Meet the folks conducting research in the Branch Lab!
Members of the Branch Lab prioritize creating an inclusive lab environment where all voices are welcome and heard regardless of academic status or background.
Left to right: Cheris Wang, Michelle Hirsch, Carrie Branch, Laura Robayo, Chloe Stevenson
Current members
Dr. Carrie L Branch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology (cross-appointment in Biology) at Western University and Principal Investigator of the Branch Lab. She is interested in how variation in the environment shapes the behavior of nonhuman animals, particularly birds. Dr. Branch teaches Animal Behaviour (Psych 3221), Animal Communication (Special Topics Psych 4290), and Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior (Special Topics Psych 4990) at Western. She enjoys hanging out with her two fluffy dogs (Norman and Nova), board games, watching comedy, and just about anything outdoors!
Laura is a master’s student in the Department of Psychology at Western University. She is interested in animal behavior and cognition in different animal models, and now she is investigating spatial cognitive performance and secondary sexual traits in black-capped chickadees. Laura is a Biologist from Colombia, she enjoys being around animals and learning from them.
Sofia is a doctoral student in the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology graduate program at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she is co-supervised by myself and Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov. Sofia is investigating the spatial cognition, foraging, and vocalizations of mountain chickadees at our long-term field site in the Sierra Nevada.
Chloe is a master’s student in the Department of Biology at Western University. She is interested in marine mammal and avian behavior. Chloe will be using crowd sourced recordings of Carolina, black-capped and mountain chickadees to assess geographic variation across vocal types.
Alex is a master’s student in the Department of Psychology at Western University. Alex will be using a large dataset of passive acoustic recordings to assess geographic variation in mountain and chestnut-backed chickadees living in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Samuel Jung is an Honours thesis student in Biology at Western. He plans to challenge the metabolism of black-capped chickadees using altitude simulations in the AFAR’s hybo-baric wind tunnel.
Jun Woo Kim is an Honours thesis student in Biology. For his project, he will be working with Laura Robayo to assess the relationship between social dominance rank, plumage variation, and testosterone in black-capped chickadees.
Undergraduate volunteers!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~. We have ourselves a bit a fun : ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Past students
Ethan completed his BSc in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell in 2020. He measured variation in the achromatic plumage patches of mountain chickadees across elevations and spatial cognitive tasks. Ethan has research experience working in molecular labs and the African savannah, and hopes to pursue a graduate degree working on ungulates.
Project title: Achromatic plumage patch size is associated with selection on winter climatic harshness and reversal learning performance in a food-caching bird
Cheris is a fourth year undergraduate student at Western University working on her honours specialization in Biology. Cheris measured the variation in male mountain chickadee song to assess whether it is associated with spatial learning and memory performance, such that females can use song to assess male quality.
Project title: Signal and Quality: Individual variation of mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli) songs and spatial cognitive abilities
Michelle is a fourth year undergraduate student at Western University working on her honours specialization in Psychology. Michelle asked whether the song of male mountain chickadees reflects their performance on the reversal learning task (cognitive flexibility), that females can use to assess male quality. She is moving on to complete her Master’s in Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Sciences Psychology at York University.
Project title: Name That Tune: The interplay between song structure, cognitive flexibility, and female preferences in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)
Honours Student, 2024
Alyssa is a fourth year undergraduate student at Cornell University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She is using microsatellites (short segments of DNA) to assess nestling sex ratios in mountain chickadees.
Project title: Effects of annual climatic variation on the sex ratios of nestling mountain chickadees
Jen is a fourth year undergraduate student at Western working on her Honours Specialization in Psychology. She is measuring reflectance in mountain chickadee feathers to assess whether the standing variation present in their achromatic plumage patches can provide information about condition or sex to receivers.
Thesis title: Is it a signal? Achromatic plumage reflectance in mountain chickadees
Megan is a fourth year undergraduate student at Western working on her Honours Specialization in Psychology. She is analyzing black-capped chickadee vocalizations across North America to assess seasonal changes in their use and structure.
Thesis title: Using citizen science to assess annual variation in black-capped chickadee vocalizations
Megan received the Canadian Psychological Association Certificate of Academic Excellence for her thesis work!
Mahnoor is a junior in high school with a passion for birds! She is using Google Earth to assess post-natal dispersal distances in mountain chickadees across our two elevation sites.
Project title: Post-natal dispersal of mountain chickadees
Samantha completed her BSc in Environmental Science and Sustainability at Cornell in 2020. She completed and published her honours thesis project looking at variation in daily singing routines of mountain chickadees. Samantha is now at Lethbridge University working on her MSc. In addition. to her interest in avian song research, Samantha is a gifted cellist!
Research interests: ornithology, vocalization classification, community and functional ecology
Thesis title: Mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli) song propensity over an elevation gradient
The Branch Lab 