Research Program

I am interested in understanding the evolutionary processes underlying macroevolutionary patterns, especially as they relate to sexually selected characteristics of organisms. My dissertation research focused on both the morphological and behavioral aspects of a unique, sexually selected character found in a group of birds called the manakins, or Pipridae. Males of over half of the species of manakins produce startling sounds with their wings during courtship displays. Various feather modifications had been known previously that were believed to aid sound production. My dissertation research found that not only feather, but muscle and bone morphology are extremely modified in some species for sound production.

Explaining how this modified morphology functions has been hampered by a lack of information on how the birds make sounds with their wings. In recent years I have captured sound-producing displays of numerous different species of manakin with high-speed video. These video recording show that different evolutionary groups, or clades of manakins produce sound differently, and further that even within a given species, a male can use multiple mechanisms to produce wing-sounds.

Examples of my manakin videos are available on the Journal of Experimenal Biology Website.

Most recently, I have described the kinematics of sound production in the Club-winged Manakin.  This species uses its modified wing feathers to sing to females in courtship display.  Although many birds make sounds with their wings, this one is absolutely unique in being tonal.  Most birds do something more like drumming (that is they beat structures together), others do a clarinet kind of thing (by  diving through the air and forcing wing through slots between feathers.   I hypothesize this species violins its wings in order to make sound, which requires both a special instrument (its feathers), and special "skills", in this case extremely rapid wing motions (faster than hummingbirds, rattlesnakes, and other manakins), and unusual wing postures.

Conventional video of the Club-winged Manakin producing its Tick-Tick-Ting, and high-speed video (recorded at 1000 frames per second, played back at 30 frames per second) of the Ting. To view the movies click on the play button.  To access Macaulay Library's website, click on the black and white image. (To Be Added)

6th secondary of the Club-winged Manakin showing the ridged surface. Photo by Rick Prum.

5th secondary of the Club-winged Manakin showing the pick. Photo by Rick Prum.

Secondaries 10-1 of a Club-winged Manakin. Photo by Khoi Uong.

Ultimately, I am interested in sexual selection as a driving force in evolution and desire to understand what the phenotypic manifestations of sexual selection can tell us about the which mechanisms of sexual selection are most important.

Additionally, I enjoy to grapple with topics such as speciation, morphological and signal evolution, phylogenetic “inertia”, constraint, etc., and I use phylogenetic hypotheses together with comparative methods to complementing experimental methods in biology.

Publications

Bostwick, K.S. In Press. Mechanisms of feather sonation in Aves: Unanticipated levels of diversity. Acta Zoologica Sinica.

Bostwick, K.S., and R.O. Prum. 2005. Courting bird sings with stridulating wing feathers. Science, Vol.309:736.

Fitzpatrick, J.W., J.M. Bates, K. S. Bostwick, I. C. Caballero, B. M. Clock, A. Farnsworth, P. A. Hosner, L. Joseph, G. Langham, D.J. Lebbin, J.A. Mobley, M.B. Robbins, E. Scholes, J.G. Tello, B.A. Walther and K.J. Zimmer. 2004. Family Tyrannidae (Tyrant-Flycatchers). Pp. 289-290 in Handbook of the Birds of the World: Vol. 9 Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails.(J. del Hoyo, A. Elliot and D. A. Christie, eds). Lynx Editions, Barcelona.

Bostwick, K.S. and R.O. Prum. 2003. High-speed video analysis of wing-snapping in two manakin clades (Pipridae: Aves). Journal of Experimental Biology 206:3693-3706.

Bostwick, K.S. 2003. Book Review: Bird origins and evolution: data accumulates, scientists integrate, and yet the "debate" still rages. Cladistics 19:369-371.

Bostwick, K.S., and M.J. Brady. 2002. Phylogenetic analysis of wing feather taxis in birds: Macroevolutionary patterns of genetic drift? Auk 119(4):943–954.

Bostwick, K.S., and K. Zyskowski. 2001. Mechanical sounds and sexual dimorphism in the Crested Doradito (Tyrannidae: Pseudocolopteryx sclateri). Condor 103:861-865.

Kluza, D.A., K.S. Bostwick, E.A. Young. 2001. Late Fall bird mortality at a Topeka television tower. Kansas Ornithological Society Bulletin 52: 21-24.

Bostwick, K.S. 2000. Display behaviors, mechanical sounds, and their implications for evolutionary relationships of the Club-winged Manakin (Machaeropterus deliciosus). Auk 117:465-478.

Rohwer, S., C.E. Filardi, K.S. Bostwick, and A.T. Peterson. 2000. A critical evaluation of Kenyon's shag (Phalacrocorax [Stictocarbo] kenyoni). Auk 117: 308-320.