Principal investigator

**Jay McEntee**

**Email**
**Phone: (417) 836-5149**
I started as an assistant professor at Missouri State University in Fall 2019. I’m fascinated by biodiversity in its many different forms - phenotypic diversity, species diversity, genetic diversity, behavioral diversity, etc. I study how it arises and how it is maintained. For publications, **click here**.

Prospective students

If you’re interested in bird evolution, ecology, behavior, and/or conservation, and you’re wanting to do a Masters degree, feel free to contact JPM at jaymcentee at missouristate dot edu.

Graduate Students

Current Undergraduate Researchers

Caleb Hiers

Mackenzie McIntire

Carter Stoelzel

Graduate Alumni

Resized_20180515_080944 (1).jpeg — Zach Vickers

Zach did his thesis research on geographic variation in song repertoires in Bewick’s Wrens, and the potential role of interspecific competition in their decline in eastern North America.

Shelby Palmer

Shelby did her thesis project on song in the Black-capped x Carolina Chickadee hybrid zone in central Missouri, where she investigated whether there’s a genetic basis for learned song variation. Shelby is now a PhD student in the Braun-Kimball lab at the University of Florida.

Dan Zapata

Dan did his thesis work on the function of duetting during territorial interactions in Carolina Wrens. Dan is set to embark on a long field season, studying chimpanzees in West Africa.

Undergraduate Alumni

Gabriela Rivero

Dustin Kohler

Grace Hall

Abbie Bond

Sam Grove

Sam is a conservationist and an excellent naturalist now pursuing a Masters at MSU with Dr. Brian Greene on snakes. While working in the lab, she made sound recordings and helped get the Carolina Wren project going with Dan Zapata.

Arthur Ludwig

As an undergrad, Arthur spent a lot of time doing stream ecology work in Dr. Deb Finn’s lab, and learned to prepare study skins of birds and make sound recordings in our lab. He’s gone west now to do stream ecology work and climb tall mountains in the Pacific coast states.

Tricia Blankenship

In the lab, Tricia did a stupendous job analyzing the structure of male-female duets in the *Artisornis* tailorbirds of Africa. While not getting bit by rat snakes (have a close look at that pic!), Tricia pursues her academic interests in behavioral ecology, evolution, and paleo-ornithology. When she’s not studying or researching you can find her doing archery and playing Wingspan, though usually not simultaneously.

Sydney Wright

Now pursuing a career in pediatric dentistry at UNLV, Sydney undertook a stats-heavy project on introgression in hybrid zones in her final undergrad semester here. Being a biology major wasn’t quite impressive enough for Sydney, so she added on minors in chemistry and business, in the midst of her time as a MSU athlete in indoor and beach volleyball. Outside of the superhuman stuff, Sydney enjoys hanging out with family and friends.

Collaborators for on-going and planned projects (in no particular order)

Lauryn Benedict, University of Northern Colorado
Norbert J Cordeiro, Roosevelt University
Scott K Robinson, University of Florida
Harrison Jones, University of Florida
Carla Cicero, University of California, Berkeley
Rauri CK Bowie, University of California, Berkeley
Gordon Burleigh, University of Florida
Gleb Zhelezov, University of New Mexico
Sonal Singhal, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Chacha Werema, University of Dar-es-salaam
Aaron Ragsdale, University of Wisconsin- Madison
Rosana Zenil-Ferguson, University of Hawaii-Manoa
Renée Duckworth, University of Arizona
Elia Mulungu, Tanzania
Sylvester Karimi, National Museums of Kenya
Joshua Peñalba, Museum für Naturkunde -Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery
Nadje Najar, University of California, Riverside
Sam Jones, University of London
Gabriel Jamie, Cambridge University