November Monthly Meeting (Zoom) – Dan Mennill Title – Eavesdropping on the missing migrants: Night flight calls and bioacoustic studies of bird migration

Date/Time
Wednesday, Nov 05, 2025
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

November Monthly Meeting : Zoom – Dan Mennill (University of Windsor)

Title – Eavesdropping on the missing migrants: Night flight calls and bioacoustic studies of bird migration

Billions of migratory birds pass fly over North America each spring and fall, uttering quiet flight calls as they move through the night sky. Using novel bioacoustic recording strategies, Dan Mennill’s research team at the University of Windsor studies the vocal behaviour of these nocturnal migrants. In this talk, Dan will explain how microphones allow them to eavesdrop on vocal communication between migratory birds and understand the ecological and conservation pressures that affect them. Dan will describe a new project that uses a web of microphones across Canada to expand our understanding of wild migratory birds.

Bio – Dan Mennill is a Professor of Ornithology at the University of Windsor. He studies acoustic communication in wild animals, especially the songs of birds. Dan has helped pioneer many new playback and recording technologies for bioacoustic field studies. He has published more than 180 papers in scientific journals and supervised more than 40 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and a lifetime member of the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and the Animal Behaviour Society. Dan lives in Lasalle, Ontario, with his wife, professor and artist Stéphanie Doucet, and their two children.

Categories

• Monthly Meeting