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Hybridization, coloration, and genomics in the northern flicker

northern-flickers

Hybridization, coloration, and genomics in the northern flicker

Stepfanie M. Aguillon, PhD Stanford Science Fellow, Biology, Stanford University

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 at 4:30 PM (PT)

Red-shafted and yellow-shafted flickers are incredibly colorful woodpeckers that hybridize in the Great Plains. This hybridization leads to many individuals of intermediate coloration with mixed genetic ancestry (so called "hybrids" or "intergrades"). In this talk, I will tell you how I've used these colorful hybrids to understand the genetic basis of feather color in flickers, and how repeated museum sampling has uncovered changes in the flicker hybrid zone over the past 60 years. 

Visit Dr. Stepfanie Aguillon's website to learn more about her work and her new research working as a Stanford Science Fellow in Dr. Molly Schumer's lab.

Flicker illustrations created by M. Bishop.

Event will be on zoom, please contact jorge.ramos @ stanford.edu for the link.