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Lab of Avian Ecology College of Sciences

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Dr. Karl S. Berg
Associate Professor
Department of Biology and School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences
Office: Life Health Science Building 1.832
Lab LHSB 2.910
Email: karl.berg@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 882-5049

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Department of Biology School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Lab of Avian Ecology Facebook

News

December 10, 2022

Congratulations to the Forpus Field Team (Janel Alas, Jose Gregorio Acosta, Nurialby Viloria, Aura Jimenez and Felix Zapata) for completing the 34th consecutive year of parrotlet population studies. Bravo!!

group photo of avian ecology research team

 

August 15, 2022

Congratulations to Rory Eggleston, for beginning a doctoral program in population ecology at the Utah State University.

 

August 1, 2022

Congratulations to Carmen Reisdorf, co-winner of the first prize in Biology for her research on parrotlet vocal babbling and preening presented at the Annual HIGH Scholars Symposium at Math & Science Academy.

 

June 26, 2022

baby talk utrgv parrot

Avian Lab Resarch shown in myRGV.com article 

 

June 22, 2022

babling discorver in wild parrots

Avian Lab Resarch shown in Phys.org article  

 

June 21, 2022

karl berg comments

Karl Berg comments in Forbes Article about "Baby Parrots Babble Like Baby People" 

 

June 14, 2022

baby parrots babble like human-infants.jpg

Karl Berg comments in Psychology Today Article about "Baby Parrots Babble Like Human Infants" 

 

June 13, 2022

Scientists have discovered that parrots learn new words by mimicking the sounds of infants, known as "babysquawk."

 

June 5, 2022

CBC Article gets posted in r/science subreddit 

 

June 3, 2022

scientists discover wild

Karl Berg was interviewed by the Canadian Broadcast Channel regarding parrotlet vocal babbling.

 

June 1, 2022

The Lab of Avian Ecology worked with Oxford Scientific Films to produce the Netflix Docuseries: The Hidden Life of Pets: Communication.

netflix the hidden lives of pets

 

May 31, 2022

wild parrot chicks babble

Congrats to the parrotlet team for their paper on parrotlet vocal babbling. 

 

May 4, 2022

Congrats to Abigail Pozulp and Karl Berg were awarded a seed grant from the Office of Faculty Success & Diversity, allowing for filming of development in wild Red-crowned Parrots on the Brownsville campus.

 

May 3, 2022

Karl Berg was awarded the 2022 UTRGV Faculty Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Works

 

March 30, 2022

male dolphins whistle

Karl Berg was interviewed regarding a recent study of dolphin signature whistles. 

 

March 24, 2022

dolphins whistle

Dolphins use unique whistles to keep in touch with distant friends and family members. 

 

December 7, 2021

Congratulations to the the Forpus Field Team for completin of the 33rd year of parrotlet population studies in Venezuela.

 

December 3, 2021

Red-crowned parrots in Texas threatened by poachers. The bird is a protected species but still being illegally captured for the pet trade.

 

December 3, 2021

Congratulations to Abigail Pozulp for successfully defending her M.Sc. Thesis on duetting in Red-crowned Parrots.

duat phonology and syntax of parrots

 

 

November 15, 2021

maxwell article

Congratulations to Karl Berg, one of six awardees of the 2021 Field Biology Awards, given by the Maxwell-Hanrahan Foundation

 

August 1, 2021 

Congratulations to Uzair Bilal for winning 2nd Prize in Biology for his work on microplastics in marine invertebrate communities of the delta of the Rio Grande at the Annual HIGH Scholars Seminar at the Math & Science Academy.

 

January 1, 2021 

Congratulations to Caleb Arellano for his new position with Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc.

 

September 12, 2020

texas climate news article

Karl Berg was interviewed regarding recent publication on effects of climate change on parrotlets (and many other species) response to climate change (Radchuk et al. 2019, Nat. Commun.)

 

August 17, 2020

Congratulations to Celia McLean for successfully defending her M.Sc. thesis proposal

The Effect of Corticosterone on the Ontogeny of Babbling in a Wild Parrot: A Thesis Proposal, Celia McLean, Department of Biology, UTRGV, Brownsville, Texas, August 27, 2020

August 12, 2020

Congratulations to Jessica Majors and Celia McLean for presenting their thesis research at the VII North American Ornithological Conference

Read the full article

 

July 31, 2020

Congratulations to Alvaro Mayorga-Kintanar, Carlos Hernandez and Elizabeth Pina presented their research findings at the Math and Science Academy’s HIGH Scholars Symposium 2020.

Read the Full Article

 

July 28, 2020

Congratulations to Abigail Pozulp for presenting her research at the 57 th Animal Behavior Society Conference.

Read the Full Article

 

June 15, 2020

Good luck to the 2020 Forpus Field Team (Janel Alas, Nurialby Viloria, Aura Jimenez and Isidro Delgado) as they embark on the 32nd year of parrotlet population studies in Venezuela.

group photo

 

April 28, 2020

Congratulations to Abigail Pozulp for successfully defending her M.Sc. thesis proposal

Duet Phonology and Syntax of Red-Crowned Parrots in South Texas - A Thesis proposal by Abigail Pozlup, Thursday March 5th, 1:00pm, LSBH 2.908, UTRGV Biology Department, Brownsville, TX

 

April 24, 2020

Karl Berg commented on friendships in flamingos for National Geographic

Read the full article

 

March 27, 2020

Karl Berg commented on "The adaptive value of numerical competence" for National Geographic

Read the Full Article

 

January 24, 2020

Congratulations to Rory Eggleston for defending her M.Sc. thesis.

  Organizational Events of Exogeneous Corticosterone on Vocal Development in a Wild Parrot, Ray Eggleston, Wednesday, January 15th 2020,, Biology Department, UTRGV, Brownsville TX

 

January 9, 2020

News Article Thumbnail about parrots being the first birds to show kindness to one another

Karl Berg commented on kindness in parrots

Read the Full Article

 

December 11, 2019

Congratulations to our brave field team and collaborators, for completion of the 32 nd consecutive year of ecological population monitoring of green-rumped parrotlets in Venezuela!

Field team

 

September 24, 2019

Karl Berg presented research conducted on Lonestar5 at the Texas Advanced Computing Center’s Symposium for Texas Researchers in Austin.

Dr. Berg in Lone Star

Read the Full Article

 

September 13, 2019

Congratulations to Jessica Majors for successfully defending her M.Sc. thesis proposal

Locomotion and Foraging Strategies in Shorebird of South Texas, A thesis proposal by Jessica Majors, Firday, September 13th, 2019 at 2pm, BLHSB 2.908

 

September 13, 2019

Karl Berg is interviewed by Texas Climate News concerning recent paper by Radchuk and colleagues (2019) in Nature Communications

Read the Full Article

 

March 29, 2019

utrgv effort protect red crowned parrot

UTRGV's Effort to Protect the Red-Crowned Parrot

Read the Full Article 

 

March 25, 2019

Lab work is featured on local news station KVEO regarding Red-crowned Parrots 

Read the Full Article

 

 

March 15, 2019

Article in Brownsville Herald on local Boy Scout Zachary Edelstein, the Public Utilities Board of Brownsville and the City of Brownsville team-up with the Lab protecting Red-crowned Parrots.

Read the Full Article

 

January 31, 2019

Karl Berg comments on learning strategies of birds for Science Magazine

Read the Full Article

 

January 27, 2019

Article in Brownsville Herald on Lab’s work protecting Red-crowned Parrots

Read the Full Article

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