Date: 5/3/26 7:24 pm From: Colleen Richards <clr82...> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Cayuga Bird Club May 2026 meeting
The May meeting of the Cayuga Bird Club will be on Monday, May 11 at 7:30 pm at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Cayuga Bird Club meetings are held on the second Monday of each month, September through June, and are free and open to the public. In-person meetings are held September through May at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road. Doors open at 6:45pm for social time before the reading of the basin bird list at 7:20. Club business begins at 7:30pm, followed by the speaker's presentation starting around 8:00pm and ending by 9:00pm.
Come hear our May speaker Dr. Scott Taylor, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder as he presents "Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza - a wildlife pandemic".
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)—specifically the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b lineage—is widely considered the largest disease outbreak ever documented in wildlife. Since ~2020–2021, it has spread across every continent except Australia (for now...), with unprecedented mortality in wild birds and spillover into mammals. Scott will discuss the history of the virus, why its behavior is so unprecedented, what it means for people feeding birds, and the current outlook.
About the Speaker: Scott Taylor is an Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and Director of the Mountain Research Station. His research combines genomics, natural history, and fieldwork to investigate hybridization, speciation, and the processes shaping biodiversity, with a focus on birds. He has received the Linnean Society of London’s Bicentenary Medal for his contributions to evolutionary biology. In addition to his academic work, he is the host of the Okay, But... Birds podcast, where he brings bird science to a wide audience through conversations that span research, culture, and conservation. There will be a speaker dinner before the Cayuga Bird Club May meeting next Monday (5/11) at 5:30 at the Zocalo Restaurant inside the Shops at Ithaca mall. Please rsvp to <clr82...> by Monday at noon so reservations can be made. Looking forward to seeing many of you at the meeting next week. Colleen RichardsCorresponding SecretaryCayuga Bird Club
