Because I like the #SciComm comic I made for my new paper here is each panel separately so you don't have to zoom as much!

Why do competing Grasshopper Sparrow males choose to live close to each other rather than spreading out on the open prairie?

. @SteffMunguia presented aggregated and unaggregated sparrow males (males w/neighbors nearby and far away, respectively) with models of cowbirds & snakes to see if they responded differently to these threats. I watched nests to see if the birds helped each other raise nestlings.

I did genetic analyses to see if males that lived close to neighbors had more mates. We thought maybe the "extra" young in the nests would be related to the male if he was close to his brothers, but they weren't. Males in clumps didn't have more successful nests.

So why do sparrow males form big groups? It could help the young birds survive after they leave the nest. Maybe when the prairies were huge it was helpful, but not now. Maybe it helps only a little bit sometimes but doesn't hurt, so why not? More research is needed!

Science takes a long time! @SteffMunguia did her experiment at @KonzaLTER in 2013 and I worked there in 2014 and 2015 as an REU student while I studied at @DenisonU. I finished up the work as a Master's student in @birdfiddler's lab at @kstatebio.

Also, science is expensive! We used funding from @NSF @NSF_BIO, @KonzaLTER @USLTER, @kstatebio, @SigmaXiSociety, and many small grants from @DenisonU @Lisska_Center and the Biology department. Thanks for making our research possible!

If you want to learn more the @ESAEcology manuscript is here: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ecy.2927

If you can't access it send me a DM!

Oh and because I apparently failed to tag all my co-authors in this thread here they are: @SteffMunguia @wayfaringwilly and @birdfiddler!