2025 Kendeigh Grant Awardees
Gray Catbird. Photo by Jeff Bryant.
Every year, CCAS offers grants in honor of S. Charles Kendeigh for ornithology research in Illinois. Thanks to the generosity of our donors who make these grants possible, in 2022 we were able to raise the amount of each award from $1,000 to $2,000! We typically award up to three grants per year; this year is an exception, where our budget allowed us to fund five projects!
Congratulations to this year’s awardees: Tara Beveroth, Shu-Yueh Liao, and Facundo Fernandez-Duque. Learn more about their projects below.
If you want to help support ornithology research in Illinois, our annual Kendeigh Grant fundraiser, the Spring Bird-a-Thon occurs each May! You can also donate anytime. Thank you for your support and congrats again to our awardees!
2025 Awardees
Tara Beveroth
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Project Title –– Investigating Blood Metabolites in Short- and Long-Distance Migrants
Migration is one of the most energetically and physiologically taxing periods of a bird’s annual cycle. My research will examine how blood metabolite levels (glucose, ketones, triglycerides) reflect migration strategies and body condition (fat and muscle) during spring and fall migration. I will collect blood metabolite and morphometric data at Phillips Tract Banding Station in Urbana, Illinois, and surrounded by agricultural land, which makes this site important stopover habitat for migrants. This project will determine baseline blood metabolite levels for six study species, their correlation with fat and muscle scores, and how migration strategies influence the metabolic condition of migratory birds.
Shu-Yueh Liao
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Project Title –– Drivers of Urban Aerial Habitat Use by Migratory Birds
Urban areas along migration routes pose significant risks to migratory birds due to threats that include building collisions and light pollution. I will investigate nocturnal migratory bird use of urban aerial habitats in Chicago, including how factors such as artificial lighting, landcover, building characteristics, atmospheric conditions, and species traits influence flight behavior and habitat use. With acoustic recorders and thermal cameras, paired with machine learning algorithms, I will quantify species distributions and flight behaviors. Findings will identify urban airspace use hotspots, inform mitigation strategies, and help to develop methods for real-time monitoring of birds in cities.
Facundo Fernandez-Duque
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Project Title –– Using Point-of-Care Blood Plasma Analyzers to Assess Eastern Whip-poor-will Nutritional State and Habitat Quality
Anthropogenic noise pollution is an increasingly pervasive environmental challenge, with demonstrated effects on animal communication and behavior. In Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), facultative male provisioning is largely influenced by auditory hunger cues from nestlings. This study aims to determine whether anthropogenic noise from highways interferes with male provisioning behavior by masking these auditory signals. Using field experiments modeled after previous studies on parental care plasticity, we will examine whether males exposed to highway noise exhibit reduced provisioning rates compared to those in quieter environments. Findings from this study will advance our understanding of how environmental noise influences avian reproductive success and may inform conservation strategies for birds breeding in noise-impacted habitats. Moreover, the results could also offer valuable guidance to highway departments, urban planners, and developers of other human-made structures in designing and routing infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of noise pollution on wildlife.
