Margaret Rubega, Ph.D.
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Behavior | University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT, UNITED STATES
Professor Rubega is an expert in the functional ecology of feeding in birds and the anatomy, and biomechanics, performance of wild birds.
Biography
Professor Rubega is an expert on monk parakeets; chimney swifts; hummingbirds; use of social media in science education. She researches the biomechanics of foraging and feeding, including the feeding by hummingbirds and other nectarivores.
Areas of Expertise (8)
Social Media in Science
Avian Conservation
Anatomy of Birds
Evolutionary Biology
Ecology
Functional Ecology of Feeding in Birds
Biomechanics of Birds
Hummingbirds
Education (2)
University of California - Irvine: Ph.D., Biology 1993
Southern Connecticut State University: B.S., Biology 1983
Affiliations (2)
- Center for Environmental Science and Engineering
- Center for Conservation and Biodiversity
Links (2)
Media Appearances (6)
No, owls can’t sit ‘criss cross, applesauce’
Associated Press online
2023-05-05
“Crossing their legs the way a human would cross their legs, where they put one knee over another, is not actually possible for them because the belly is in the way,” said Margaret Rubega, Connecticut State Ornithologist and a professor at the University of Connecticut. Owls’ knees and thighs are actually higher up in the body, covered by feathers, and what some people might think looks like a backwards-pointing knee lower down is actually their heel, Rubega explained in an interview.
Fake chimneys for birds that need vertical hollows to rest
Associated Press
2019-10-31
But University of Connecticut professor Margaret Rubega, who is also the Connecticut state ornithologist, thinks the birds’ decline is likely rooted in South America. “Chimney swifts are fundamentally a South American bird that visits North America for four months,” she said. Rubega said a big problem is that scientists have only a few reports of small numbers of chimney swifts in the upper Amazon Basin, so they don’t really know where they winter, let alone what may be happening to them there.
The Hummingbird as Warrior: Evolution of a Fierce and Furious Beak
The New York Times online
2019-02-05
At about the same time, Margaret A. Rubega, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, published a paper in Nature on the way...
Migration Is For The Birds!
WNPR online
2018-04-27
Margaret Rubega - Connecticut State Ornithologist and Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn.
Hummingbirds Are Where Intuition Goes to Die
The Atlantic online
2017-11-29
When Margaret Rubega first read about how hummingbirds drink, she thought to herself: That can’t possibly be right. Hummingbirds drink nectar using tongues that are so long that, when retracted, they coil up inside the birds’ heads, around their skulls and eyes. At its tip, the tongue divides in two and its outer edges curve inward, creating two tubes running side by side. The tubes don’t close up, so the birds can’t suck on them as if they were straws. Instead, scientists believed that the tubes are narrow enough to passively draw liquid into themselves...
Chimney Swifts Subject Of Study By DEEP
Hartford Courant online
2017-02-07
"I was able to bring in the state ornithologist, Margaret Rubega, who is a professor at UConn, to give a talk," said Longmore. "Chimney swifts spend most of their time in the air. They can't perch like regular birds, but they have the ability to cling to the rough sides of chimneys. They make nests by breaking off the tips of twigs on branches and then gluing them together with their saliva..."
Articles (4)
Nest-building behavior of Monk Parakeets and insights into potential mechanisms for reducing damage to utility pol
Life & Environment2014 The Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus) commonly uses utility poles as a substrate for building large, bulky nests. These nests often cause fires and electric power outages, creating public safety risks and increasing liability and maintenance costs for electric companies. Previous research has focused on lethal methods and chemical contraception to prevent nesting on utility poles and electrical substations.
Chimney Swift
Birds of North America2014 A familiar component of the eastern North American avifauna, this small, agile, fast-flying aerial insectivore is easily identified by its characteristic “cigar on wings” profile. It breeds throughout much of southern Canada east of Saskatchewan, south through Texas and all states to the east, and more recently California.
The anatomy of a shrike bite: bill shape and bite performance in Loggerhead Shrikes
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society2014 We examined the relationship between bill morphology and bite performance in Loggerhead Shrikes (Lanius ludovicianus), small passerines with raptorial bills. Shrikes feed on arthropods and vertebrates, and our aim was to understand how upper bill shape and jaw performance are integrated to meet the demands of their phenotypically diverse prey.
Morphometric tools for sexing California populations of Loggerhead Shrikes based on DNA analysis.
The Southwestern Naturalist2014 We describe a mophometric technique for distinguishing the sexes of loggerhead shrikes.
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