Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater New Orleans

Free. Participants must register in advance. To register, send an email request to: OrleansAudubon@aol.com with “Cuckoos” as the subject line and include your full name in the body of the email message. If participating by phone, also include your phone number. Please register as soon as possible and at least two hours prior to the start of the meeting.

The anis — including the Groove-billed and Smooth-billed Anis of Texas and Florida, and the Greater Ani of South America — share an unusual nesting strategy known as communal nesting. Several pairs cooperatively build a single nest in which all the females lay their eggs, and the entire group shares incubation, nest defense, and parental care of the mixed clutch. In this talk, Christie Riehl will discuss the results of her long-term field study of Greater Anis in Panama, focusing on the fascinating cooperative behaviors of this tropical cuckoo.

Christie studies the ecology and evolution of avian life histories, especially in tropical species. Her long-term research project is on cooperatively breeding greater anis in Panama, with many other projects on the evolution of parental care and mating systems in birds. She is also affiliated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Princeton’s High Meadows Environmental Institute, and Princeton’s Program in Latin American Studies.