Carrie Branch

Chickadees with better spatial cognition live longer lives!

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn5633

Check out the Science podcast on this work featuring Drs. Joe Welklin and Vladimir Pravosudov

And Dr. Carrie Branch’s chat on CBC London Morning with Andrew Brown

Birds have accents too!

Check out Dr. Carrie Branch’s chat with Matt Allen from CBC Afternoon Drive on bird accents

Branch Lab does ABS 2024

What a great time we had at this year’s Animal Behaviour Society meeting in our very own London, ON!

Laura presenting her MSc results on day 1 of the conference

Carrie presents results from extra-pair paternity in wild mountain chickadees

Too much fun with the photo booth? Never! (Pictured: Chloe, Carrie, and Laura)

Arianna from the S. MacDougall-Shackleton Lab presenting on results from her honours thesis

Welcome Alex Muth to the Branch Lab!

Alex is joining the Branch Lab from Uni of Alberta. Alex will be investigating geographic variation in chickadee vocalizations for his MSc in Psychology! We’re excited to have you!

Congratulations to Laura for AOS student research grant!

Laura Robayo received a Student Research Award from the AOS (Spring 2024) to complete her MSc work on cognition and secondary sexual traits in black-capped chickadees! Wahoo 🥳

Honours students rock their final projects!

Cheers to Michelle and Cheris presenting their honours thesis projects!

Psychology Honours Thesis poster session, March 2023

Cheris Wang presents her work on cognition and song in mountain chickadees at Honours Biology Day

Michelle Hirsch presents her work on cognitive flexibility and song in mountain chickadees at the Psychology Honours Poster Day

Welcome Chloe Stevenson!

Chloe Stevenson joined the Branch Lab in January 2024 to complete her MSc in Biology at Western. We’re excited to welcome you to the Branch Lab!

Check out our new paper in Proceedings B!

Q: Does cognitive ability or food caching propensity affect social mate choice in mountain chickadees?

A: Sometimes….

Welcome Laura Robayo to the Branch Lab!

Originally from Bogota, Columbia, Laura started her MSc of Psychology this Fall 2023. Laura will be investigating spatial cognitive performance and secondary sexual traits in black-capped chickadees. Welcome Laura!