My research addresses the interface of animal behavior, organismal biology, and evolutionary biology. I am particularly interested in a question first articulated by the ethologist Niko Tinbergen: How do proximate mechanisms of behavior, such as biomechanics, physiological performance, and development, shape the evolutionary diversification of behavior? My work focuses on vocal behavior and evolution in vertebrates, especially songbirds. Laboratory work aims to characterize the influences of acoustic experience and production mechanics on vocal expression in songbirds. Experimental studies of vocal learning in hand-reared sparrows are used to assess how limits on vocal proficiency constrain the evolution of vocal frequency, timing, and syntax features.

Jeffrey Podos Mechanisms and Evolution of Vertebrate Behavior; Bioacoustics Complementary laboratory activities include quantitative surveys of vocal diversity using bioacoustic analyses, characterization of vocal motor patterns through high-speed video analyses, and experimental manipulation of vocal tract function. Many of these studies are conducted in collaboration with Stephen Nowicki and Susan Peters of Duke University.

Field work is conducted in the eastern United States, Brazil, and the Galápagos Islands. Local field studies address questions of song function and perception in birds. Studies in Brazil, conducted largely in collaboration with researchers from Brazil’s Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, aim to document vocal behavior in poorly-known vertebrate taxa including river dolphins, arboreal rats, and poison-dart frogs. Work in the Galápagos asks how, in Darwin’s finches, the evolutionary diversification of vocal tract morphology has shaped the evolution of vocal proficieny and song structure. The characterization of functional links between vocal tract morphology and song, together with field playback studies, is providing insight into relationships between morphological adaptation, vocal diversification, and reproductive isolation. For additional information, please visit my Laboratory Home Page.

Representative Publications:

•Podos, J., Huber, S. K. and Taft, B. (in prep). Bird song: the interface of mechanism and evolution. Invited review for Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics.

• Podos, J. and Nowicki, S. (in review). Beaks, adaptation, and vocal diversity in Darwin's finches. Invited review for BioScience.

• Herrel, A., Podos, J., Hendry, A. P. and Huber, S. K. (in review). Bite performance and morphology in a population of Darwin's finches: implications for the evolution of beak shape. Submitted to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Podos, J., Peters, S. and Nowicki, S. (in press). Calibration of song learning targets during vocal ontogeny in swamp sparrows (Melospiza georgiana). To appear in Animal Behaviour.

• Podos, J., Southall, J. A. and Rossi-Santos, M. R. (in press). Vocal mechanics in Darwin's finches: correlation of beak gape and song frequency. To appear in Journal of Experimental Biology.

• Podos, J. and Nowicki, S. (in press). Performance limits on birdsong production. To appear in Marler, P. and Slabbekoorn, H. (Eds.) Nature's Music: The Vocal Life of Birds, Academic Press.

• Podos, J., da Silva, V. M. F., and Rossi-Santos, M. R. (2002). Vocalizations of Amazon river dolphins, Inia geoffrensis: insights into evolutionary origins of delphinid whistles. Ethology 108:601-612

• Nowicki, S., Searcy, W. A., Hughes, M. and Podos, J. (2001). The evolution of birdsong: male and female response to song innovation in swamp sparrows. Animal Behaviour 62:1189-1195

• Podos, J. (2001). Correlated evolution of morphology and vocal signal structure in Darwin’s finches. Nature 409:185-188.

• Podos, J., and Nowicki, S. (2000). Mechanical limits and the evolution of vocalizations in birds. In Alves, M. A. S. (Ed.) A Ornithologia no Brasil: Pesquisa Atual e Perspectivas. EdUERJ: Rio de Janeiro.

• Hoese, W. J., Podos, J., Boetticher, N. C., and Nowicki, S. (2000) Vocal tract function in birdsong production: experimental manipulation of beak movements. Journal of Experimental Biology 203:1845-1855.

• Podos, J., Nowicki, S., and Peters, S. (1999). Permissiveness in the learning and development of song syntax in the swamp sparrow. Animal Behaviour 58:93-103.

• Klopfer, P. and Podos, J. (1998). Behavioral ecology. In Greenberg, G. and Haraway, M. (Eds.) Comparative Psychology: a Handbook, pp. 81-87. Garland Publishing: New York.

• Nowicki, S., Peters, S., and Podos, J. (1998). Song learning, early nutrition, and sexual selection in songbirds. American Zoologist 38:179-190.

• Podos, J. (1997). A performance constraint on the evolution of trilled vocalizations in a songbird family (Passeriformes: Emberizidae). Evolution 51:537-551.

• Podos, J. (1996). Motor constraints on vocal development in a songbird. Animal Behaviour 51:1061-1070. PDF

• Podos, J., Sherer, J. K., Peters, S., and Nowicki, S. (1995). Ontogeny of vocal tract movements during song production in the song sparrow. Animal Behaviour 50:1287-1296.

• Searcy, W. A., Podos, J., Peters, S., and Nowicki, S. (1995). Discrimination of song types and variants in song sparrows. Animal Behaviour 49:1219-1226.

• Podos, J. (1994). Early perspectives on the evolution of behavior: Charles Otis Whitman and Oskar Heinroth. Ethology, Ecology, and Evolution 6:467-480.

• Nowicki, S., Podos, J., and Valdez, F. (1994). Temporal patterning of within-song type and between- song type variation in song repertoires. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 34:329-335.

• Nowicki, S. and Podos, J. (1993). Complexity, coupling, & contingency in the production of birdsong. In Bateson, P. P. G., Klopfer, P., and Thompson, N. (Eds.) Perspectives in Ethology, Vol. 10: Behavior and Evolution, pp. 159-186. Plenum Press: New York.

• Podos, J., Peters, S., Rudnicky, T., Marler, P. and Nowicki, S. (1992).The organization of song repertoires in song sparrows: themes and variations. Ethology 90:89-106.

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