and I finally wrote a paper together. I also learned not to make handling editors mad while correcting the proofs for this paper; too many changes at the proofs stage are NOT welcome!
21. Hauber ME, Dearborn DC (2003) Parentage without parental care: what to look for in genetic studies of obligate brood-parasitic mating systems. Perspectives in Ornithology. Auk 120: 1-13.
I rarely get feedback on research papers from the lay public--but this one was great, a non-scientist member of the AOU wrote a personal note to me saying what a great review Don and I wrote on the possibilities for the future.
20. Hauber ME (2002) Is reduced clutch size a cost of parental care in Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe)? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 51: 503-509.
Working side-by-side Becca Safran working on Barn Swallows and me on Eastern Phoebes as grad students was always fun--and yielded one of my proudest experimental papers.
19. McGraw KJ, Mackillup EA, Dale J, Hauber ME (2002) Differential effects of nutritional stress during molt on the expression of melanin- and structurally based ornamental plumage coloration. Journal of Experimental Biology 205: 3747-3755.
Who knew that handing over a handful of handraised cowbirds (prior to their first molt) to Kevin McGraw could get you your best-cited paper in your career? Thank you Kevin and Jim!
18. Hauber ME, Pearson H, Reh A, Merges A (2002) Discrimination between host songs by brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Animal Cognition 5: 129-137.*
As one negative referee put it--why is it surprising that cowbirds can tell Song Sparrows from Red-winged Blackbirds apart, if they can tell Mozart from Beethoven? The answer: it's called natural selection!
17. Hauber ME (2002) First contact: conspecific social association and species recognition in brood parasites. Annales Zoologici Fennici 39: 291-305.
How to get a Star Trek title into your title and publish it? Learned it from Walt Koenig, I think...
16. Hauber ME, Montenegro K (2002) What are the costs of raising a brood parasite? Comparisons of host parental care at parasitized and non-parasitized broods. Etologia 10: 1-9.*
Originally this and the 2006 Folia Zoologica paper were one manuscript and had been submitted to Oecologia. It was rejected. It took me nearly 20 years to get my first paper accepted in Oecologia (2021). In the meanwhile, Etologia no longer exists as a journal.
15. Hauber ME (2002) Conspicuous coloration and prey attraction in a stationary predator. Ecological Entomology 27: 686-691.
Another arthropod project, this time from a field course with SUNY-ESF in the Daintree, Australia. Still cited heavily in and asked to review papers for the trap-building literature.
14. Hauber ME, Russo SA, Sherman PW (2001) A password for species recognition in a brood parasitic bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268: 1041-1048.*
My favorite paper ever: a true discovery made during the winter of 1997-78 by reviewing the previous summer's video tapes of nestling cowbirds in response to adult chatter calls.
13. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (2001) Self-referent phenotype matching: theoretical possibilities and empirical tests. Trends in Neurosciences 24: 609-616.
Paul told me to become a better neuroscientist by the end of my PhD so that he can write better letters of reference for me for postdocs and jobs; as a result, we published this review in TiNS instead of TREE.
12. Hauber ME (2001) Site selection and repeatability in Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) parasitism of Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) nests. Canadian Journal of Zoology 79: 1518-1523.
Steve Emlen asked me at a committee meeting to reflect on patterns of multiple yearly parasitism by cowbirds on phoebes. The result was this first in a series of papers on spatial and annual autocorrelation in cowbird parasitism.
11. Craig CL, Wolf SG, Davis JLD, Hauber ME, Maas JL (2001) Signal polymorphism in the web-decorating spider Argiope argentata is correlated with reduced survivorship and the presence of stingless bees, its primary prey. Evolution 55: 986-993.
Yale's Perspective in Science freshman fellowship took me to Barro Colorado Island at STRI in Panama; in turn, that summer project turned into this combined lab/field work study by Cay Craig in Evolution.
10. Hauber ME, Sherman PW, Paprika D (2000) Self-referent phenotype matching in a brood parasite: the armpit effect in brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Animal Cognition 3: 113-117.
We conceived this paper with Paul at the time of my grad school interview at Cornell in 1996 spring. First demonstration of self-referencing through the experimental manipulation of the cue itself.
9. Hauber ME (2000) Nest predation and cowbird parasitism in Song Sparrows. Journal of Field Ornithology 71: 389-398.
I always like to combine different types of data: this time Cornell's extensive North American nest records and my own field work in Ithaca.
8. Hauber ME, Russo SA (2000) Perch proximity correlates with higher rates of cowbird parasitism of ground nesting Song Sparrows. Wilson Bulletin 112: 150-153.*
Do cowbirds watch the host nests from a higher perch site? Sure seems so. Lots of measurements of the distance between ground-nesting Song Sparrows and the nearest woody vegetation. First time an undergrad student mentee was included as coauthor.
7. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (2000) The armpit effect in hamster kin recognition. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15: 349-350.
The publishing race between the armpit effect in hamsters vs. cowbirds has been resolved. We highlighted Jill Mateo's paper from Proceedings B.
6. Hauber ME, Clayton NS, Kacelnik A, Reboreda JC, DeVoogd TJ (1999) Sexual dimorphism and species differences in HVC volumes of cowbirds. Behavioral Neuroscience 113: 1095–1099.
My introduction to camera lucida techniques in the basement of Uris Hall, Cornell. And sometimes, when you can't find a sex-dimorphic nucleus in an anonymized slide, maybe it's because there is no such nucleus in that particular brain!
5. Hauber ME (1999) Variation in pit size of antlion (Myrmeleon carolinus) larvae: the importance of pit building. Physiological Entomology 24: 37-40.
Field work during a grad course at Archbold, Florida. What a place. I even manage to include data on Florida Scrubjays in this paper.
4. Hauber ME (1998) Single-egg removal from an artificial nest by the Gray Catbird. Wilson Bulletin 110: 426-429.
Video-recording, even before Go-Pro or pin-head cameras, can tell you so much about bird behavior. This time, it was the rejection of a fake egg by a catbird.
3. Hauber ME (1998) Tree Swallows raise Brown-headed Cowbird nestling. Kingbird 48: 103-107.
Can a cowbird fledgling escape from a nestbox made for a Tree Swallow? Yes! Field work at the Unit 1 of the Cornell Ponds, Ithaca.
2. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (1998) Nepotism and marmot alarm calling. Animal Behaviour 56: 1049-1052.
One of my handful of critique papers; it also celebrates Paul's earlier "Nepotism and alarm calling" paper in Anim Behav, too.
1. Hauber ME (1998) Web decorations and alternative foraging tactics of the spider Argiope appensa. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 10: 47-54.
You never forget your first paper. It was funded by a Yale travel grant to Guam and built on my past undergrad research with Argiope spiders. Note the hand-drawn spider webs in the figure!
325. Clark DL, Hauber ME, Anderson PSL (2021) Nest substrate and tool shape significantly affect the mechanics and energy requirements of avian eggshell puncture. Journal of Experimental Biology (online).*
This was a paper produced by our Hawkes' Award from SIB/Illinois with Phil Anderson, and conducted/penned by the talented Daniel Clark as our undergrad research students.
324. Lopez AV, Reboreda JC, Fiorini VD, Gerschenson LN, Hauber ME (in press) A comparative study of the structural and mechanical properties of avian eggshells amongst hosts of obligate brood parasitic cowbirds (genus Molothrus). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.*
Ana has been working with us on eggshells of brood parasites in the USA and Argentina for 5+ years and I joined her thesis committee in Buenos Aires, too. Excited to see more of her thesis work published in the peer-reviewed literature.
323. Lawson SL, Enos JK, Antonson ND, Gill SA, Hauber ME (2021) Do hosts of avian brood parasites discriminate parasitic vs. predatory threats? A meta-analysis. Advances in the Study of Behavior 53 (in press).*
This is Shelby's intro chapter from her dissertation on referential alarm calling, funded by NSF. Thanks to Marc Naguib for inviting us to contribute to this series and all the referees, including the one who asked this to become a meta-analysis.
322. Pollock HS, Hoover JP, Uy FMK, Hauber ME (2021) Brood parasites represent a heterogeneous and functionally distinct class of natural enemies. Trends in Parasitology (online).*
This was a labor-of-love project with Jeff, started 5+ years ago and rejected twice before from an ornithological journal. Now it's found a great home, thanks to Henry's re-conceptualization of our main message. Great to continue working with Flo, as well.
321. Scharf HM, Hauber ME, Mommer BC, Hoover JP, Schelsky WM (in press) The effect of avian brood parasitism on physiological responses of host nestlings. Oecologia.*
Hannah, Wendy, and I joined efforts to analyze critical but older endocrine data on the Prothonotary Warblers to fit in with our lab's current focus on hormones and host-parasite interactions since I moved to Illinois.
320. Magory Cohen T, Major RE, Kumar S, Nair M, Ewart KM, Hauber ME, Dor R (2021) Rapid morphological changes as agents of adaptation in introduced populations of the common myna (Acridotheres tristis). Evolutionary Ecology (online).
Paper no. 2 from our BSF grant with Roi, led by Tali's vast data set on myna morphometrics across continents and native/introduced ranges.
319. Fulmer AG, Hauber ME (2021). Autopreening behavior may convey information about internal social state in Arabian Babbler (Turdoides squamiceps) allopreening dyads. Behaviour (online).*
Andrew's penultimate chapter from his dissertation with me is now published, using, with permission, some of the late Amotz Zahavi's handwritten data notes on babblers.
318. Scharf HM, Abolins-Abols M, Stenstrom KH, Tolman DT, Schelsky WM, Hauber ME (2021) Exposure to a mimetic or non-mimetic model avian brood parasite egg does not produce differential glucocorticoid responses in an egg-accepter host species. General and Comparative Endocrinology 304: 113723 (with cover).*
Hannah and I trialed this experiment together in the field with the Prothonotary Warblers in the Cache swamps in Southern Illinois and had little resistance in peer review to publish these novel data with endocrine implications for host-parasite (non) co-evolution.
317. Ducay RL, Luro AB, Hansen ES, Hauber ME (2021) Multicomponent shell traits are consistent with an individual recognition function of the appearance of common murre (Uria aalge) eggs: A biological replication study. Ecology & Evolution Ecology and Evolution 11: 2402-2409.*
My mid-2010s field trip to Iceland to stay with Erpur's and his family paid off scientifically--this is our 3rd paper that we published with Erpur on murre egg coloration, penned by the talented Rebecca Ducay, an undergraduate research student in the lab.
316. Lawson SL, Enos JK, Mendes NC, Gill SA, Hauber ME (2021) Pairing status moderates both the production of and responses to anti-parasitic referential alarm calls in male yellow warblers. Ethology (online).*
Shelby has developed a special talent to ask novel questions in a well studied field-based system; this time it was about unmated males and their responses to cowbirds and referential seet calls. Another field-playback study that yielded strong data to test our hypotheses.
315. Colombelli-Negrel D, Hauber ME, Evans C, Katsis AC, Brouwer L, Adreani NM, Kleindorfer S (in press) Prenatal auditory learning in avian vocal learners and non-learners. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B.
Our ongoing ARC grant with Sonia and Diane yielded more comparative and more surprising results on embryonic parent-offspring communication in diverse bird species.
314. Martin LB, Hanson HE, Hauber ME, Ghalambor CK (2021) Genes, environments, and phenotypic plasticity in immunology. Trends in Immunology 42: 198-208.
While preparing our eLife House Sparrow model-species paper, Marty suggested that we also think about the use of model -systems in immunological research. Here's the resulting primer on reaction norms for evolutionary immunology.
313. Withers SJ, Parsons S, Hauber ME, Kendrick A, Lavery S (in press) Genetic divergence between isolated populations of the North Island New Zealand Rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris granti) implicates ancient biogeographic impacts rather than recent habitat fragmentation. Ecology & Evolution.*
When peer-reviewers and request by them for more data make for better science: this paper includes both mt and nDNA analyses to assess genetic fragmentation of existing rifleman population in the North Island of New Zealand.
312. Hauber ME, Winnicki SK, Hoover JP, Hanley D, Hays IR (2021) The limits of egg recognition: Testing acceptance thresholds of American robins in response to decreasingly egg-shaped objects in the nest. Royal Society Open Science 8: 201615 (with cover).*
Another paper from the summer of isolated 2020 Covid field work; Sarah had many robin nests active on the same day which sped up the data generation process.
311. Li D, Hauber ME (2021) Parasitic begging calls of nestmate-evictor common cuckoos stimulate more parental provisions by red-winged blackbirds than calls of nest-sharing brown-headed cowbirds. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 11.
Donglai's summer project during his year-long visiting scholar position at Illinois paid off with another great set of data generated by playbacks and video recordings from the south end of the campus grounds.
310. Moskat C, Taylor DM, Hauber ME (2021) Effective conspecific communication with aberrant calls in the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 7.*
What is an "aberrant" call, part 2? This time from common cuckoos in Hungary. With analyses by long-term lab undergrad student, David.
309. Marton A, Fulop A, Ban M, Hauber ME, Moskat C (2021) Female common cuckoo calls dampen the mobbing intensity of great reed warbler hosts. Ethology 127: 286-293 (with cover).*
Attila and team "Hungarian-cuckoo" used cuckoo-call playbacks and our favorite control calls, dove-coos, to generate data paralleling Jenny York's work with Nick Davis on reed warblers.
308. Hauber ME, Elek Z, Moskat C (2021) Advancing onset of breeding dates in brood parasitic common cuckoos and their great reed warbler hosts over a 22-year period. Ethology Ecology & Evolution (online).
For our international collaboration grant from Hungary with Csaba, we had aimed to study the long-term patterns of climate change on cuckoo-host breeding phenology. We got this paper done just before the grant ended!
307. Winnicki SK, Strausberger BM, Antonson ND, Burhans DE, Lock J, Kilpatrick AM, Hauber ME (2021) Developmental asynchrony and host species identity predict variability in nestling growth rates of an obligate brood parasite: a test of the “growth-tuning” hypothesis. Canadian Journal of Zoology (online).*
Marm's 2002 Canadian J Zoology paper has always been a treasure trove of cowbird growth data; we then added to it new observational and old experimental data from the coauthors and Sarah spearheaded all the analyses and writing to generate this provocative new paper for their thesis work, too. It almost makes me forget that the experimental data set alone was reviewed twice back in Am Nat in 2011...
306. Hauber ME, Hoover JP, Rhodes OR, Ducay RL, Hanley D (2021) The blunt pole is not a source of more salient recognition cues than the sharp pole for the rejection of model eggs by American robins (Turdus migratorius). Journal of Vertebrate Biology 70: 20111.*
Another 2021 Covid summer paper: a 10+ year old hypothesis, conceived in the Czech Republic, studied and assessed by our team in the USA, and published in a Czech open access journal. Full circle!
305. Rutledge S, Carr DE, Hauber ME, Hanley D (2021) Best of a bad job or masters of illusion: do nest light conditions make the eggs of brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) more similar to the eggs of its hosts? Ethology 127: 117-124.*
Finally assessing a question, that Nick Davies asked me about several time, from an avian perspective, whether cowbird eggs are mimetic? They are not, but cowbirds do seem to use hosts whose nesting light environment reduces cowbird-egg detectability.
304. Hauber ME, Taylor DM, Brawn JD (2021) Variable or atypical? Comparing unusual songs of the Tufted Titmouse with a citizen-science database. Journal of Ornithology 162: 313-316.*
What is an "aberrant" call, part 1? Using Xeno-canto to characterize unusual titmouse calls from Jeff's backyards via the spectrogram correlation function in Raven.
303. Hauber ME (2020) Natural and artificial scents do not increase egg rejection rates of model brood parasitic eggs by American Robins (Turdus migratorius). Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 66: 309-317.
After many years, another sole-authored paper, thanks to the Covid 2021 summer and isolated field work. And I learned the term "cloacal-lavage".
302. Luro AB, Fernandez-Juricic E, Baumhardt P, Hauber ME (2020) Visual acuity and egg spatial chromatic contrast predict antiparasitic egg rejection behavior of American robins. Journal of Experimental Biology 223: jeb229609.*
A great collaboration with Alec and his innovately patterned egg rejection stimulus design, Esteban and his team of robin visual measurements from Purdue, and field work by yours truly on the robins of Urbana.
301. Czeisel J, Hauber ME (2020) Seasonal and anthropogenic factors predict breeding success in Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) in shared greenspace. Kingbird 70: 102-119.*
Field work in New York City is never easy, but Jay's job gave us access to the Fort in Queens and the gun-tunnels. Inspired by Jay's readings of Becca Safran's original thesis work on Barn Swallow nests.
300. Antonson ND, Rubenstein DR, Hauber ME, Botero CA (2020) Ecological uncertainty favours the diversification of host use in avian brood parasites. Nature Communications 11: 4185.*
Large scale comparative studies can lead you into unexpected directions. A multi-year project, finalized by Carlos and all the data collation and writing by Nick and Dustin, with 1,700X3 data points entered by me and an undergrad before the last draft was drawn up, when asked by an otherwise supportive referee. It all made the paper even better!
299. Feng S, Stiller J, Deng Y, Armstrong J, Fang Q, Reeve AH, Xie D, Chen G, Guo C, Faircloth BC, Petersen B, Wang Z, Zhou Q, Diekhans M, Chen W, Andreu-Sanchez S, Margaryan A, Howard JT, Parent C, Pacheco G, Sinding M-HS, Puetz L, Cavill E, Ribeiro AM, Eckhart L, Fjeldsa J, Hosner PA, Brumfield RT, Christidis L, Bertelsen MF, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Tietze DT, Robertson BC, Song G, Borgia G, Claramunt S, Lovette IJ, Cowen SJ, Njoroge P, Dumbacher JP, Ryder OA , Fuchs J, Bunce M, Burt DW, Cracraft J, Meng G, Hackett SJ, Ryan PG, Jonsson KA, Jamieson IG, da Fonseca RR, Braun EL, Houde P, Mirarab S, Suh A, Stervander M, Hansson B, Sigeman H, Ponnikas S, Sigeman H, Stervander M, Frandsen PB, van der Zwan H, van der Sluis R, Visser C, Balakrishnan C, Clark AG, Fitzpatrick JW, Bowman R, Chen N, Cloutier A, Sackton TB, Edwards SV, Foote DJ, Shakya S, Sheldon FH, Vignal A, Soares AER, Shapiro B, Gonzalez-Solis J, Ferrer-Obiol J, Rozas J, Riutort M, Tigano A, Friesen V, Dalen L, Urrutia AO, Szekely T, Liu Y, Campana MG, Corvelo A, Fleischer RC, Rutherford KM, Gemmell NJ, Dussex N, Mouritsen H, Thiele N, Delmore K, Liedvogel M, Franke A, Hoppner MP, Krone O, Fudickar AM, Mila B, Ketterson ED, Fidler AE, Friis G, Parody-Merino AM, Battley PF, Cox MP, Lima NCB, Prosdocimi F, Parchman TL, Schlinger BA, Loiselle BA, Blake JG, Lim HC, Day LB, Fuxjager MJ, Baldwin MW, Braun MJ, Wirthlin M, Dikow RB, Ryder TB, Camenisch G, Keller LF, DaCosta JM, Hauber ME, Louder MIM, Witt CC, McGuire JA, Mudge J, Megna LC, Carling MD, Wang B, Taylor SA, Del-Rio G, Aleixo A, Vasconcelos ATR, Mello CV, Weir JT, Haussler D, Li Q, Yang H, Wang J, Lei F, Rahbek C, Gilbert MTP, Graves GR, Jarvis ED, Paten B, Zhang G (2020) Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics. Nature 287: 252-257 (with cover).*
What can I say, one of ~100 authors, but with some unique and parasitic full-genome contributions from our NSF brood parasite grant with Chris and Matt.
298. Hauber ME, Heath SK, Tonra CM (2020) Direct estimates of breeding site fidelity and natal philopatry in brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds Molothrus ater. Ardea 180: (online).
Never give up, never surrender. A paper finally published with some very old data from Chris' master's thesis, Sacha's field operations at Mono Lake, and my postdoc days at UC Berkeley in the early 2000s.
297. Novcic I, Krunic S, Stankovic D, Hauber ME (2020) Duration of ‘peeks’ in ducks: how much time do Pochard Aythya ferina spend with eye open while in sleeping posture? Bird Study 67: 256-260.
Ivana was a favorite doctoral mentee at GC CUNY, and we continue to collaborate on topics and data that appeal to our interests in natural history.
296. Antonson ND, Hauber ME, Mommer BC, Hoover JP, Schelsky WM (2020) Physiological responses of host parents to rearing an avian brood parasite: An experimental study. Hormones and Behavior 125: 104812.*
Nick's first endocrine paper using Wendy's old data on an experimental parasitism study of Prothonotary Warblers by Brown-headed Cowbirds. Fits well into the cowbirdlab's new direction in host-parasite hormonal dynamics.
295. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2020) Endocrine regulation of egg rejection in an avian brood parasite host. Biology Letters 16: 20200225.*
72 hours of field work for a single p-value (according to Mikus' calculations); thank you for all the hard work! It was definitely worth the effort to get these data into BL, after 2 previous rejections from the same journal.
294. Hauber ME, Kim CR, Goethe C, Hanley D (2020) Self-referent phenotype matching is a poor predictor of egg rejection by American Robins. Journal of Field Ornithology 91: 254–262.*
Working with fantastic and independent Illinois undergrads in the field beats few other things in research and mentoring. Thank you Caterina and Cam for your help with data and editing!
293. Louder MIM, Schelsky WM, Hoover JP, Louder ANA, Hauber ME (2020) A seasonal shift in offspring sex ratio of the brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). Journal of Avian Biology 51: e02560.*
What PCR-sexing hundreds of DNA samples in the lab can get you. Amber ran a tight ship with the undergrads and we discovered the first evidence of cowbird-chick sex ratio biases in the field.
292. Hauber ME, Abolins-Abols M, Kim CR, Paitz RT (2020) Inter-individual variation in anti-parasitic egg rejection behavior: a test of the maternal investment hypothesis. Integrative Organismal Biology 2: obaa014.*
This paper got a compliment from Christie Riehl, one of my favorite ornithologists! So we must have done something right by coming up with a new hypothesis for egg rejection in hosts of brood parasitic birds.
291. Lawson SL, Leuschner N, Gill BJ, Enos JK, Hauber ME (2020) Loss of graded enemy recognition in a Whitehead population allopatric with brood parasitic Long-tailed Cuckoos. Avocetta Journal of Ornithology 44: 3-10.*
An almost-lost Tiritiri Matangi master's project from New Zealand, rescued by Shelby and her incredible conceptualization and writing abilities.
290. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2020) Proximate predictors of variation in egg rejection behavior by hosts of avian brood parasites. Journal of Comparative Psychology 134: 412-422.*
Year 1 of Mikus' field work with us in Illinois: an observational study surveying potential egg rejection predictors in American Robins, including baseline corticosterone prior to rejection decisions.
289. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Ruzickova J, Marton A, Ban M, Elek Z (2020) Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos. The Science of Nature 107: 28.
An awesome new use of 3D printed model cuckoos with dimorphic adult female plumage colors. Now if we could only figure out the genetic basis of rusty color morphs in Cuculus cuckoos...?
288. Enos JK, Hyland-Bruno J, Hauber ME (in press) Aggressive responses of Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) and American Robins (Turdus migratorius) towards brood parasites and nest predators. Wilson Journal of Ornithology.*
Julia's long-ago rotation project in Ithaca through my lab at GC CUNY has come to fruition thanks to the analytical and writing skills of Janice! Thank you both!
287. Scharf HM, Suarez AV, Reeve HK, Hauber ME (2020). The evolution of conspecific acceptance threshold models. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 375: 20190475.*
My first paper with former PhD committee member, Kern Reeve; so proud of being able to celebrate his 1989 Acceptance Theory paper with this special issue in Phil Trans B.
286. Suarez AV, Scharf HM, HK Reeve, Hauber ME (2020) Theme Issue Introduction: Signal detection, acceptance thresholds, and the evolution of animal recognition systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 375: 20190464 (with cover).*
An introduction by Andy et al. to the Phil Trans B special issue on signal detection theory in behavioral ecology. We got the cover (lol!).
285. Luro A, Hauber ME (2020) Invited Commentary: The ecological context and fitness impact of categorical perception: a comment on Green et al. Behavioral Ecology 31: 869-870.*
Always fun to write a short commentary on an innovative Perspective piece in BE. Thanks to Alec for thinking about categorical perception in color vision in the lab and in the field.
284. Hays I, Ljubcic I, Hauber ME (2020) The shape of avian eggs: Assessment of a novel metric for quantifying eggshell conicality. Auk: Ornithological Advances 137: ukaa021.*
A labor of love from Ian's master's thesis with me at Hunter/CUNY. Lots of math, lots of 3D printing, lots of imaging!
283. Lawson SL, Enos JK, Mendes NC, Gill SA, Hauber ME (2020) Heterospecific eavesdropping on an anti-parasitic referential alarm call. Communications Biology 3: 143.*
A true discovery by Shelby! On one of the most common North American birds, nonetheless. Brava!! Also, the basis of our latest National Geographic grant award.
282. Hanson HE, Mathews NS, Hauber ME, Martin LB (2020) The natural history of model organisms: the house sparrow in the service of basic and applied biology. eLife 9: e52803.
I solicited eLife to commission us to write this model-species review, and worked with Marty and his talented lab to get it done!
281. Luro A, Hauber ME (2020) Avian diet and foraging ecology constrain foreign egg recognition and rejection. Avian Biology Research 13: 24-31.*
Alec mastered Bayesian comparative analyses for this paper, and Charles Demming kindly edited this paper until it was ready for publication in ABR.
280. Louder MIM, Lafayette M, Louder AA, Uy FMK, Balakrishnan CN, Yasukawa K, Hauber ME (2020) Shared transcriptional responses to con- and heterospecific behavioral antagonists in a wild songbird. Scientific Reports 10: 4092.*
Can you study behaviorally-driven gene-expression patterns in wild birds without collecting them. Sure thing!! Thank you Ken for offering us your study system for this project.
279. Magory Cohen T, Kumar S, Nair M, Hauber ME, Dor R (2020) Innovation and decreased neophobia drive invasion success in a widespread avian invader. Animal Behaviour 163: 61-72.
A paper that started at the highest calibre of journals, but was even rejected from a behavioral journal because the comparison of a native range and an introduced range was deemed as n=1 pair. Alas, it's in Anim Behav now!
278. Ismar-Rebitz SMH , Daniel C, Stephenson BM, Raubenheimer D, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2020) Sex-specific reproductive benefits of early arrival to the breeding colony in a seabird. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 132: 29-38.*
Steffi's PhD thesis with the gannets at Cape Kidnapepers never ceases to yield exciting data: this one, after a period of dormancy, shows how the early male gets the mate.
277. Manna TJ, Hanley D, Honza M, Capek M, Rutila J, Samas P, Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2020) Fitting different visual models to behavioral patterns of parasitic egg rejection along a natural egg color gradient in a cavity-nesting host species. Vision Research 167: 54-59.*
Tommy stopped talking to me half-way through publishing this paper. Anyone knows why and what happened to him? A very sad end for me as a mentor to an otherwise very productive PhD by Tommy at GC CUNY.
276. Louder MIM, Balakrishnan CN, Louder ANA, Driver RJ, London SE, Hauber ME (2019) An acoustic password enhances auditory learning in juvenile brood parasitic cowbirds. Current Biology 29: 4045-4051.*
So proud!! After 18 years we returned to the Password Hypothesis, and got some male cowbirds slightly 'misimprinted' on canary songs coupled with chatter calls!
275. Hauber ME, Dainson M, Luro A, Louder AA, Hanley D (2019) When are egg rejection cues perceived? A test using thermochromic eggs in an avian brood parasite host. Animal Cognition 22:1141–1148.*
A super cool method with thermochromic eggs, and complex interpretation of the results--took us a few years to make sense of the data, but it's out now for everyone to ponder about.
274. Louder MIM, Hauber ME, Louder ANA, Hoover JP, Schelsky WM (2019) Greater opportunities for sexual selection in male than in female obligate brood parasitic birds. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 32: 1310-1315 (with cover).*
The Bateman gradient is well and alive even in parasitic cowbirds! And also: female cowbirds are pretty genetic mate-consistent within each year. What's that about?
273. Nagy J, Hauber ME, Hartley IR, Mainwaring MC (2019) Correlated evolution of nest and egg characteristics in birds. Animal Behaviour 158: 211-225.
This was the first of an exciting collaboration with Mark M and Jeno N, that's still ongoing to this day. Maybe one day we'll meet in person!
272. Scharf HM, Stenstrom K, Dainson M, Benson TJ, Fernandez-Juricic E, Hauber ME (2019) Mimicry-dependent lateralization in the visual inspection of foreign eggs by American robins. Biology Letters 15: 20190351.*
Our first fully-Urbana based paper, with some intense video-analyses by Hannah and Katie. Thanks to Esteban for asking for the extra-analyses and to TJ for the double-head video camera set-up.
271. Abolins-Abols M, Hanley D, Moskat C, Grim T, Hauber ME (2019) Anti-parasitic egg rejection by great reed warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) tracks differences along an eggshell color gradient. Behavioural Processes 166: 103902.*
It's hard to trick a Great Reed Warbler. Most artificially painted model eggs are rejected by them. But the few ones they accepted were bluer than predicted by chance.
270. Louder MIM, Lawson S, Lynch K, Balakrishnan CN, Hauber ME (2019) Neural mechanisms of auditory species recognition in birds. Biological Reviews 94: 1619-1635.*
Last minute help from Shelby made this long-overdue review timely and accurate. A great editorial process at BR, too.
269. Hauber ME, Bond AL, Kouwenberg A-L, Robertson GJ, Hansen EJ, Holford M, Dainson M, Luro A, Dale J (2019) The chemical basis of a signal of individual identity: shell pigment concentrations track the unique appearance of Common Murre eggs. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 16: 20190115.*
Very proud of a first-authored paper so long after sourcing these eggs from our Canadian team members. Thanks Miri for running the chemical analyses in Mande's lab.
268. Moskat C, Hauber ME (2019) Sex-specific responses to simulated territorial intrusions in the common cuckoo: a dual function of female acoustic signaling. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 73: 60.
My carrying a parabola antenna across the Atlantic was just the beginning of our vocalizations paper-series with Csaba on the cuckoos.
267. Mackay JWB, Russell JC, Murphy EC, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2019) See how they run: increased ranging behavior counters potential Allee effects in experimentally introduced house mice on an island. Biological Invasions 21:1669-1681.*
Starting high in PNAS with this one too, but then landing a long-overdue solid contribution in Bio Invasions from Jamie's thesis at Auckland Uni.
266. Hanley D, Gern K, Hauber ME, Grim T (2019) Host responses to foreign eggs across the avian visual color space. American Naturalist 194: 17-27.*
When doing the same project in Ithaca, we called it the 'crazy egg' colors experiment. But we learned so much from it about the European blackbirds, too.
265. Hanley D, Lopez AV, Fiorini VD, Reboreda JC, Grim T, Hauber ME (2019) Variation in multicomponent recognition cues alters egg rejection decisions: a test of the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 374: 20180195.* (Faculty of 1000 Prime Recommended).
Perhaps the first quantitative demonstration of how much acceptance thresholds shift (5 JND) by increasing multi-component egg mimicry between host and model parasitic eggs. Thanks Ana and team Buenos Aires University for doing the field work.
264. Moskat C, Ban M, Fulop A, Bereczki J, Hauber ME (2019) Bimodal habitat use in brood parasitic Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) revealed by GPS telemetry. Auk: Ornithological Advances 136: 1-12.
Inspired by Steve Rothstein's original work on commuting cowbirds in the Sierras, we were excited to run similar analyses on the cuckoos in Hungary.
263. Rivera M, Cealie M, Hauber ME, Kleindorfer S, Liu W (2019) Neural activation in response to conspecific songs in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) embryos and nestlings. NeuroReport 30: 217–221.*
Embryonic zebra finches can hear! IEG demonstration by my PhD student at GC CUNY Moises in Wan-chun's lab of what our suspicions were all along.
262. Hauber ME, Luro A, McCarty CJ, Barateli K, Cassey P, Hansen E, Dale J (2019) Interannual repeatability of eggshell phenotype in individual female Common Murres (Uria aalge). Canadian Journal of Zoology 97: 385-391.*
After nasty and combatant (same) referee report in Biol Letters and RS Open Science, finally we landed a solid home for this long-term project on captive murres. Thanks CJ for all those photos year-after-year.
261. Manna TJ, Moskat C, Tong L, Ban M, Aidala Z, Low J, Hauber ME (2019) Multiple parasitism reduces egg rejection in the host of a mimetic avian brood parasite. Journal of Comparative Psychology 133: 351-358.*
A paper that we should have published back in 2013 to parallel Stevens et al. 2013 Nat Comms. on the same concepts.
260. Withers S, Armstrong D, Ward-Smith T, Parsons S, Hauber ME (2019) Improved methods for reducing translocation mortality and obtaining reliable population projections for reintroduction of the New Zealand rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris). Bird Conservation International 29: 542-557 (with cover).*
How to translocate this smallest New Zealand passerine without losing too many of them in the process. I worked on the permits moving them to Cape Kidnappers and to Tiritiri Matangi Island, both.
259. Aidala Z, Strausberger B, Hauber ME (2019) Increased Egg-Nest Visual Contrast Does Not Induce Egg Ejection in the Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), an Accepter Host of the Brood Parasitic Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater). Journal of Comparative Psychology 133: 46–55.*
Zak is now a tenured prof., but this was still one of our unpublished projects when he was still my PhD student at GC CUNY.
258. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2018) Invited Commentary: Applying the framework and concepts of parasitology to avian brood parasitism: a comment on Aviles. Behavioral Ecology 29: 520–521.*
The first writing project with Mikus after he joined our lab at Illinois. Great fun.
257. Kleindorfer S, Evans C, Hauber ME, Colombelli-Negrel D (2018) Could prenatal sound discrimination predict vocal complexity later in life? BMC Zoology 3: 11.
An outcome of our ARC grant, to show how embryonic communication changes future vocal phenotype in fairy-wrens.
256. Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME (2018) Host defenses against avian brood parasitism: an endocrine perspective. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 285: 20180980 (with cover).*
More of a perspective than a review. But just before the proofs were corrected, we were able to add Ruiz-Raya et al. 2018's latest paper on this topic.
255. Dainson M, Mark M, Hossain M, Yoo B, Holford M, McNeil S, Riehl C, Hauber ME (2018) How to make a mimic? Brood parasitic Striped Cuckoo eggs match host shell color but not pigment concentration. Journal of Chemical Ecology 44: 940-946 (with cover).*
Had a bit of fight with an other journal's editor whether colorful pigments should even count as a topic in chemical ecology or not. Clearly, they should!
254. Masello JF, Martínez J, Calderón L, Wink M, Quillfeldt P, Sanz V, Theuerkauf J, Ortiz-Catedral L, Berkunsky I, Brunton D, Díaz Luque JA, Hauber ME, Ojeda V, Barnaud A, Casalins L, Jackson B, Mijares A, Rosales R, Seixas G, Serafini P, Silva-Iturriza A, Sipinski E, Vásquez R, Widmann P, Widmann I, Merino S (2018): Can the intake of antiparasitic secondary metabolites explain the low prevalence of hemoparasites among wild Psittaciformes? Parasites & Vectors 11: 357.*
Another output from our mentor-mentee-collaborator relationship with Luis and his productive PhD project at Massey University in New Zealand.
253. Katsis AC, Davies MH, Buchanan KL, Kleindorfer S, Hauber ME, Mariette MM (2018) Prenatal exposure to incubation calls affects song learning in the zebra finch. Scientific Reports 8: 15232.
A collaboration with Sonia and Kate as a follow up to our repeated ARC grant applications. Andrew also became our ARC postdoc with Sonia and Diane.
252. Rivera M, Louder MIM, Kleindorfer S, Liu W, Hauber ME (2018) Avian prenatal auditory stimulation: progress and perspectives. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 72: 112.*
An important review of the state-of-the field, commissioned by Nicky Clayton as reviews' editor at BES.
251. Hauber ME, Dainson M, Baldassarre DT, Hossain M, Holford M, Riehl C (2018) The perceptual and chemical basis of egg discrimination in communally nesting greater anis Crotophaga major. Journal of Avian Biology 49: e01776 (with cover).*
My first collaboration with Christie and Dan; a fun chemical analysis too of the ani's vaterite-based eggshell cover material.
250. Lynch KS, Louder MIM, Hauber ME (2018) Species-specific auditory forebrain responses to non-learned vocalizations in juvenile blackbirds. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 91: 193-200.*
An important parallel to our earlier study on juvenile vs. adult parasitic cowbirds with Kathleen, this time on juvenile non-parasitic icterids.
249. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Ban M, Fulop A, Geltsch N, Marton A, Elek Z (2018) Are both notes of the common cuckoo’s call necessary for familiarity recognition? Behavioural Processes 157: 685-690.*
When not searching for host nests, Csaba is the master of recordings and playback studies to cuckoos. One of our many papers from our OTKA international collaborative grant through Hungary.
248. Besel D, Hauber ME, Hunter C, Ward-Smith T, Raubenheimer D, Millar CD, Ismar SMH (2018) Multifactorial roles of interannual variability, season, and sex for foraging patterns in a sexually size monomorphic seabird, the Australasian gannet (Morus serrator). Marine Biology 165: 72.*
Steffi's supervision of a master's student at Geomar, Kiel, has yielded my latest Marine Biology paper (for which I used to be the seabird biology assoc. editor before).
247. Hays IR, Hauber ME (2018) How the egg rolls: a morphological analysis of avian egg shape in the context of displacement dynamics. Journal of Experimental Biology 221: jeb.178988.*
Countless 3D printed eggs and a beautifully designed adjustable sloping surface (Ian was trained as an architect) made this paper possible.
246. Louder MIM, Hauber ME, Balakrishnan C (2018) Early social experience alters transcriptomic responses to species-specific song stimuli in female songbirds. Behavioural Brain Research 347: 69-76.*
I insisted that we make the title more exciting for this paper--it turned out well, don't you think?
245. Dinets V, Sokolovskis K, Hanley D, Hauber ME (2018) Striking difference in response to expanding brood parasites by birds of western and eastern Beringia. Journal of Field Ornithology 89: 117–125.*
Mostly field work in Alaska by Vladimir and a lot of use of 3D printed eggs on both sides of the Bering Sea.
244. Canniff L, Dainson M, Lopez AV, Hauber ME, Grim T, Samas P, Hanley D (2018) Probing the limits of egg recognition using egg rejection experiments along phenotypic gradients. Journal of Visualized Experiments 138: e57512.*
A how-to paper to instruct folks on making series of natural-egg color relevant artificial colors. Let's make use of it all even more broadly!
243. de la Colina MA, Pompilio L, Hauber ME, Reboreda JC, Mahler B (2018) Parasitic egg rejection decisions of chalk-browed mockingbirds Mimus saturninus are independent of clutch composition. Animal Cognition 21: 301–305.*
Another follow up paper from Alicia's earlier visit to New Zealand and our ongoing collaborations on her thesis papers.
242. Luro A, Igic B, Croston R, Lopez AV, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2018) Which egg features predict egg rejection responses in American robins? Replicating Rothstein’s (1982) study. Ecology & Evolution 8: 1673-1679.*
A replication study of the classic Rothstein paper which should have been published in BES, but alas, it was "only a replication" data set. Hmmmm.
241. Hauber ME, Daniel C, Stephenson BM, Millar DC, Ismar SMH (2018) Genetic mating system of Australasian Gannets (Morus serrator). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 130: 763-770.*
Old school: DNA fingerprinting! Thanks Craig for teaching Claire and me how to read radiographs back in our Auckland Uni days!
240. Kopp M, Servedio MR, Mendelson TC, Safran RJ, Rodriguez RL, Hauber ME, Scordato EC, Symes LB, Balakrishnan CN, Zonana DM, van Doorn GS (2018) Synthesis: Mechanisms of assortative mating in speciation with gene flow: connecting theory and empirical research. American Naturalist 191: 1-20.
My first Am Nat paper. Sweet times! So many rejections, so many attempts. Thank you NESCENT and Michael & Maria for taking on some of my ideas on self-referencing and social recognition systems.
239. Ban M, Moskat C, Fulop A, Hauber ME (2018) Return migration of Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) between breeding grounds in Hungary and wintering grounds in Africa as documented by non-PTT GPS technology. Journal of Ornithology 159: 337-344.
This happens when your cuckoos carry a solar-panel rechargeable battery for their GPS tags--some of these birds flew to Namibia even!
238. Dearborn DC, Page SM, Dainson M, Hauber ME, Hanley D (2017) Eggshells as hosts of bacterial communities: an experimental test of the antimicrobial egg coloration hypothesis. Ecology & Evolution 7: 9711–9719.*
Always fun to collaborate with Don and Daniel on egg colors; Miri and I did the pigment chemistry analyses for this paper.
237. Dainson M, Hauber ME, Lopez A, Grim T, Hanley D (2017) Does contrast between eggshell ground and spot coloration affect egg rejection? The Science of Nature (Naturwissenschaften) 104: 54.*
More robin egg rejection papers, thank you Miri and Ana, for not getting arrested during your field work in Ithaca and its neighborhoods.
236. Cuthill I, Allen W, Arbuckle K, Caspers B, Chaplin G, Hauber ME, Hill GE, Jablonski N, Jiggins C, Kelber A, Mappes J, Marshall J, Merrill R, Osorio D, Prum R, Roberts N, Roulin A, Rowland H, Sherratt T, Skelhorn J, Speed M, Stevens M, s MC, Stuart-Fox D, Talas L, Tibbetts E, Caro (2017) The Biology of Color. Science 357: 470 (eaan0221).
A conversation with Tim Caro on a ski chairlift at WABC led to my invitation to WIKO and this Science paper. Not bad for scientific small-talk!
235. Crystal Ornelas R, Lockwood JL, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2017) The establishment threat of the obligate brood-parasitic Pin-tailed Whydah (Vidua macroura) in North America and the Antilles. The Condor: Ornithological Applications 119: 449-458.*
An output of our National Geographic grant on the whydahs with Julie and Phill. Covered in the New York Times, even. Thanks Rob for the modeling work.
234. Lynch K, Gaglio A, Tyler E, Coculo J, Louder MM, Hauber ME (2017) A neural basis for password-based species recognition in an avian brood parasite. Journal of Experimental Biology 220: 2345-2353.*
An awesome follow up to Hauber et al. 2001, the Password paper. This time using IEG in the brains of juvenile and adult parasitic cowbird males.
233. Luro AB, Hauber ME (2017) A test of the nest sanitation hypothesis for the evolution of foreign egg rejection in an avian brood parasite rejecter host species. The Science of Nature (Naturwissenschaften) 104: 14.*
Scooped in Anim Cognit by one of our original referees, but we marched on! Thanks Alec for persisting and publishing this awesome individual repeatability study.
232. Stoddard MC, Hauber ME (2017) Colour, vision and coevolution in avian brood parasitism. Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society of London B 372: 20160339.
Cassie is writes the most beautiful scientific text; an honor to work with her on this first collaborative paper.
231. Hanley D, Grim T, Igic B, Samas P, Lopez AV, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2017) Egg discrimination along a gradient of natural variation in eggshell coloration. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 284: 20162592.*
This is the first of a series of egg-rejection studies using natural ranges of egg color variation painted atop model parasitic eggs. Thanks Daniel for championing all this work.
230. Strausberger BM, Hauber ME (2017) Encounters with adult brood parasitic cowbirds at nests, not costly parasitic eggs, elicit nest desertion by Chipping Sparrows (Spizella passerina). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 129: 554-559.
Bill has awesome data sets and I always enjoy collaborating with him on his great questions about cowbird and host biology.
229. Moskat C, Elek Z, Ban M, Geltsch N, Hauber ME (2017) Can common cuckoos discriminate between neighbours and strangers by their calls? Animal Behaviour 126: 253-260.
The dear enemy effect in a non-oscine bird--it's there! Complex experiments but was feasible because of the mostly linear (channel-side) habitats of the cuckoos!
228. d’Alba L, Torres R, Waterhouse GIN, Eliason C, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2017) What Does the Eggshell Cuticle Do? A Functional Comparison of Avian Eggshell Cuticles. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 90: 588-599.
A side-project of our HFSP grant with Auckland and Ghent Universities, thank you Liliana for asking new questions about old eggs.
227. Nelson Slater M, Hauber ME (2017) Olfactory enrichment and scent cue associative learning in captive birds of prey. Zoo Biology 36: 120-126.*
Melissa's rotation project on avian olfaction with me was super fun, wrapping up pieces of meat for captive raptors in t-shirts and paperbags, at the Bronx Zoo!
226. Ismar SMH, Raubenheimer D, Bury SJ, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2017) Sex-specific foraging during parental care in a size-monomorphic seabird, the Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 129:139-147.*
My favorite part of this paper was the 10-cent dive-depth meter/gage made out of plastic tubing, superglue, and confectionary sugar. It worked!
225. Manna T, Grim T, Cooper C, Baylis S, Waterhouse GIN, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2017) Does the House Sparrow Passer domesticus represent a global model species for egg rejection behavior? Journal of Avian Biology 48: 346–352 (with cover).*
This paper included free-nesting sparrows in Miranda from New Zealand, captive sparrows in Tel Aviv, and citizen science data from across the USA. Fun!
224. Overbeek A, Hauber ME, Brown E, Cleland S, Maloney R, Steeves TE (2017) Evidence for brood parasitism in a critically endangered Charadriiform with implications for conservation. Journal of Ornithology 158: 333-337.
The kaki/black stilt will always be my favorite shorebirds from my first summers in New Zealand.
223. Igic B, Hauber ME, Grim T, Prochazka P, Moskat C, Shawkey MD, Honza M (2017) Brood parasite and host eggshells undergo similar levels of decalcification during embryonic development. Journal of Zoology 301: 165-173 (with cover).*
An awesome collaborative project with Marcel and Brani using eggshells of fresh and hatched cuckoo eggshells. I was the interneuron and courier!
222. Louder MIM, Voss HU, Manna TJ, Carryl SS, London SE, Balakrishnan CN, Hauber ME (2016) Shared neural substrates for song discrimination in parental and parasitic songbirds. Neuroscience Letters 622: 49-54.*
My first fMRI project on birds. It only took 15 years to get done since I applied for fMRI-based postdocs (and didn't get them) from grad school.
221. Mendelson TC, Fitzpatrick CL, Hauber ME, Pence CH, Rodgriguez RL, Safran RJ, Stern CA, Stevens JR (2016) Cognitive phenotypes and the evolution of animal decisions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 11: 850-859.
Rainbow unicorns! What does the fox say (inside joke with Tami and Team NSF NESCENT)? It's rare that you write both a funded grant and a resulting paper with the exact same title!
220. d’Alba L, Rafael M, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2016) The evolution of eggshell cuticle in relation to nesting ecology. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 283: 20160687.
Sourcing eggshells for this collaboration on our HFSP grant was my main role. Thanks Liliana for a great paper.
219. Hanley D, Sulc M, Brennan P, Hauber ME, Grim T, Honza M (2016) Dynamic egg colour mimicry. Ecology & Evolution 6: 4192-4202.*
Does the cuckoo's egg become a better or worse (worse) mimic as time goes on? Now you know!
218. Colombelli-Négrel D, Webster MS, Dowling JL, Hauber ME, Kleindorfer S (2016) Vocal imitation of mother's calls by begging Red-backed Fairy-wren nestlings increases parental provisioning. The Auk: Ornithological Advances 133: 273–285.
Extending fairy-wren embryonic communication to another fairy-wren species and system. Thanks Diane and Mike!
217. Yasukawa K, Lindsey-Robbins J, Henger CS, Hauber ME (2016) Antiparasitic behaviors of Red-winged Blackbirds in response to simulated Brown-headed Cowbirds: further tests of the frontloaded parasite-defense hypothesis. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 128: 475-486 (with frontispiece).*
After super-rude peer-reviewers in PeerJ, we turned to the welcoming Wilson J Ornithology and got this meta-replication paper published with Ken.
216. Hebets EA, Barron AB, Balakrishnan C, Hauber ME, Mason P, Hoke K (2016) A systems approach to animal signaling. Proceeding of the Royal Society of London B 283: 20152889.
Another high profile output from our NSF NESCENT workshop. Thanks Eileen and Andy for leading the conceptual way.
215. Brulez K, Miksik I, Cooney CR, Hauber ME, Lovell PG, Maurer G, Portugal SJ, Russell D, Reynolds J, Cassey P (2016) Eggshell pigment composition co-varies with phylogeny but neither with life history nor with nesting ecology traits of British passerines. Ecology & Evolution 6: 1637-1645.
How to make the most of uncatalogued eggshells at Tring? Dissolve them in acid and detect their pigments! Thanks Phill for another comparative eggshell pigment paper.
214. Ryan A, Hauber ME (2016) Group compositional changes impact the social and feeding behavior of captive hamadryas baboons Papio hamadryas hamadryas. Zoo Biology 35: 137-146.*
I'm so proud of Amy, after this paper from in the zoo, she moved onto a neuroscience PhD at Amherst, a human/primate postdoc at UC Davis, and a full time job at NIH. Nice career arc!
213. Fulmer AG, Santema P, Hauber ME (2016) Intrabrood rank, age, and adult presence predict novelty seeking in individual Arabian Babblers, Turdoides squamiceps. Animal Behaviour 114: 93-99.*
Guided by Profs. Zahavi in the Negev while funded by his NSF GRFP, Andrew got this really nice cognition-in-the-wild experimental paper put together for Anim Behav.
212. de la Colina MA, Hauber ME, Strausberger BM, Reboreda JC, Mahler B (2016) Molecular tracking of individual host use in the Shiny Cowbird – a generalist brood parasite. Ecology & Evolution 6: 4684-4696.*
With Bill's microsatellite primers and all of Alicia's work in New Zealand and Argentina, we finally got this paper churned out in E&E.
211. Manna TJ, Hauber ME (2016) Recent progress in brood parasitism research among social insects. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 12: 1-5.*
Tommy was hoping to do his full PhD thesis on parasitic insects. But at least this review was nicely published.
210. Geltsch N, Ban M, Hauber ME, Moskat C (2016) Optimal timing of egg laying by Common Cuckoos Cuculus canorus: when should parasitic eggs be laid to precede the host eggs in hatching? Bird Study 63: 46-51.
My first paper in Bird Study; a nice follow up to one of our early papers with Csaba from EEE 10 years before.
209. Fidler AE, Aidala Z, Anderson MG, Ortiz-Catedral L, Hauber ME (2016). Pseudogenisation of the short-wavelength sensitive 1 (SWS1) opsin gene in two New Zealand endemic passerine species: the Yellowhead (Mohoua ochrocephala) and Brown Creeper (M. novaeseelandiae). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 128: 159-163.*
Andrew (Fidler) worked out what our sequencing results meant for opsin genes in the Mohoua genes. Followed up by more analyses in the 2020 Nature paper above!
208. Fulmer AG, Hauber ME (2016) A siblicidal origin for avian brood parasitism? Journal of Ornithology 157: 219–227.*
Andrew (Fulmer) wanted to work on a complex model of the evolutionary origin of obligate brood parasitism; another thesis chapter published.
207. Larson LR, Cooper C, Hauber ME (2016) Emotions as drivers of wildlife stewardship behavior: Citizen science nest monitors’ responses to invasive house sparrows. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 21: 18-33.
Our internally funded Project House Sparrow with Caren, then at Cornell, yielded an exciting assessment of human feelings about invasive House Sparrows in North America.
206. Louder MIM, Ward MP, Schelsky WM, Hauber ME, Hoover JP (2015) Out on their own: a test of adult-assisted dispersal in fledgling brood parasites reveals solitary departures from hosts. Animal Behaviour 110: 29-37.*
Matt was on his way to become our postdoc for the NSF brood parasite project, and this test of his of the First-contact hypothesis rejected my original predictions. All good, though, that's what science is about!
205. Dinets V, Samas P, Croston R, Grim T, Hauber ME (2015) Predicting the responses of native birds to trans-oceanic invasions by avian brood parasites. Journal of Field Ornithology 86: 244-251.*
Sending and importing model cuckoo and cowbird eggs from/to Europe can yield some true surprises in the nests of American Robins and Common Redstarts.
204. Verdes A, Cho W, Hossain M, Brennan PLR , Hanley D, Grim T, Hauber ME, Holford M (2015) Nature’s palette: Characterization of shared pigments in colorful avian and mollusk shells. PLoS ONE 10: e0143545.*
Detecting porphyrin based shell (whatever that means) pigments in distant phylogenetic taxa!
203. Hauber ME, Aidala Z, Igic B, Shawkey MD, Moskat C (2015) Experimental shifts in nest-egg contrasts do not predict egg rejection responses in an avian host-parasite system. Animal Cognition 18: 1133-1141.*
A parallel study to Zak's similar work on American Robins in J Exp Biol, but this time on Great Reed Warblers in Hungary. Thanks Csaba for painting all those nest linings.
202. Igic B, Zarate E, Sewell MA, Moskat C, Cassey P, Rutila J, Grim T, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2015) A comparison of egg yolk lipid constituents between parasitic Common Cuckoos and their hosts. Auk: Ornithological Advances 132: 817–825.*
A great use of Mary Sewell's lipid-instrument at Auckland Uni to ask basic questions about maternal programming of eggs in host vs. parasitic birds.
201. Thomas DB, Hauber ME, Hanley D, Waterhouse GIN, Fraser S, Gordon KC (2015) Analysing avian eggshell pigments with Raman spectroscopy. Journal of Experimental Biology 218, 2670-2674.*
A how-to paper not to destroy (i.e. dissolve in sulphuric acid) your valuable study specimens (e.g., extinct species, endangered species) for eggshell pigment analyses.
200. Hanley D, Grim T, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2015) Not so colourful after all: eggshell pigments constrain avian eggshell colour space. Biology Letters 11: 20150087.*
After I wrote the Book of Eggs (2014), I realized the ground-colors of avian eggshells are quite invariant (white, blue, beige, or brown). Daniel's analysis of 600+ avian eggshell spectra confirms this!
199. Igic B, Nunez V, Voss HU, Croston R, Aidala Z, Lopez AV, Van Tatenhove A, Holford ME, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME (2015) Using 3D printed eggs to examine the egg-rejection behaviour of wild birds. PeerJ 3:e965.*
This paper's earlier draft had such a rude set of referee comments that we almost broke down and gave up. But the paper's simple message was too important for us, and the published article was eventually picked up for interviews by the Washington Post and the National Public Radio in the USA.
198. Barron AB, Hebets EA, Cleland TA, Fitzpatrick CL, Hauber ME, Stevens J (2015) Embracing multiple definitions of learning. Trends in Neurosciences 38: 405-407.
This was one of our first paper outputs from a NESCENT/NSF workshop on the evolution of animal decision systems. Thanks Andy for spearheading such a brave approach to learning.
197. Hauber ME, Tong L, Ban M, Croston R, Grim T, Waterhouse GIN, Shawkey MD, Barron AB, Moskat C (2015) The value of artificial stimuli in behavioral research: making the case for egg rejection studies in avian brood parasitism. Ethology 121: 521-528.*
Both a conceptual and empirical piece advocating for the use of multiples/series of egg stimulus presentations in egg-rejection research.
196. Fecheyr-Lippens DC, Igic B, D'Alba L, Hanley D, Verdes A, Holford ME, Waterhouse GIN, Grim T, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2015) The cuticle modulates ultraviolet reflectance of avian eggshells. Biology Open 4: 753-759.*
Another output from Matt Shawkey's new lab at Ghent and our HFSP grant funding. Thanks Matt for collaborating.
195. Croston R, Hauber ME (2015) Experimental shifts in intraclutch egg color variation do not affect egg rejection in a host of a non-egg-mimetic avian brood parasite. PLoS ONE 10: e0121213.*
An elegantly designed experiment, with negative results. Published in the hey-days of PloS ONE's prominence in behavioral research.
194. Hanley D, Samas P, Heryan J, Hauber ME, Grim T (2015) Now you see it, now you don’t: flushing hosts prior to experimentation can predict their responses to brood parasitism. Scientific Reports 5: 9060.*
As some things change, others stay the same. Flushing matters for European Blackbird egg rejection, but doesn't negate previous research's findings, either.
193. Igic B, Fecheyr-Lippens D, Xiao M, Chan A, Hanley D, Brennan PR, Grim T, Waterhouse GI, Hauber ME, Shawkey MD (2015) A nanostructural basis for gloss of avian eggshells. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 12: 20141210.*
Tinamous eggs are glossy, and Brani's work carefully dissected its nanostructural mechanisms experimentally. Thank you stage 2 of the HFSP grant.
192. Croston R, Hauber ME (2015) A recoverable cost of brood parasitism during the nestling stage of the American robin (Turdus migratorius): implications for the evolution of egg rejection behaviors in a host of the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater). Ethology Ecology & Evolution 27: 42–55.*
Cowbirds do not do well in robin nests (if they survive the high anticowbird egg-rejection rates during incubation), but robins still take a hit to their fitness by having an extra chick in the nest.
191. Aidala Z, Croston R, Schwartz J, Tong L, Hauber ME (2015) The role of egg-nest contrast in the rejection of brood parasitic eggs. Journal of Experimental Biology 218, 1126-1136.*
Very proud of this paper by Zak which yielded negative results, but was still published in a great journal.
190. Hanley D, Samas P, Hauber ME, Grim T (2015) Who moved my eggs? An experimental test of the clutch arrangement hypothesis for the rejection of brood parasitic eggs. Animal Cognition 18: 299-305.*
A follow-up to Lenka's observational project (see below) using experimental shuffling and a complex visual analysis of the eggs by Daniel and Peter in Tomas' lab.
189. Maurer G, Miksik I, Portugal SJ, Hauber ME, Russel D, Cassey P (2014) First light for avian embryos: eggshell thickness and pigmentation mediate variation in development and UV exposure in wild bird eggs. Functional Ecology 29: 209-218.
Sure enough, eggshells reflect different colored lights--but what about what the embryo sees. Well here's your answer from Golo's project funded by the Leverhulme grant with Phill.
188. Shaw RC, Feeney WE, Hauber ME (2014) Nest destruction elicits indiscriminate con- vs. heterospecific brood parasitism in a captive bird. Ecology & Evolution 4: 4500-4504.*
Will's idea about the unpublished components of Rachael's honor's thesis results yielded a 3rd paper from her studies at Auckland Uni with me as her mentor.
187. Portugal S, Maurer G, Thomas GH, Hauber ME, Grim T, Cassey P (2014) Nesting behaviour influences species-specific gas exchange across avian eggshells. Journal of Experimental Biology 217: 3326-3332.
An elegant comparative paper from Steve's invention of working with evaporation and eggshell fragments in Birmingham.
186. Hauber ME (2014) Mafia or Farmer? Coevolutionary consequences of retaliation and farming as predatory strategies upon host nests by avian brood parasites. Coevolution 2, doi: 10.1080/23256214.2014.913974.
I remember modelling this paper's content and message during cold winter days in Ithaca in grad school. Sadly, the journal where I published it, no longer exists.
185. Ortiz-Catedral L, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2014) Haematologic reference ranges of two remnant populations of red-fronted parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) in New Zealand. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 61: 131-136.*
More psittacine veterinary science, courtesy of Luis' interests from his PhD thesis.
184. Kleindorfer SM, Hoi H, Evans C, Mahr K, Robertson J, Hauber ME, Colombelli-Negrel D (2014) The cost of teaching embryos in superb fairy-wrens. Behavioral Ecology 25: 1131-1135.
A great experimental paper for a great journal: even if we tried elsewhere, but this is where it belongs truly.
183. Moskat C, Zölei A, Ban M, Elek Z, Tong L, Geltsch N, Hauber ME (2014) How to spot a stranger’s egg? A mimicry-specific discordancy effect in the recognition of parasitic eggs. Ethology 120: 616-626.*
This is such an exciting finding: evidence for both template-matching and discordancy-based egg rejection in Great Reed Warblers. A truly unique paper.
182. Ismar MEH, Daniel C, Igic B, Morrison-Whittle P, Ballard G, Millar CD, Fidler A, McGraw KJ, Wakamatsu K, Stephenson BM, Cassey P, Dearborn DC, Hauber ME (2014) Sexual plumage dichromatism in a size monomorphic seabird. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126: 417-428 (with Frontispiece).*
If we only counted the variably black-or-white tail feathers of Australasian Gannets from the get-go. They are sexually dimorphic in their extent of melanization...
181. Moskat C, Ban M, Hauber ME (2014) Naïve hosts of avian brood parasites accept foreign eggs, whereas older hosts fine-tune foreign egg discrimination during laying. Frontiers in Zoology 11: 45.
Super long and painful project to run egg-rejection experiments and then catch and age female Great Reed Warblers. But the results supported Arnon Lotem's 1990s' findings!
180. Portugal SJ, Hauber ME, Maurer G, Stokke BG, Grim T, Cassey P (2014) Early hatching of an avian brood parasite’s embryo cannot be explained by enhanced gaseous exchange across the eggshell. Journal of Zoology 293: 219-226 (with cover).
I remember visiting Steve in Birmingham and him showing me how to glue eggshells to eppendorf tubes. The result is this paper from Steve's efforts.
179. Henger C, Hauber ME (2014) Variation in antiparasitic behaviors of Red-winged Blackbirds in response to simulated Brown-headed Cowbirds. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126: 488–499.*
Day 1 of the project: The first redwing nest that I found and showed to Carole for this project had a cowbird egg in it, right next to a busy highway in Queens, New York!
178. Samas P, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Grim T (2014) Host responses to interspecific brood parasitism: a by-product of adaptations to conspecific parasitism? Frontiers in Zoology 11: 34.
If there are/were no Turdus-specific European cuckoo gentes, then why do blackbirds and song thrush reject foreign eggs from their nests. We think it's because of potential conspecific brood parasitism.
177. Grim T, Samas P, Hauber ME (2014) The repeatability of avian egg ejection behaviors across different temporal scales, breeding stages, female ages and experiences. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68: 749-759.
An instant classic paper with Tomas and Peter on measuring repeatability of egg rejection within and between breeding attempts, inculding across years, too.
176. Baylis SM, de Lisle M, Hauber ME (2014) Inferring maximum lifespan from maximum recorded longevity carries substantial risk of estimation bias. Ecography 37: 770–780.*
A statistical treatise by Shane on the dangers of using banding/recapture data to estimate avian species-specific longevity maxima.
175. Croston R, Hauber ME (2014) High repeatability of egg rejection in response to experimental brood parasitism in the American robin (Turdus migratorius). Behaviour 151: 703-718.*
A super important experiment by Beki for many of our future projects on robins, includign Alec's master's thesis.
174. Colombelli-Negrel D, Hauber ME, Kleindorfer SM (2014) Prenatal learning in an Australian songbird: habituation and individual discrimination in superb fairy-wren embryos. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 281: 20141154.
Non-associative learning is still learning! Prenatally shown in humans and fairy-wrens, only, thus far.
173. Machovsky Capuska GE, Hauber ME, Libby E, Amiot C, Raubenheimer D (2014) The contribution of private and public information in foraging by Australasian gannets. Animal Cognition 17: 849-858.*
Are Australasian Gannets the honeybees of the sea? Probably not. The output from our National Geographic grant with David.
172. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Elek Z, Gommers M, Ban M, Groenewoud F, Versluijs T, Hoetz CWA, Komdeur J (2014) Foreign egg retention by avian hosts in repeated brood parasitism: why do rejecters accept? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68: 403-413.
There're a lot of Dutch summer field researchers on this paper! That's all I'm saying.
171. Croston R, Hauber ME (2014) Spectral tuning and perceptual differences do not explain the rejection of brood parasitic eggs by American robins (Turdus migratorius). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68: 351-362.*
Our first of many-many American Robin egg rejection papers, first starting field work in and around Ithaca while I was still working in New York City.
170. Galbraith JA, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2014) Nest-site use by an introduced parrot in New Zealand. Emu – Austral Ornithology 114: 97-105.*
Josie's critical data chapter from her master's on the rosellas introduced to New Zealand. She went onto doing a fantastic PhD too!
169. Hauber ME, Samas P, Anderson MG, Rutila J, Low J, Cassey P, Grim T (2014) Life-history theory predicts host behavioural responses to experimental brood parasitism. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 26: 349-364.*
What happens in New Zealand Turdus nests, doesn't stay in New Zealand (and, apparently, doesn't happen in Spain)... A fully magic-marker based egg rejection project from Auckland City and beyond.
168. Machovsky-Capuska GE, Hauber ME, Dassis M, Libby E, Wikelski MC, Schuckard R, Melville DS, Cook W, Houston M, Raubenheimer D (2014) Foraging behaviour and habitat use of chick-rearing Australasian Gannets in New Zealand. Journal of Ornithology 155: 379-387.*
There are mainland nesting gannets on the South Island of New Zealand, too. Here's what they feed to their chicks and where they go fishing to.
167. Ortiz-Catedral L, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2013) Growth and survival of nestlings in a population of red-crowned parakeets (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) free of introduced mammalian nest predators on Tiritiri Matangi Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 37: 370-378.*
A vast analysis of all the kakariki reproductive data from Luis' thesis work on Tiritiri Matangi, my by-far favorite island in New Zealand.
166. Thrimawithana A, Ortiz-Catedral L, Rodrigo A, Hauber ME (2013) Reduced total genetic diversity following translocations? A metapopulation approach. Conservation Genetics 14: 1043-1055.*
Another output from my Kermadic research sea-voyage; this one is a modeling project of an idea that I had while sailing back to Wellington.
165. Aidala Z, Chong N, Anderson MG, Ortiz-Catedral L, Jamieson IG, Briskie JV, Cassey P, Gill BJ, Hauber ME (2013) Phylogenetic relationships of the genus Mohoua, endemic hosts of New Zealand's obligate brood parasitic Long-tailed Cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis). Journal of Ornithology 154: 1127-1133.*
Though I didn't rediscover the moa in New Zealand, we got to re-establish another endemic avian family for my adopted home country.
164. Polacikova L, Takasu F, Stokke BG, Moksnes A, Roskaft E, Cassey P, Hauber ME, Grim T (2013) Egg arrangement in avian clutches covaries with the rejection of foreign eggs. Animal Cognition 16: 819-828.
Do messy house-keeping hosts reject more or fewer eggs fro the nest? Fewer!
163. Gill BJ, Hauber ME (2013) Distribution and age-specific plumage states of the long-tailed cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis). Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 60: 158-170.
Where do young Long-tailed Cuckoos molt into their adult plumage. Brian knows best!
162. Allen KR, Hauber ME (2013) Self-referencing and mate choice among college students: epiphenomenon or consistent patterns of preference across populations? Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology 7: 163-174.*
One of my handful of human papers, with a visiting student from my Auckland Uni days. Didn't make it into PNAS like Buston and Emlen's paper did on this, but it was nice to replicate their results with an independent sample size from New Zealand.
161. Hauber ME, Woolley SMN, Cassey P, Theunissen FE (2013) Experience dependence of neural responses to different classes of male songs in the primary auditory forebrain of female songbirds. Behavioural Brain Research 243: 184-190.
Finally, my other half of the UC Berkeley postdoc research is published. One of just a handful of female song-perception neurophysiology papers at that time.
160. Mackay JWB, Alexander A, Hauber ME, Murphy EC, Clout MN (2013) Does genetic variation among invasive house mice in New Zealand affect eradication success? New Zealand Journal of Ecology 37: 18-25.*
Often times the answer to a question-based title in scientific publishing is "NO". It's the same here, too. But did you know that New Zealand has all three house mouse subspecies introduced?
159. Ban M, Moskat C, Barta Z, Hauber ME (2013) Simultaneous viewing of own and parasitic eggs is not required for foreign egg rejection by a cuckoo host. Behavioral Ecology 24: 1014-1021.
What's a non-significant pattern in one researcher's book with, is a significant result using a repeated-measures Friedman ANOVA in another's practice. Here's what it yielded.
158. Samas P, Grim T, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Weidinger K, Evans KL (2013) Ecological predictors of reduced avian reproductive investment in the southern hemisphere. Ecography 36: 809-818.
Ecography is hard to crack (as I'm not an ecologist), but comparing our Turdus clutch size data from Europe and New Zealand should surely count for it. And it did!
157. Wagner GF, Aidala Z, Croston R, Hauber ME (2013) Repeated brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) at Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) nesting sites across non-consecutive years. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 125: 389-394.*
The title original had "long-term" in it, but an obnoxious referee told us that ~10-years do not count as long-term in cowbird research.
156. Anderson MG, Gill BJ, Briskie JV, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2013) Latitudinal differences in the breeding phenology of Grey Warblers covary with the prevalence of parasitism by Shining Bronze-Cuckoos. Emu – Austral Ornithology 113: 187-191.*
We never found a parasitized Grey Warbler nest at Tawharanui... so we wrote a paper about the differences between the Kaikoura and Tawh-nesting warblers' breeding phenology.
155. Aidala Z, Chong N, Anderson MG, Hauber ME (2012) Predicted visual sensitivity for short-wavelength light in the brood parasitic cuckoos of New Zealand. Chinese Birds 3: 295-301 (Special Issue on Brood Parasitism).*
New Zealand (and likely other cuckoos) have Violet-sensitive visual perception of colors. That's all, that's the message of this paper.
154. Samas P, Polacikova L, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Grim T (2012) Egg rejection behavior and clutch characteristics of the European Greenfinch introduced to New Zealand. Chinese Birds 3: 330-338 (Special Issue on Brood Parasitism).
In short, Greenfinches don't really reject foreign eggs. I wish they did, because there are so many of them established in New Zealand.
153. Horton BM, Hauber ME, Maney DL (2012) Morph matters: aggression bias in a polymorphic sparrow. PLoS ONE 7: e48705.
Another paper that should have been published in Biology Letters but found its way to PLoS ONE. Great behavioral collaboration on the white-throated sparrow system, though.
152. Colombelli-Negrel D, Hauber ME, Robertson J, Sulloway FJ, Hoi H, Griggio M, Evans C, Kleindorfer S (2012) Embryonic learning of vocal passwords in superb fairy-wrens reveals intruder cuckoo nestlings. Current Biology 22: 2155-2160 (Faculty of 1000: 3rd most viewed article in Ecology).
After a promise in Science that if we just only conducted one more year's of experimentation, we would get the paper accepted there--we got rejected. No matter, it's found a great home in Current Biology.
151. Henger C, Wallace SB, Hauber ME (2012) Comparison of two field data collection methods in recording avian behavior. Kingbird 62: 198-211.*
Development and application of the WhatISee iPhone-based behavioral data logging system with 2 master's students from Hunter College's ABC program.
150. Machovsky Capuska GE, Howland HC, Raubenheimer D, Vaugh R, Wursig B, Hauber ME, Katzir G (2012) Visual accommodation and active pursuit of prey underwater in a plunge diving bird: the Australasian gannet. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 279: 4118-4125 (with cover).*
I was fortunate to mentor Gabriel in his transition from Argentina to New Zealand and his PhD project with David, working on the iconic gannet foraging system. Also, nice to reconnect with Howie Howland from my Cornell grad school days to publish a paper together.
149. Massaro M, Ortiz-Catedral L, Julian L, Galbraith JA, Kurenbach B, Kearvell J, Kemp J, van Hal J, Elkington S, Taylor G, Greene T, van de Wetering J, van de Wetering M, Pryde M, Dilks P, Heber S, Steeves TE, Walters M, Shaw S, Potter J, Farrant M, Brunton DH, Hauber ME, Jackson B, Bell P, Moorhouse R, McInnes K, Varsani A (2012) Molecular characterisation of beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) in New Zealand and its implications for managing an infectious disease. Archives of Virology 157: 1651-1663.*
Another collaboration with Luis, Melanie, and Arvind on psittacine disease prevalence in New Zealand.
148. Gill BJ, Hauber ME (2012) Piecing together the epic transoceanic migration of the long-tailed cuckoo Eudynamys taitensis (Aves: Cuculidae): an analysis of museum and sighting records. Emu – Austral Ornithology 112: 326-332.
Supported by our Marsden grant, Brian visited nearly all museums with long-tailed cuckoo specimens around the world. The result is support for a new hypothesis on the annual migration routes and directions of this 1 of 2 migratory landbird species in New Zealand.
147. Krull CR, Ranjard L, Landers TJ, Ismar SMH, Matthews JL, Hauber ME (2012) Analyses of sex and individual differences in vocalizations of Australasian gannets using a dynamic time warping algorithm. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 132: 1189–1198.*
No population or sex differences in adult gannet calls. Published in a great acoustic journal where I always wanted to be published in.
146. Cassey P, Miksik I, Portugal SJ, Maurer G, Ewen JG, Zarate E, Sewell MA, Karadas F, Grim T, Hauber ME (2012) Avian eggshell pigments are not consistently correlated with colour measurements or egg constituents in two Turdus thrushes. Journal of Avian Biology 43: 503–512.
A rejection of the sexually-selected blue egg hypothesis--one of many such papers from us and from others.
145. Cassey P, Thomas GH, Portugal SJ, Maurer G, Hauber ME, Grim T, Lovell PG, Miksik I (2012) Why are birds’ eggs colourful? Eggshell pigments covary with life history and nesting ecology among British birds. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 106: 657-672.
A vast project by Phill and nearly everyone supported by our first-time HFSP grant, published in a journal where Darwin had also published before us.
144. Geltsch N, Hauber ME, Anderson MG, Ban M, Moskat C (2012) Competition with a host nestling for parental provisioning imposes recoverable costs on parasitic cuckoo chick's growth. Behavioural Processes 90: 378– 383.*
A follow-up video-begging and growth study to Hauber and Moskat 2008 BE. More ontogenetic coverage--different conclusions!
143. Hargitai R, Costantini D, Moskat C, Ban M, Muriel J, Hauber ME (2012) Variation in plasma oxidative status and testosterone level in relation to eviction effort and age of brood parasitic common cuckoo nestlings. Condor 114: 782-791 (with cover).
How to measure variation in the cost of egg-eviction by cuckoo chicks? What about the steepness of the nest walls? A Tomas Grim idea, applied to Hungarian cuckoo chicks here.
142. Hauber ME, Strausberger BM, Feldheim KA, Lock J, Cassey P (2012) Indirect estimates of breeding and natal philopatry in an obligate avian brood parasite. Journal of Ornithology 153: 467–475.*
Bill's microstat data on our Ithaca cowbird chicks is finally put to a good use in this important host nest-reuse paper by the same female cowbirds.
141. Croston R, Tonra CM, Heath SK, Hauber ME (2012) Flange color differences of brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds from nests of two host species. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124: 139-145.*
Nearly 10-year old Mono Lake cowbird chick data, reanalyzed by Beki for a side-project along her PhD thesis.
140. Lock J, Hauber ME (2012) A predation risk-and-avoidance model of nestling responses to parental vocalizations. Evolutionary Ecology Research 14: 235–245.*
Justin was my last formal master's student from Auckland Uni, but he and I were already based in the USA when we worked together on this theoretical paper.
139. Aidala Z, Huynen L, Brennan PLR, Musser J, Fidler A, Chong N, Machovsky Capuska GE, Anderson MG, Talaba A, Lambert D, Hauber ME (2012) Ultraviolet visual sensitivity in three avian lineages: paleognaths, parrots, and passerines. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 198: 495-510 (with Erratum DOI 10.1007/s00359-012-0752-z).*
We were the first ones to (correctly) show that ratites, including ostriches (and extinct moas), have (had) UV-sensitive color vision. But make sure to use the primer sequences from the Erratum only if you'd like to replicate our lab work.
138. Zolei A, Hauber ME, Geltsch N, Moskat C (2012) Asymmetrical signal content of egg shape as predictor of egg rejection by great reed warblers, hosts of the common cuckoo. Behaviour 149: 391-406.
Some of the strangest-shaped 3D model eggs can tell you a lot about egg color perception in host egg-rejection decisions. It's a bit like studying synesthesia in birds!
137. Shaw RC, Hauber ME (2012) Linking nest predation with brood parasitism in captive zebra finches: a multi-pair study. Journal of Ethology 30: 255-262.*
Rachael's experiments with Zebra Finch aviaries have also panned out and we, again, detected intraspecific parasitism in Zebra Finches.
136. de la Colina MA, Pompilio L, Hauber ME, Reboreda JC, Mahler B (2012) Different recognition cues reveal the decision rules used for egg rejection by hosts of a variably mimetic avian brood parasite. Animal Cognition 15: 881-889.*
A Royal Society-funded visit to New Zealand renewed our collaboration with the Reboreda group in Buenos Aires.
135. Hickey AJR, Jullig M, Phillips A, Hauber ME, Loomes K (2012) Birds and longevity: Does flight driven aerobicity provide an oxidative sink? Ageing Research Reviews 11: 242-253.
Why birds don't get cancer. Discussions with Tony on birds have yielded this paper.
134. Igic B, Cassey P, Grim T, Greenwood DR, Moskat C, Rutila J, Hauber ME (2012) A shared chemical basis of avian host-parasite egg colour mimicry. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 279: 1068-1076.*
Just in time! This paper was published just before our final report for the HFSP egg color pigment grant was due. Thanks Brani for getting in done in a timely manner. We got renewed for the grant, too!
133. Baylis SM, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2012) Capsaicin as a deterrent against introduced mammalian predators. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124: 518-524.*
As a native Hungarian, I have felt obliged to use sweet paprika as the control treatment in this study.
132. Cassey P, Hauber ME, Maurer G, Ewen JG (2012) Sources of variation in reflectance spectrophotometric data: a quantitative analysis using avian eggshell colours. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3: 450-456.
In my next life, I would like to be an ecologist. Here's a stop-the-longing paper in this BES' journal.
131. Landers TJ, Dennis TE, Hauber ME (2011) Gender assignment of Westland Petrels (Procellaria westlandica) using linear discriminant function analysis. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 123: 720-725.*
I didn't choose for gender to be in the title of this paper--it was the editor's decision!
130. Landers TJ, Bannock CA, Hauber ME (2011) Dynamics of behavioural rhythms in a colonial, nocturnal, burrowing seabird: a comparison across different temporal scales. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 58: 81-89.*
Utilizing an ethogram to study a poorly known nocturnal large petrel breeding at a single colony in the world.
129. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Steeves TE, Lawrence HA, Thompson DR, Sagar PM, Bury SJ, Landers TJ, Phillips RA, Ranjard L, Shaffer SA (2011) Contemporary and historical separation of transequatorial migration between genetically distinct seabird populations. Nature Communications 2: 232.*
Matt's postdoc project was a winner. I remember sitting with him at the AMNH, sampling toe-pads of Cook's Petrels for mtDNA analyses during his visit to NYC.
128. Igic B, Braganza K, Hyland MM, Silyn-Roberts H, Cassey P, Grim T, Rutila J, Moskat C, Hauber ME (2011) Alternative mechanisms of increased eggshell hardness of avian brood parasites relative to host species. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 8: 1654-1664.*
Heather Silyn-Roberts is a pioneering avian eggshell structural scientist and she was my colleague at Auckland Uni--this is the resulting paper!
127. Galbraith JA, Fraser EA, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2011) Survey duration and season influence the detection of introduced eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 38: 223-235.*
Josie's 2nd paper with me, after the kaki project; this time from her Master's with Mick Clout and me.
126. Neate H, Dowding JE, Parker K, Hauber ME (2011) Breeding success of northern New Zealand dotterels (Charadrius obscurus aquilonius) following mammal eradication on Motuihe Island, New Zealand. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 58: 17-21.*
A summer undergrad project turned into an exciting report of conservation effectiveness for endemic New Zealand plovers on Motuihe Island.
125. Samas P, Hauber ME, Cassey P, Grim T (2011) Repeatability of foreign egg rejection: testing the assumptions of co-evolutionary theory. Ethology 117: 606-619.
A heroic effort by team HFSP and Czech (Slovak) grad student Peter to test the same breeding pairs of Turdus repeatedly in New Zealand.
124. Polacikova L, Hauber ME, Prochazka P, Cassey P, Honza M, Grim T (2011) A sum of its parts? Relative contributions of different eggshell regions to intraclutch variation in birds. Journal of Avian Biology 42: 370-373.
A quantitative study on a hypothesis that I got to test myself 10 years later in the field in Urbana (Hauber et al. 2021 JVB).
123. Curtin P, Hauber ME, Moller P (2011) Factors influencing mutual gaze in captive female Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). Journal of Ethology 29: 487-491.*
Paul came to me to be rescued for his prior mentorship at Hunter's ABC program. It was a pleasure to publish my second primate paper with him.
122. Nakagawa S, Hauber ME (2011) Great challenges with few subjects: statistical strategies for neuroscientists. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 35: 462-473.
I always wanted to write this paper, and Shinichi's collaboration made it possible. Thanks for working on it together Shinichi!
121. Landers TJ, Rayner ME, Phillips RA, Hauber ME (2011) Dynamics of seasonal movements by a trans-pacific migrant seabird, the Westland petrel. Condor 113: 71-79 (with cover).*
I never got to do field work with Todd in the New Zealand winter on the rainy west coast of the South Island at night on these petrels. But enjoyed learning about their natural history from Todd.
120. Ismar SMH, Phillips RA, Rayner MJ, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2011) Geolocation tracking of the annual migration of adult Australasian Gannets (Morus serrator) breeding in New Zealand. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 123: 121-125.*
Two pure and one hybrid gannet tracked overwinter commuting between New Zealand and Australia.
119. Ismar SMH, Chong NL, Igic B, Baird K, Ortiz-Catedral L, Fidler AE, Hauber ME (2010) Visual sensitivity, coloration and morphology of red-tailed tropicbirds Phaeton rubricauda breeding on the Kermadec Islands. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 38: 29-42 (with cover).*
We initially discovered several tropicbirds nesting on the Kermadecs while heading to capture the boobies. Here're more data and analyses.
118. Ismar SMH, Baird K, Patel S, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2010) Morphology of the recently re-classified Tasman Booby Sula dactylatra tasmani breeding on the Kermadec Islands. Marine Ornithology 38: 105-109 (with cover).*
More data from the Kermadec seavoyage with Steffi and Karen on the Tasman subspecies of the majestic Masked Booby.
117. Aidala Z, Hauber ME (2010) Avian egg coloration and visual ecology. Nature Education Knowledge 1: 4.*
Zak was my first PhD student at GC CUNY, and we still collaborate 12 years later when he is a tenured professor of Psychology.
116. Richardson K, Ewen JG, Armstrong DP, Hauber ME (2010) Sex-specific shifts in natal dispersal dynamics in a reintroduced hihi population. Behaviour 147: 1517-1532 (Special Issue on Dispersal and Sociality).*
What can you do when you know the identity and sex of each adult and fledgling on small island? Test classic avian dispersal theory!
115. Croston R, Hauber ME (2010) The ecology of avian brood parasitism. Nature Education Knowledge 1: 3.*
I always recommend to grad students to publish a review/overview paper that also becomes their intro thesis chapter. Open access in Nature Education Knowledge.
114. Ranjard L, Anderson MG, Rayner MJ, Payne RB, McLean IG, Briskie JV, Ross HA, Brunton DH, Woolley SMN, Hauber ME (2010) Bioacoustic distances between the begging calls of brood parasites and their host species: a comparison of bioacoustic techniques. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64: 1915-1926.*
So proud of a paper with Robert B. Payne of cuckoo, cowbird, and indigobird fame! Thanks for your tape recordings from Australia, Bob.
113. Cassey P, Maurer G, Duval C, Ewen JG, Hauber ME (2010) Differential impacts of time since collection on eggshell colour components relevant to perceptual modeling in museum collections of song thrush (Turdus philomelos) eggs. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64: 1711–1720.
A must-read for anyone who is interested in using museum-specimens of eggs for ground color analyses.
112. Krull CR, Hauber ME (2010) Two voice system found in the Australasian gannet (Morus serrator). Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 57: 162-165.*
Another discovery article, this time by Cheryl analyzing gannet spectrograms from Cape Kidnappers and Muriwai both.
111. Igic B, Hauber ME, Galbraith JA, Grim T, Dearborn DC, Brennan PLR, Moskat C, Choudary PK, Cassey P (2010) Comparison of micrometer- and scanning electron microscope-based measurements of avian eggshell thickness. Journal of Field Ornithology 81: 402-410.*
Nothing makes a paper better than a statistician's oversight in the analyses. Thanks Josie and Brani for collecting the data.
110. Cassey P, Portugal SJ, Ewen JG, Boulton RL, Hauber ME, Blackburn TM (2010) Variability in eggshell colour: a comparative study of museum eggshells. PLoS ONE 5: e12054.
Breaking down variance into its components: technical, biological, individual, species, and family level replications! Great figure by Phill Cassey.
109. Sorenson MD, Hauber ME, Derrickson SR (2010) Sexual imprinting misguides species recognition in a facultative interspecific brood parasite. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 277: 3079-3085.
As the editor (the fabulous Darren Irwin) put it: old data, like old wine, only get better with age. I contributed to behavioral work to this project in 1994 spring break.
108. Safran RJ, Vitousek MN, Hauber ME, Ghalambor CK (2010) Sexual selection: a dynamic state of affairs. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 429-430.
Another of my handful of commentary/critique papers. They come once every 5-10 years...
107. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Phillips RA (2010) Testing predictions of dual foraging theory in a unimodal species: foraging trip characteristics, diet, and provisioning behavior in the Cook’s petrel Pterodroma cookii. Marine Biology 157: 2187-2194.*
How to make the most of a species with only two breeding populations? Compare them, of course! Theory-driven comparisons are even best.
106. Moskat C, Hauber ME (2010) Chick loss from mixed broods reflects severe nestmate competition between an evictor brood parasite and its hosts. Behavioural Processes 83: 311-314.
After the nestmate eviction instinct ceases in cuckoos, both hosts and cuckoos still have a grave risk to fall out of the nest if it's too crowded.
105. Hauber ME, Campbell DLM, Woolley SMN (2010) Functional role and female perception of male song in zebra finches. Emu – Austral Ornithology 110: 209-218 (Special Issue Honouring Richard Zann).*
I met Richard Zann when I invited him to Auckland before he perished in a fire in Australia. An honor to be able to honor him.
104. Moskat C, Ban M, Szekely T, Komdeur J, Lucassen RWG, van Boheemen L, Hauber ME (2010) Discordancy or template-based recognition? Dissecting the cognitive basis of the rejection of foreign eggs in hosts of avian brood parasites. Journal of Experimental Biology 213: 1976-1983.
A complex experiment and data to write up, but probably still one of the most important test of these alternatives for egg rejection decision rules to this day. I also paid for much of the summer's expenses for Csaba this year, and it was important for me to be senior author because I wasn't even tenured yet at Hunter College.
103. Hubbard JK, Uy AC, Hauber ME, Hoekstra HE, Safran RJ (2010) Vertebrate pigmentation: from underlying genes to adaptive function. Trends in Genetics 26: 231-239 (with cover).
This paper just became my 2nd best cited paper of my career. Thank you Joey and co-authors. Loved writing the Box about egg pigmentation.
102. Anderson MG, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2010) Reliable information content and ontogenetic shift in begging calls of Grey Warbler nestlings. Ethology 116: 357-365.*
Jim Briskie thought this should have gone to a higher-tiered journal. We were excited about the ontogenetic component of the analyses!
101. Parker KA, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2010) Contemporary cultural evolution of a conspecific recognition signal following serial translocations. Evolution 64: 2431-2441.
Honestly, a shock! Thank you Kevin for NOT taking my advice and sending this paper to Evolution. Good use of Grey Warbler calls as controls, too.
100. Rayner MJ, Carraher CJF, Clout MN, Hauber ME (2010) Phylogeographic isolation in two distant New Zealand Cook’s petrel (Pterodroma cookii) populations. Conservation Genetics 11: 2073–2077.*
MtDNA data only, but helpful to delineate the subspecies of the modern-day Cook's Petrel. Also was much needed genetic data for Matt's Nat Comms paper above.
99. Ismar SMH, Hunter C, Lay K, Ward-Smith T, Wilson PR, Hauber ME (2010) A virgin flight across the Tasman Sea? Satellite tracking of post-fledging movements in the Australasian gannet Morus serratorbreeding at Cape Kidnappers. Journal of Ornithology 151:755-759.*
A two year, $10K paper, but the data were worth it at end. Plus it's so exciting to get daily emails from the French satellite about where our current gannet fledglings were detected at!
98. Igic B, Greenwood DR, Palmer DJ, Cassey P, Gill BJ, Grim T, Brennan PR, Bassett SM, Battley PF, Hauber ME (2010) Detecting pigments from the colourful eggshells of extinct birds. Chemoecology 20: 43-48.*
What can you get by collecting fragments of extinct moa's green and blue eggshells from storage containers at the Otago Museum? Well, a Chemoecology paper, for sure!
97. Ortiz-Catedral L, Kurenbach B, Massaro M, McInnes K, Brunton DH, Hauber ME, Martin DP, Varsani A (2010) Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV): a new strain isolated from wild red-fronted parakeets (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) in New Zealand. Archives of Virology 155: 613-620.*
I enjoyed working with both Luis and Arvind on writing up this multi-authored study. The trick is--do contribute! Edit, write, read-through. That's what earns co-authorship.
96. Woolley SMN, Hauber ME, Theunissen FE (2010) Developmental experience alters information coding in auditory midbrain and forebrain neurons. Developmental Neurobiology 70: 235-252.
A write-up of Sarah's old postdoc data from UC Berkeley, with contributions by me to provide her with the cross-fostered zebra finch males needed for this study. The midbrain where it's happening at.
95. Anderson MG, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2010) Species-specificity of grey warbler begging solicitation and alarm calls revealed by nestling responses to playbacks. Animal Behaviour 79: 401-409.*
I will never forget the ability of Mike in the field at Tawharanui to use his giant fingers to handle the smallest nestlings in New Zealand, pulling them out of the enclosed nest safely and effective. A great playback paper, too.
94. Igic B, Leuschner N, Parker KA, Ismar SMH, Gill BJ, Lovegrove TG, Millar CD, Hauber ME (2010) Size dimorphism and avian-perceived sexual dichromatism in a New Zealand endemic, the whitehead (Mohoua albicilla). Journal of Morphology 271: 697-704 (with cover).*
Nora's master's thesis was already done, but then Brani applied his magic, visual-perception analysis skills to these data. Thank you both!
93. Ismar SMH, Baird K, Favell E, Hauber ME (2010) Patterns of offspring sex-ratio in a re-establishing black-winged petrel population. Emu – Austral Ornithology 110: 104-108.*
Male-biased natal philopatry predicts a sex ratio bias in re-colonizing seabirds; and that's what we found with Black-winged Petrel chicks in the Kermadecs.
92. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2010) Behavioural correlates of female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) responses to multimodal species recognition cues. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 22: 167-181 (winner of 2010-2011 EEE prize for best article published by a young scientist).*
A super-clever experiment generated by Dana to parallel our J Comp Psych paper below. Rejected from Anim Behav, then got the best prize award from EEE!
91. Ismar SMH, Daniel C, Stephenson B, Hauber ME (2010) Mate replacement entails a fitness cost for a socially monogamous seabird. Naturwissenschaften 97: 109-113.*
So much for life-long pairbonding in Australasian Gannets. It's more like a musical chairs scenario. Wait, that's exactly what we wrote...
90. Steeves TE, Holdaway RN, Hale ML, McLay E, McAllan IAW, Christian M, Hauber ME, Bunce M (2010) Merging ancient and modern DNA: extinct seabird taxon rediscovered in the North Tasman Sea. Biology Letters 6: 94-97.
Ancient DNA, sample-collecting field work on the Kermadecs, and assistance with lab expenses--these all together get you co-authorship in this paper. Introducing the Tasman Booby subspecies!
89. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2010) Conspecific-only experience during development reduces the strength of heterospecific song discrimination in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata): a behavioural test of the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis. Journal of Ornithology 151: 379-389.*
An opportunistic project from birds kept outdoors vs. birds kept in a basement lab. Guess which birds behaved more "naturally"?
88. Ortiz-Catedral L, Kearvell JC, Hauber ME, and Brunton DH (2009) Breeding biology of the critically endangered Malherbe’s Parakeet on Maud Island, New Zealand following the release of captive-bred individuals. Australian Journal of Zoology 57: 433-439.*
Another of Luis' thesis papers; sadly I never got to accompany him to Maud Island myself. A true regret.
87. Igic B, Cassey P, Samas P, Grim T, Hauber ME (2009) Cigarette butts form a perceptually cryptic component of Song Thrush Turdus philomelos nests. Notornis – Ornithology of the South Pacific 56: 134-138.*
This is Brani's first paper using perceptual modeling approaches using avian perceivable coloration! Also, don't litter if you're a smoker, please.
86. Cassey P, Boulton RL, Ewen JG, Hauber ME (2009) Reduced clutch size is correlated with increased nest predation in exotic Turdus thrushes. Emu - Austral Ornithology 109: 294-299.
Why do Southern Hemisphere birds have smaller clutch sizes, even in the temperate zone, than Northern Hemisphere birds? What better test than Turdus thrushes introduced to New Zealand from the UK 150 years ago!
85. Krull CR, Parsons S, Hauber ME (2009) The presence of ultrasonic harmonics in the calls of the Rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris). Notornis – Ornithology of the Southern Pacific 56: 158-161.*
Hummingbirds do it, rifleman do it, too! Ultrasounic calls that may or may not be perceived by the avian ear.
84. Anderson MG, Moskat C, Ban M, Grim T, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009) Egg eviction imposes a recoverable cost of virulence in chicks of a brood parasite. PLoS ONE 4: e7725.*
A similar experiment to Grim et al. 2009 below in BE, but couldn't get it published in any behavioral journal; hence the choice of PLoS ONE. Oh well.
83. Hauber ME (2009) Does the removal of avian brood parasite eggs increase host productivity? A case study with brown-headed cowbirds Molothrus ater and song sparrows Melospiza melodia near Ithaca, New York, USA. Conservation Evidence 6: 83-88.
At my new (untenured) job in New York City, I was again told that first/sole authored papers will be important for tenure. So here's to publishing some experimental evidence of avian mafia and farming behavioral practices by Brown-headed Cowbirds from my PhD thesis research.
82. Ortiz-Catedral L, Ismar SMH, Baird K, Ewen JG, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2009) No evidence of Cambylobacter, Salmonella and Yersinia in free-ranging populations of the red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae). New Zealand Journal of Zoology 36: 376-383.*
A treatise on how to publish important negative results. Thank you Luis for your persistence.
81. Grim T, Rutila J, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009) The cost of virulence: an experimental study of egg eviction by brood parasitic chicks. Behavioral Ecology 20: 1138-1146.
How many (plaster) host eggs can the same cuckoo chick evict from the nest cup in a cavity nester? Well, 20+ is certainly the record!
80. Ortiz-Catedral L, McInnes K, Hauber ME, Brunton DH (2009) First report of Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV) in wild Red-crowned Parakeets (Cyanoramphus novaezealandiae) in New Zealand. Emu – Austral Ornithology 109: 244-247.*
Luis helped me learn about veterinarians' concerns of having an endemic wild species also kept as a legal pet in New Zealand. We should end the practice.
79. Ortiz-Catedral L, Ismar SMH, Baird K, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2009) Recolonization of an oceanic volcano by parakeets after eradication of invasive predators. Conservation Evidence 6: 26-30.*
The first of several papers related to my sea-voyage to the Kermadec Islands. What a 3 week period without internet it was!
78. Cassey P, Ewen JG, Marshall NJ, Vorobyev M, Blackburn TM, Hauber ME (2009) Are avian eggshell colours effective intraspecific communication signals? A perceptual modeling approach. Ibis – International Journal of Avian Science 151: 689-698 (Top 10 most cited article in 2011).
This paper with Phill using avian-perceptual modeling was rejected from something like 10 publications before it was published in the Ibis. Then it became an instant citation-record. Go figure.
77. Low J, Burns KC, Hauber ME (2009) Wild number sense in brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds. Ibis – International Journal of Avian Science 151: 775-777.
This paper introduced me to Jason, my future Master's in Psychology adviser at Victoria University; inspired by all the captive work on cowbird cognition by Dave White!
76. Shaw RC, Hauber ME (2009) Experimental support for the role of nest predation in the evolution of brood parasitism. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22: 1354-1358.*
Rachael was an extraordinary honors student, working daily with the zebra finches in the basement of the Psych dept. at Auckland Uni for nearly 6 months in a row. The resulting paper is an impressive test of one of the origins-for-brood-parasitism hypotheses in the literature!
75. Anderson MG, Ross HA, Brunton DH, Hauber ME (2009) Begging call matching between a specialist brood parasite and its host: a comparative approach to detect co-evolution. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 98: 208-216.*
This is an awesome paper that included sending tape recorders for nestling begging calls to high-up cavity nests of Yellowheads and mountaintop nests of Rock Wrens. I still regret not having recorded a line-up of tame Chatham Warbler fledglings when I met them myself.
74. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2009) Disassociation of visual and acoustic conspecific cues decreases discrimination by female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Journal of Comparative Psychology 123: 310-315.*
A super-clever experiment by Dana using male cross-fostered and magic-marker dyed zebra finch subjects as stimuli. They sure confuse the female zebra finches!
73. Moskat C, Hauber ME, Aviles JM, Ban M, Hargitai R, Honza M (2009) Increased host tolerance of multiple cuckoo eggs leads to higher fledging success of the brood parasite. Animal Behaviour 77: 1281-1290.
An awesome paper that Csaba had done the math for: multiple parasitism is not THAT costly for the host because they reject more of the cuckoo's eggs.
72. Campbell DLM, Weiner SA, Starks PTB, Hauber ME (2009) Context and control: behavioural ecology experiments in the laboratory. Annales Zoologici Fennici 46: 112-123 (Special Issue on Methods in Ecological Research).*
Collaborations, collaborations: how to bring a wasp and a bird lab together? Here's how.
71. Grodzinski U, Hauber ME, Lotem A (2009) The role of feeding regularity and nestling digestive efficiency in parent-offspring communication: an experimental test. Functional Ecology 23: 569-577.
I had visited Israel before I moved to NYC; and while discussing Uri's experiment, we realized that the control experiments yielded an interesting observational pattern. My first paper in Functional Ecology, too!
70. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2009) Cross-fostering diminishes song discrimination in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Animal Cognition 12: 481-490.*
Dana did over 1,100 experiments to generate a 3-year to-the-date PhD thesis at Auckland Uni. Unfortunately, the Graduate Dean rejected it initially because it was "just a series of first-authored papers put together". Then the Dean yelled at me. But Dana got her well-earned PhD at the end, so we won!
69. Campbell DLM, Shaw RC, Hauber ME (2009) The strength of species recognition in captive female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata): a comparison across estrildid heterospecifics. Ethology 115: 23-32.*
Dana's first submitted thesis chapter; its publication was made possible by some positive control data sourced from summer student Rachael's own undergrad summer research project at Auckland Uni.
68. Grim T, Rutila J, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009) Experimentally constrained virulence is costly for common cuckoo chicks. Ethology 115: 14-22.
How to raise a cuckoo chick in a crowded redstart nest? Tomas and Jarkko's tour-de-force experiment from Finland also funded by our HFSP grant.
67. Tonra CM, Johnson MD, Heath SK, Hauber ME (2009) Does nesting habitat predict hatch synchrony between brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds Molothrus ater and two host species? Ecography 32: 497-503.
Rejected from the Wilson Bulletin, published in Ecography. Not a bad trade! Also, an exercise in AIC tables!
66. Campbell DLM, Hauber ME (2009) Spatial and behavioural measures of social discrimination by captive male zebra finches: implications of sexual and species differences for recognition research. Behavioural Processes 80: 90-98.*
My last paper with a fully New Zealand affiliation; I was on my way to New York City!
65. Rubenstein DR, Hauber ME (2008) Dynamic feedback between phenotype and physiology in sexually selected traits. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23: 655-658.
Highlighting Becca's lab paper with Dustin in TREE. I did get lucky with my Cornell grad school mates, for sure!
64. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Clout MN, Seldon DS, Van Dijken S, Bury S, Phillips RA (2008) Foraging ecology of the Cook’s petrel Pterodroma cookii during the austral breeding season: a comparison of its two populations. Marine Ecology Progress Series 370: 271–284.*
I never got to go to Codfish Island (for kakapo or for Cook's petrel research). But I appreciated talking about his field trips with Matt.
63. Hauber ME, Sewell MA, Zuk M (2008) Gender genomics and equality. Heredity 101: 395.
Always wanted to publish in Heredity. I got this chance with two great women scientists!
62. Cassey P, Honza M, Grim T, Hauber ME (2008) The modeling of avian visual perception predicts behavioural rejection responses to foreign egg colours. Biology Letters 4: 515-517.
The arms-race for the first avian visual-modeling paper to be published in the context of brood parasitism and egg rejection. But alas, also see Jesus Aviles' 2008 paper in Proceedings B...
61. Matthews JL, Ismar SMH, Hauber ME (2008) Seaweed provisioning behaviour confers thermal benefit for nesting Australasian gannets (Morus serrator). Behaviour 145: 1823-1837 (with cover).*
Using a thermal camera is so much fun! Even if it is to detect a mere 1C differential effect in nest temperatures.
60. Cassey P, Ewen JG, Blackburn TM, Hauber ME, Vorobyev M, Marshall NJ (2008) Maternal investment of yolk carotenoids is not related to eggshell color variation in European thrushes. Naturwissenschaften 95: 713-721.
The sexually-selected blue egg hypothesis is just wrong. There, I said it. Here's some data to reject it.
59. Hauber ME, Moskat C (2008) Shared parental care is costly for nestlings of common cuckoos and their great reed warbler hosts. Behavioral Ecology 19: 79-86 (with cover).
Thanking my mother in the acknowledgement. We watched these begging videos together at her home in Budapest and she took notes for me.
58. Tonra CM, Hauber ME, Heath SK, Johnson MD (2008) Ecological correlates and sex differences in early development of a generalist brood parasite. Auk 125: 205-213.
How to grow a baby cowbird... Chris' master's at Humboldt State and my Miller postdoc at UC Berkeley got joined for this project.
57. Fraser EA, Hauber ME (2008) Higher call rates of morepork, Ninox novaeseelandiae, at sites inside an area with ongoing brodifacoum poisoning compared with matched non-managed sites. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 35: 1-7 (with cover).*
Who knew that this honors project write-up would turn into the standard Dept. of Conservation method to detect owls in the New Zealand night?
56. Corfield JR, Wild JM, Hauber ME, Parsons S, Kubke MF (2008) Evolution of brain size in the Palaeognath lineage, with an emphasis on New Zealand ratites. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 71: 87-99 (with cover).
One of the roadkill or otherwise scavanged kiwis scanned for this project didn't have a brain to scan. Another had 3 legs! No kidding!
55. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Imber MJ, Stamp RK, Clout MN (2007) Spatial heterogeneity of mesopredator release within an oceanic island system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104: 20862-20865.* Highlighted by Faculty of 1000.
The rare editorial gratitude: "Thank you for sending this important paper to PNAS." Congrats to Matt for making this paper come through.
54. Daniel C, Millar CD, Ismar SMH, Stephenson B, Hauber ME (2007) Evaluating molecular and behavioural sexing methods for the Australasian gannet (Morus serrator). Australian Journal of Zoology 55: 377-382.*
I'm a seabird biologist! Thanks Claire, Brent, and Craig, for introducing me to this fantastic system with the gannets in New Zealand.
53. Anderson MG, Hauber ME (2007) A recognition-free mechanism for reliable rejection of brood parasites. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22: 283-286.*
Tomas Grim's innovate Proceedings B paper, highlighted by Massey PhD student Mike and me, working out of Auckland.
52. Galbraith JA, Sancha SE, Maloney RF, Hauber ME (2007) Alarm responses are maintained during captive rearing in chicks of endangered kaki. Animal Conservation 10: 103-109.*
My own lab's first fully New Zealand-based project with the fantastic Josie! Here's how to study experimentally the chicks of one of the world's rarest shorebirds.
51. Hauber ME, Woolley SMN, Theunissen FE (2007) Experience-dependence of neural responses to social versus isolate conspecific songs in the forebrain of female Zebra Finches. Journal of Ornithology 148 (Suppl 2): S231-S239.
A trip to the IOC in Hamburg, a special issue invitation, and another postdoc paper published on female zebra finch brains.
50. Hoover JP, Hauber ME (2007) Individual patterns of habitat and nest-site use by hosts promote transgenerational transmission of avian brood parasitism status. Journal of Animal Ecology 76: 1208-1214.
Always wanted to publish in JAE--such a great journal. Thanks to Jeff's vast mother-daughter database, we did it on vertical transmission of brood parasitism status in Prothontary Warblers. Still hadn't met in person at this time!
49. Yeh PJ, Hauber ME, Price TD (2007) Alternative nesting behaviours following colonisation of a novel environment by a passerine bird. Oikos 116: 1473-1480.
Are urban juncos special? A proud project on adaptive nest-reuse behaviors with Pam and Trevor on their UCSD junco project.
48. Rayner MJ, Clout MN, Brunton DH, Imber M, Stamp RK, Hauber ME (2007) Predictive habitat modelling for the population census of a burrowing seabird: a study of the endangered Cook's petrel. Biological Conservation 138: 235-247.*
My first introduction to AIC methods, thanks to Matt. Led to the justified down-grading of the conservation status of the Cook's Petrel.
47. Hauber ME, Cassey P, Woolley SMN, Theunissen FE (2007) Neurophysiological response selectivity for conspecific songs over synthetic sounds in the auditory forebrain of non-singing female songbirds. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 193: 765-774.
Took a while, but my UC Berkeley skills to learn neurophysiology have come to fruition. Thanks Sarah and Federic for the training and advice.
46. Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Clout MN (2007) Breeding habitat of the Cook’s petrel (Pterodroma cookii) on Little Barrier Island (Hauturu), New Zealand: implications for the conservation of an island endemic. Emu – Austral Ornithology 107: 59-68.*
Superb work by superb grad student at Auckland Uni, Matt Rayner! I was lucky to be his co-mentor for the thesis along with Mick Clout.
45. Safran RJ, Hauber ME (2007) Dispatch/Evolutionary Biology: Variation isn’t always sexy. Current Biology 17: R368-R370.
A foray into discussions of sexual selection. In my next life I'll study sexual selection, I think.
44. Moskat C, Hauber ME (2007) Conflict between egg recognition and egg rejection decisions in common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) hosts. Animal Cognition 10: 377-386.
When should the hosts rejection foreign eggs? Great reed warblers can tell you about it all. A well cited experimental work with Csaba.
43. Hauber ME, Kilner RM (2007) Who mimics whom? Communication, co-evolution, and chick mimicry in parasitic finches. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61: 497-503 (10 most downloaded article in 2012).
A conceptual reinterpretation of classic Vidua-host finch gape mimicry work by Bob Payne and also by Justin Schuetz. The story hasn't ended yet!
42. Hauber ME (2007) Fame, fortune, and fitness at the Academy Awards. Journal of Ethology 25: 201-204.
I was hoping to get an invitation to the red carpet... But alas, I did get some coverage in Science magazine itself: Who's your daddy (that was the title...)?
41. Hauber ME, Safran RJ (2006) Dispatch/Behavioural Ecology: Promiscuous fathers sire young that recognize true family. Current Biology 16: R797-R800 (with cover).
The first of several highlight pieces with Becca Safran, describing some of the latest and brightest research in our fields.
40. Latif Q, Grenier JL, Heath S, Ballard G, Hauber ME (2006) First evidence of conspecific brood parasitism in Song Sparrows accompanied by egg ejection and discussion of methods sufficient to document these behaviors. Condor 108: 452-458.*
Team project with friends and with data from the San Francisco Bay area, Mono Lake, and Ithaca! Song Sparrows rule.
39. Hauber ME, Moskat C, Ban M (2006) Experimental shift in hosts’ acceptance threshold of inaccurate-mimic brood parasite eggs. Biology Letters 2: 177-180.
This paper was conceived, written, and published in, with Biology Letters in mind! Sometimes these things just work out.
38. Cassey P, Ewen JG, Karadas F, Hauber ME (2006) Repeatability of laboratory measurements for maternally derived yolk carotenoid concentrations in bird eggs. Australian Journal of Zoology 54: 381-384.
This was the period when Phill Cassey was also an oologist (he still is in my book). The beginnings of our $1M HFSP grant collaborations basedon out of Auckland Uni!
37. Hoover JP, Yasukawa K, Hauber ME (2006) Spatial and temporal structure of avian brood parasitism affects the fitness benefits of egg ejection and nest abandonment. Animal Behaviour 72: 881-890.
How to write a paper with a collaborator that you had never met? Jeff and I got along just fine on the phone! Of course, we became colleagues and ongoing collaborators, as well as family friends in 2017 when I moved to Illinois.
36. Hauber ME (2006) A future cost of misdirected parental care for brood parasitic young? Folia Zoologica 55: 367-374.
As a new PI I was still told that first-authored papers are as important as last-authored (senior-authored) papers. So this was my 2006 contribution in the journal now called Journal of Vertebrate Biology.
35. Moskat C, Barta Z, Hauber ME, Honza M (2006) High synchrony of egg laying between common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) and their great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) hosts. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 18: 159-167.
The beginning of a long-running collaboration with Csaba Moskat working on Hungarian cuckoos and their great reed warbler hosts. Cuckoos know when to lay their eggs--even 20 years later (see Hauber et al. 2021 Ethology Ecology & Evolution).
34. Servedio M, Hauber ME (2006) To eject or to abandon? Brood parasite virulence and host clutch sizes interact to influence the fitness payoffs of alternative rejection strategies. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19: 1585-1594. The authors contributed equally to this work.
My first "equal contributions" paper. Maria was shocked how rude our referees were on the earlier drafts that included empirical data, too. The final version only has modelling simulations.
33. Shawkey MD, Hauber ME, Estep LK, Hill GE (2006) Evolutionary transitions and mechanisms of matte and iridescent plumage coloration in grackles and allies (Icteridae). Journal of the Royal Society Interface 3: 777-786.
A paper that took years to evolve: started with a simple comparison of cowbird black feathers and evolved into an icterid-wide survey! With future HFSP collaborator, Matt Shawkey.
32. Hauber ME, Lacey EA (2005) Bateman’s principle in cooperatively breeding vertebrates: the effects of non-breeding alloparents on variability of female and male reproductive success. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45: 903-914.
2005--a year with just one paper published in my career. New PI at Auckland Uni, frantic few months to get settled. But perhaps this paper has been cited by more Nature papers than any of my other papers..!
31. Kilner RM, Madden JR, Hauber ME (2004) Brood parasitic cowbird nestlings use host young to procure resources. Science 305: 877-879.
Science!! Thank you Becky and Jo for making me part of this project! Some sleepless nights at UC Berkeley running those PCR sexing gels for the cowbirds, though.
30. Hauber ME, Yeh PJ, Roberts JOL (2004) Patterns and coevolutionary consequences of repeated brood parasitism. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271: S317-S320.
Writing a paper with a deceased coauthor (John Roberts) has its odd moments, like having to call his surviving wife to ask which day and month of the year he passed away...
29. Goth A, Hauber ME (2004) Ecological approaches to species recognition in birds through studies of model and non-model species. Annales Zoologici Fennici 41: 823-842. (Special Issue on Recognition Systems).
Brood parasites and megapodes share developmental social contexts with each other. I had met Ann in Australia and we wrote this review together.
28. Hauber ME, Ramsey CK (2003) Honesty in host-parasite communication signals: the case for begging by fledgling Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Journal of Avian Biology 34: 339-344.*
Cowbird chicks of different sexes grow up to be fledglings of different sizes! And they also beg differently. Data supported by an NSF DDIG grant (may the program rest in peace).
27. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (2003) Designing and interpreting experimental tests of self-referent phenotype matching. Animal Cognition 6: 69-71.
A response to our Canadian colleagues' 'Airing out the armpit effect" commentary in Animal Cognition. Never thought I would have to defend myself as being able to tell female and male adult cowbirds apart from each other visually...
26. Hauber ME (2003) Hatching asynchrony, nestling competition, and the cost of interspecific brood parasitism. Behavioral Ecology 14: 224-235 (with cover).
After initial review, a referee suggested another summer's of field work and experimentation. And so I did! Then the paper was accepted. Was worth it, as it also become a cover-featured article!
25. Hauber ME (2003) Interspecific brood parasitism and the evolution of host clutch sizes. Evolutionary Ecology Research 5: 559-570.
Oh, to be wrong! There's a follow-up Am Nat paper nearly 15 years later by Iliana Medina and Hanna Kokko that break down my hypothesis and use a formal model to show just how mistaken I was in this paper.
24. Hauber ME (2003) Lower begging responsiveness of host vs. cowbird nestlings is related to species identity but not to early social experience in parasitized broods. Journal of Comparative Psychology 117: 24-30.
A rarely cited paper that took a lot of nest searching and shows experience-independence in Song Sparrow chick responses to acoustic stimulation with or without a cowbird in their nest.
23. Hauber ME (2003) Egg-capping is a cost paid by hosts of interspecific brood parasites. Auk 120: 860-865.
There are few things better in behavioral ecology than citing the Nobel-prize winning pioneers. This one cites Tinbergen's 1950s-1960s papers accordingly! Also, the power of Fisher's exact tests.
22. Hauber ME, Pilz KM (2003) Yolk testosterone levels are not consistently higher in the eggs of obligate brood parasites than their hosts. American Midland Naturalist 149: 354-362.
After sharing an office as HHMI predoctoral fellows at Cornell for 6 years, Kevin and I finally wrote a paper together. I also learned not to make handling editors mad while correcting the proofs for this paper; too many changes at the proofs stage are NOT welcome!
21. Hauber ME, Dearborn DC (2003) Parentage without parental care: what to look for in genetic studies of obligate brood-parasitic mating systems. Perspectives in Ornithology. Auk 120: 1-13.
I rarely get feedback on research papers from the lay public--but this one was great, a non-scientist member of the AOU wrote a personal note to me saying what a great review Don and I wrote on the possibilities for the future.
20. Hauber ME (2002) Is reduced clutch size a cost of parental care in Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe)? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 51: 503-509.
Working side-by-side Becca Safran working on Barn Swallows and me on Eastern Phoebes as grad students was always fun--and yielded one of my proudest experimental papers.
19. McGraw KJ, Mackillup EA, Dale J, Hauber ME (2002) Differential effects of nutritional stress during molt on the expression of melanin- and structurally based ornamental plumage coloration. Journal of Experimental Biology 205: 3747-3755.
Who knew that handing over a handful of handraised cowbirds (prior to their first molt) to Kevin McGraw could get you your best-cited paper in your career? Thank you Kevin and Jim!
18. Hauber ME, Pearson H, Reh A, Merges A (2002) Discrimination between host songs by brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Animal Cognition 5: 129-137.*
As one negative referee put it--why is it surprising that cowbirds can tell Song Sparrows from Red-winged Blackbirds apart, if they can tell Mozart from Beethoven? The answer: it's called natural selection!
17. Hauber ME (2002) First contact: conspecific social association and species recognition in brood parasites. Annales Zoologici Fennici 39: 291-305.
How to get a Star Trek title into your title and publish it? Learned it from Walt Koenig, I think...
16. Hauber ME, Montenegro K (2002) What are the costs of raising a brood parasite? Comparisons of host parental care at parasitized and non-parasitized broods. Etologia 10: 1-9.*
Originally this and the 2006 Folia Zoologica paper were one manuscript and had been submitted to Oecologia. It was rejected. It took me nearly 20 years to get my first paper accepted in Oecologia (2021). In the meanwhile, Etologia no longer exists as a journal.
15. Hauber ME (2002) Conspicuous coloration and prey attraction in a stationary predator. Ecological Entomology 27: 686-691.
Another arthropod project, this time from a field course with SUNY-ESF in the Daintree, Australia. Still cited heavily in and asked to review papers for the trap-building literature.
14. Hauber ME, Russo SA, Sherman PW (2001) A password for species recognition in a brood parasitic bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268: 1041-1048.*
My favorite paper ever: a true discovery made during the winter of 1997-78 by reviewing the previous summer's video tapes of nestling cowbirds in response to adult chatter calls.
13. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (2001) Self-referent phenotype matching: theoretical possibilities and empirical tests. Trends in Neurosciences 24: 609-616.
Paul told me to become a better neuroscientist by the end of my PhD so that he can write better letters of reference for me for postdocs and jobs; as a result, we published this review in TiNS instead of TREE.
12. Hauber ME (2001) Site selection and repeatability in Brown-Headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) parasitism of Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) nests. Canadian Journal of Zoology 79: 1518-1523.
Steve Emlen asked me at a committee meeting to reflect on patterns of multiple yearly parasitism by cowbirds on phoebes. The result was this first in a series of papers on spatial and annual autocorrelation in cowbird parasitism.
11. Craig CL, Wolf SG, Davis JLD, Hauber ME, Maas JL (2001) Signal polymorphism in the web-decorating spider Argiope argentata is correlated with reduced survivorship and the presence of stingless bees, its primary prey. Evolution 55: 986-993.
Yale's Perspective in Science freshman fellowship took me to Barro Colorado Island at STRI in Panama; in turn, that summer project turned into this combined lab/field work study by Cay Craig in Evolution.
10. Hauber ME, Sherman PW, Paprika D (2000) Self-referent phenotype matching in a brood parasite: the armpit effect in brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Animal Cognition 3: 113-117.
We conceived this paper with Paul at the time of my grad school interview at Cornell in 1996 spring. First demonstration of self-referencing through the experimental manipulation of the cue itself.
9. Hauber ME (2000) Nest predation and cowbird parasitism in Song Sparrows. Journal of Field Ornithology 71: 389-398.
I always like to combine different types of data: this time Cornell's extensive North American nest records and my own field work in Ithaca.
8. Hauber ME, Russo SA (2000) Perch proximity correlates with higher rates of cowbird parasitism of ground nesting Song Sparrows. Wilson Bulletin 112: 150-153.*
Do cowbirds watch the host nests from a higher perch site? Sure seems so. Lots of measurements of the distance between ground-nesting Song Sparrows and the nearest woody vegetation. First time an undergrad student mentee was included as coauthor.
7. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (2000) The armpit effect in hamster kin recognition. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15: 349-350.
The publishing race between the armpit effect in hamsters vs. cowbirds has been resolved. We highlighted Jill Mateo's paper from Proceedings B.
6. Hauber ME, Clayton NS, Kacelnik A, Reboreda JC, DeVoogd TJ (1999) Sexual dimorphism and species differences in HVC volumes of cowbirds. Behavioral Neuroscience 113: 1095–1099.
My introduction to camera lucida techniques in the basement of Uris Hall, Cornell. And sometimes, when you can't find a sex-dimorphic nucleus in an anonymized slide, maybe it's because there is no such nucleus in that particular brain!
5. Hauber ME (1999) Variation in pit size of antlion (Myrmeleon carolinus) larvae: the importance of pit building. Physiological Entomology 24: 37-40.
Field work during a grad course at Archbold, Florida. What a place. I even manage to include data on Florida Scrubjays in this paper.
4. Hauber ME (1998) Single-egg removal from an artificial nest by the Gray Catbird. Wilson Bulletin 110: 426-429.
Video-recording, even before Go-Pro or pin-head cameras, can tell you so much about bird behavior. This time, it was the rejection of a fake egg by a catbird.
3. Hauber ME (1998) Tree Swallows raise Brown-headed Cowbird nestling. Kingbird 48: 103-107.
Can a cowbird fledgling escape from a nestbox made for a Tree Swallow? Yes! Field work at the Unit 1 of the Cornell Ponds, Ithaca.
2. Hauber ME, Sherman PW (1998) Nepotism and marmot alarm calling. Animal Behaviour 56: 1049-1052.
One of my handful of critique papers; it also celebrates Paul's earlier "Nepotism and alarm calling" paper in Anim Behav, too.
1. Hauber ME (1998) Web decorations and alternative foraging tactics of the spider Argiope appensa. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 10: 47-54.
You never forget your first paper. It was funded by a Yale travel grant to Guam and built on my past undergrad research with Argiope spiders. Note the hand-drawn spider webs in the figure!
