The Cooper Ornithological Society held its eighty-third annual meeting in conjunction with the American Ornithologists' Union in Chicago, Illinois, 14–17 August 20013. John Bates chaired the Local Committee on Arrangements. The scientific program included several workshops, plenary addresses, nine symposia, 228 contributed papers, and 144 poster presentations. Plenary speakers were Julia A. Clarke, University of Texas Austin, “The evolution of birds: new insights from the fossil record”; Catherine Graham, Stony Brook University, “Processes underpinning biogeographic patterns in birds of the Americas”; Staffan Bensch, Lund University, Sweden; Evolution and ecology of avian malaria parasites,” and two presentations by recipients of Young Professional Awards.
First awarded in 2009, the Society's Young Professional Award recognizes early-career researchers for their outstanding scientific research and contributions to the profession of ornithology. In 2013, the Society awarded Young Professional Awards to Henry M. Streby, University of California, Berkeley, for “Measuring productivity in songbirds: tradeoffs between nest success and fledgling survival mean we need to study both stages,” and Christina Riehl, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, for “Cheaters and collaborators: the evolution of communal nesting in the Greater Ani (Crotophaga major)”.
The Society's Loye and Alden Miller Research Award for lifetime achievement in ornithological research was presented to Trevor Price, who is affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, and studies the causes and consequences of speciation in birds.
The Katma Award, for an outstanding paper related to ornithology that offers unconventional ideas or innovative approaches, was presented to Kenneth Dial for his contribution on the evolution of flight: “A fundamental avian wing-stroke provides a new perspective on the evolution of flight” (K. P. Dial, B. E. Jackson, and P. Segre), Nature 451:985–989, 2008.
The Painton Award, which is awarded every other year for the best paper published in the Condor in the last 4 years, was presented to Hope M. Draheim, Patricia Baird, and Susan M. Haig for their 2012 contribution “Temporal analysis of mtDNA variation reveals decreased genetic diversity in Least Terns,” Condor 114:145–154.
The Society's Grinnell Award went to Susan Lyon of the University of North Carolina for her work “Behavioral and neural plasticity of Lincoln's Sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii): Does song quality exposure early in life matter?
The Society's Mewaldt—King Awardees were Sarah Gutowsky for “Examining variation in spatiotemporal distributions, habitat associations and population dynamics of two threatened North Pacific albatross species” and Hannah Specht for “Behavioral and demographic responses to landscape disturbance across spatial and temporal scales: A case study of energy development impacts on breeding success of grassland birds”
The Society's student presentation awards were the Brazier Howell Award to Connor C. Taff: “Breeding density and spatial distribution of nests constrain the strength of sexual selection in a warbler” (co-authors Peter O. Dunn, Linda A. Whittingham, and Corey R. Freeman-Gallant), the Frances F. Roberts Award to Kathryn M. Langin: “Divergence with gene flow: local adaptation in bill morphology within a single-island endemic, the Island Scrub-Jay” (co-authors T. S. Sillett, W. C. Funk, S. A. Morrison, and C. K. Ghalambor), and Board of Directors Awards to Shane DuBay: “Diversification by local adaptation to altitude in Andean tit-tyrants” (co-author Christopher C. Witt) and Katrina C. Lukianchuk: “Social hierarchy and the development of dancing ability in young Long-tailed Manakins, Chiroxiphia linearis” (co-author Stephanie M. Doucet).
Three colleagues were nominated and elected to Honorary Membership: Michael A. Patten, Mercedes Foster, and Katie Dugger.
Student Travel Awardees were presented jointly at the Chicago meeting and are listed in the meeting booklet http://fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/MeetingBooklet.pdf.
The members of the Society, through online balloting, elected Alice Boyle, Kevin McGraw, and John Rotenberry to three-year terms as members of the Board of Directors. Much thanks to retiring board members Carol Vleck, Eileen Kirsch, and Craig Benkman.
In the Board of Directors' meetings, the following individuals were elected to or continue in office: Frank Moore, President; Martin Raphael, President-elect; Abby Powell, Secretary; T. J. Fontaine, Assistant Secretary; Jeff Kelly, Treasurer; Phil stouffer, Editor-in-Chief of the Condor: Ornithological Applications, and Brett Sandercock, Editor of Studies in Avian Biology. Great deal of thanks to Kimberly Sullivan for her outstanding service as President over the past two years and to Michael A. Patten for his editorship of the journal over the past five years.
The next annual meeting of the Cooper Ornithological Society will be held in conjunction with the American Ornithologists' Union and the Society of Canadian Ornithologist 23–27 September 2014, in Estes Park, Colorado.
