Join Nature Guelph’s Bird Wing for presentations by local researchers who are investigating the lives of birds and those who interact with birds. The evening will include three presentations as follows:
#1 Title: From fledging to future: Post-fledging survival in Savannah sparrows and its consequences for population change. Sarah Mueller, PhD.
Talk description: Young, inexperienced juvenile birds are highly vulnerable to mortality due to a variety of causes, from weather to starvation to predation. The post-fledging period—from fledging to departure on fall migration—is a particularly perilous time for young songbirds. However, there’s a lot we don’t know about basic ecology in this period because fledglings disperse quickly and are difficult to find and monitor. To study the environmental factors and individual characteristics that influence survival after leaving the nest, Sarah tracked fledgling Savannah sparrows on Kent Island, NB, with radio telemetry, and investigated possible influences on survival, including weather and population density. She also used estimates of post-fledging survival rates in this population to investigate how low survival may impact population trends on Kent Island.
This talk will highlight a little-known life stage of a migratory songbird. It will provide insight into the challenges fledglings face early in life, and the consequences of this life stage for populations.
Bio: Sarah completed her PhD at the University of Guelph in 2025. Now, Sarah works for Ontario Nature, contributing to a variety of projects including the publication of the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. She is also a member of Bird Safe Guelph and has played a leading role in organizing Guelph Bird Day since 2022.
#2 Title: Secret lives of cats: animal-borne cameras reveal predation rates of outdoor domestic cats (Felis catus) in two distinct regions of Canada. Jonathan J. Chu
Talk description: Outdoor domestic cats are estimated to be highly impactful to wildlife. In Canada it’s been estimated that cats kill 60 million birds per year. While mortality estimates by cats are staggering there are uncertainties regarding what species are killed, how they vary across environments and why certain cats have higher predation rates. To address these questions, Jonathan attached animal-borne cameras, CatCams, and GPS trackers, to owned cats in southwestern Ontario, around Guelph-Kitchener/Waterloo-Cambridge, and the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, between Kelowna and Osoyoos. These cameras recorded from the point-of-view of each cat, allowing Jonathan to accurately calculate predation rates and identify prey species.
In this talk, you will get a sneak peak of the world through the eyes of a cat and learn what species are commonly depredated by cats in Canada, how they differ between regions, and what factors determine which cats have higher predation rates.
Bio: Jonathan is a PhD Candidate at the University of Guelph studying outdoor domestic cats. He aims to understand the role cats play in the outdoor environment and what we can do to ensure cats, humans and wildlife can sustainably live in our urban environments together. Collecting insects and watching birds in the urban parks he frequented when he was growing up inspired him to study Urban Ecology. When not spying on the secret lives of cats, he finds any excuse to go out and watch birds.
#3 Title: Estimating survival across the annual cycle of migratory savannah sparrows. Jelany Duali, M.Sc.
Talk Description: Understanding why migratory bird populations are undergoing widespread declines is challenging. Population size depends on breeding success, but also on survival, and survival rates can vary throughout the annual cycle and across breeding grounds, migratory stopover, and wintering areas that can be thousands of kilometres apart.
In his talk, Jelany will discuss his work collecting data to estimate survival rates across the different periods of the annual cycle in a small migratory songbird, the Savannah sparrow. Working with a population located on Kent Island, in New Brunswick, Jelany uses a combination of manual and automated techniques to monitor individual survival. During the summer, Jelany conducts regular surveys to resight individuals with a unique set of coloured leg bands. Once Savannah sparrows leave Kent Island, Jelany Duali uses radio-transmitting tags that individuals carry on harnesses to monitor their survival during migrations and the wintering season.
Bio: Jelany is a PhD candidate at the University of Guelph in Dr. Ryan Norris lab, where he also completed his master’s degree in 2024. Jelany currently studies the population dynamics of a Savannah sparrow population, but his broad research interests focus on how scientific research can help implement and inform effective conservation measures to protect migratory birds. As such, his work is at the intersection of population and movement ecology. His other projects have focused on using tracking data to describe migration patterns in blackpoll warblers and the frequency and drivers of movements during the wintering seasons in Palearctic and Neotropical migrants.
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