This meeting and presentation took place both in person and concurrently online via Zoom.
President Peter Davenport called the meeting to order and welcomed attendees to the first members meeting of the Linnaean Society of New York’s 2026–2027 program year.
Peter welcomed 37 new members who had joined the Society since the May meeting. He noted that members of the board and committees had remained active during the summer. The archives committee, led by Shelly Xiong, has been reviewing Society records stored in the archival vault in the Ornithology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, with the Society’s 150th anniversary in mind. Officers of the board also met over the summer to discuss the Society’s long-term vision and organizational planning, using the spring membership survey as a guide.
Peter reminded members of the annual picnic, scheduled for Sunday, September 20, at 12:30 PM at Summit Rock in Central Park. The picnic will include informal remarks, a trivia contest, and a bird walk. Members were asked to register through the LSNY website to help with planning.
Peter also noted that the conservation committee has been working with the New York City Parks Department on several projects, including Wood Duck boxes in city parks and a Central Park cleanup planned for October 24. He also mentioned the Society’s interest in bird-related conservation issues, including menhaden harvest reductions and Lights Out legislation.
Zak Kaletsch, senior associate of advocacy and outreach with New York City Bird Alliance, gave a brief update on Intro 0998, the proposed New York City Lights Out legislation introduced by Council Member Harvey Epstein. He explained that artificial light poses a serious risk to migrating birds along the Atlantic flyway, and that the legislation would reduce unnecessary nighttime lighting in certain commercial, educational, and mercantile buildings, with exceptions made for occupancy and public safety. He encouraged members to contact their city council representatives and shared information on how to do so.
Lecture Program
Peter introduced the evening’s speaker, Dr. Karan Odom, who leads the Odom Lab at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
Lecture Title: A Female Perspective on Birdsong
Dr. Odom spoke about female birdsong, a subject that has historically received far less attention than male birdsong. She began with a birdsong quiz, using Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, and White-throated Sparrow vocalizations to illustrate that in some species, female singers can be identified by appearance, by sound, or only with additional context.
Dr. Odom explained that much of the traditional understanding of birdsong has been shaped by research in temperate regions of North America and Europe, where males of many migratory species sing prominently during the breeding season. Looking more broadly, particularly in tropical regions, reveals a more complex pattern: in many species, both males and females sing.
Drawing on comparative research across songbird families, Dr. Odom discussed evidence that female song is widespread and likely evolved early in songbird history. She noted that female song appears especially associated with year-round territoriality, where males and females may work together to defend long-term territories, and with biparental care, where vocalizations may help coordinate communication between mates and with offspring.
Dr. Odom also described recent research on House Wrens, including the use of field recordings, automated detection, hormone analysis, and playback experiments. In that work, female House Wrens sang most early in the breeding season, but their singing did not appear to correspond with elevated circulating testosterone, suggesting that the mechanisms regulating female song may differ from familiar patterns in male birdsong.
In the final portion of the talk, Dr. Odom discussed the Female Birdsong Project, which she helped start about a decade ago to raise awareness and encourage community scientists to document female bird songs, and the continuing need for more documentation of female vocalizations. She encouraged birders to contribute by noting possible female songs in eBird checklists, adding recordings and photographs when available, and identifying the sex of a singing bird when they can do so with confidence. She emphasized that individual observations, when combined across many observers and species, can make a meaningful contribution to research.
A Q&A session followed the lecture, with questions from the in-person audience and Zoom participants. Discussion topics included how Merlin and other sound-identification tools handle female vocalizations; whether the term “song” is adequate for describing bird vocal communication; why female song may be more common in tropical species; the relationship between female song and parental care; and how birders can make their observations more useful for future research.
Following the conclusion of the Q&A, Dr. Odom was thanked for her engaging presentation.
The presentation and Q&A session were recorded in their entirety. The recording will be available through the Linnaean Society website and YouTube channel.
Respectfully submitted,
Michelle D’Mello
Recording Secretary