York County Audubon will host Dr. Liam Taylor for a presentation titled, “Behavior, Society and Sex in Adolescent Birds.” The program is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, in the Mather Auditorium at Wells Reserve at Laudholm.

York County Audubon will host Dr. Liam Taylor for a presentation on adolescent birds at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, in the Mather Auditorium at Wells Reserve at Laudholm. Contributed / York County Audubon

According to a news release, most birds have some growing up to do before they start to breed. Despite reaching full size within weeks or months of hatching, some species will not raise offspring for years, or even decades. Taylor explores the strange things that some birds need to do before they reproduce — from developing a territory on a rocky island to finding a dance partner on the rainforest floor. Looking back through millions of years of evolution, he will discuss how behavioral, social, and sexual development continues to create new challenges and opportunities for adolescent birds.

Taylor is an ornithologist and evolutionary biologist, studying how social structures influence the ecology, evolution, and conservation of birds. He’s a postdoctoral scholar in biology at Bowdoin College. Taylor’s field work at Bowdoin’s Scientific Station on Kent Island (several miles off the mainland in the Bay of Fundy) involves Leach’s storm-petrels, American herring gulls, black guillemots, and tree swallows.

Previous fieldwork projects have included golden-winged manakins (in the cloud forests of Ecuador), white-throated manakins (in the Brazilian Amazon), and semipalmated plovers (just beyond the tree line in Churchill, Manitoba).

The presentation is free and open to all ages, and no registration is required for attending in person. It will also be live-streamed via Zoom. To view it via Zoom, register in advance at yorkcountyaudubon.org. After registering, a confirmation email will be sent.