The Birds and the Trees

Are condors more closely related to hawks or to storks? New research constantly changes our understanding of how birds are related to each other. At the Field Museum, Shannon Hackett, John Bates, and Dave Willard keep close eyes on avian systematics, the study of evolutionary relationships among birds. In the past few years, Shannon has collaborated with researchers from other institutions on the Early Bird project to ask big-picture question of how all birds fit on the avian tree of life. One of the trees generated by the Early Bird project has been incorporated into an iPad app, The Art & Science of Birds. To explore artistic and scientific perspectives on birds, the app features paintings by Peggy Macnamara alongside research from Field Museum scientists in Africa, South America, and here in Chicago.