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Valentina Gómez-Bahamón
Email: valentinagb[@]vt.edu
I am an Assistant Professor at the Biological Sciences Department and The Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. I am also a research affiliate at SELVA: Research for conservation in the Neotropics, Colombia.  

Curriculum Vitae 09/26

I study how the evolution of behavioral strategies can drive population divergence and promote a cascade of correlated evolutionary processes that can enhance speciation. My research has focused primarily on switches among migratory and non-migratory behavior in birds. I am interested in understanding the drivers of these switches and the consequences to phenotypic evolution, speciation and the propensity of extinction under past and current environmental conditions. 
Postdoctoral Associates 
Jeremy Summers 
I study how variation in the environment and individual fitness over space and time ultimately shape population dynamics and structure, and even entire species ranges. I have used this mechanistic and multidimensional approach to research how birds respond to anthropogenic landscape change. I am interested in why some populations can persist despite increasing isolation and decreasing genetic diversity, or why some species can utilize entirely new habitats to expand their ranges while others decline.
Graduate students 
Martín Pérez
I am interested in understanding the underlying mechanisms promoting speciation and population differentiation. Currently, I am studying the impact and influence of contact and hybrid zones on the genetic and morphological diversity in widespread passerine species distributed across the Nearctic and the Neotropics. I’m also interested in plumages, molt strategies, population genomics, field ornithology, and the life history of Neotropical birds.
Co-advised with Juan Ignacio Areta
Matthew Armstrong 
I am interested in the behavioral ecology of birds as well as the evolution of their behavior. I am looking forward to studying behavioral differences among populations with varying migratory strategies during my PhD. In addition to spending my free time climbing and photographing wildlife, I am also passionate about species conservation and previously studied genetic signatures of hybridization in the rare North American gray-headed chickadee.
Kiersten Link
I am interested in using sequencing and stable isotope data to analyze diet difference in sympatric subspecies of forked-tail flycatchers. These subspecies are not sympatric year round, so I am studying diet changes and interactions between them. I am also interested in tail modifications in birds that use their tails to brace against surfaces.
Oliver Kompathoum
I am motivated to understand the evolutionary relationship between behavior and morphology, and I intend to study these topics through the lens of foraging behavior and skeletal morphology. I am also interested in understanding how behavioral/morphological traits present across clades of organisms, and how we can use computational biology and bioinformatics to understand the evolution of these traits. Outside of the lab, I enjoy the outdoors, tabletop games, and making music.
Undergraduate Students 
Addi Huton
I am a second-year Animal and poultry science major with a concentration in pre-veterinary medicine and a minor in Leadership and Social Change. I hope to one day be a large animal veterinarian. I am from Harrisonburg, VA and my favorite animal is a sheep. I love to run and biology is my favorite subject. I also serve as a Student Leader for Virginia Tech Residential Well-Being.   
 
Research Affiliates 
Preston Estes
My current research interests are in evolution, behavior, and hybridization. I am trying to understand why animals have developed all the unique adaptations they have is what drives me to learn more about them. Currently, I am working on compiling data of studied hybrid contact zones between birds to understand trends in how contact zones form and move.   
Grace Culler
I am a fourth-year undergraduate student in Wildlife Conservation and Entomology with a strong passion for birds and reptiles. I hope to study bird and overall animal behavior as well as care for them in rescue and/or captive settings. I enjoy drawing/painting, birding, herping, and learning about exotic birds!  
Research Affiliates
Cristian Torres
Interested in studying how the conditions under which breeding success increases at small local scales and how these process scale to species range expansions. His study system is the Argentine Barn swallow but he is also interested broadly in birds of Southern South America.   

 
Cándida Caicedo
Interested in studying the interaction between birds and plants, especially feeding interactions, but also other aspects of the biology of these two groups. Currently, she is working on a project to understand the importance of different characteristics of vegetation in natural savannas for bird behavior. 
Co-advised with Sergio Estrada-Villegas
 
Maira Holguín-Ruiz
Passionate about ornithology, she specializes in bird observation. During her undergraduate studies, she focused on the physiological and behavioral aspects of migration at stopover sites in northern Colombia. For the past four years, she has been part of the SELVA team, tracking migratory birds through observations, banding, and telemetry in the Llanos foothills and the Caribbean coast. Currently, she is working on a project with Cándida to understand why birds select specific sites within natural savannas.
Co-advised with Sergio Estrada-Villegas
Former Postdoctoral Associates  
María Emilia Rebollo
Currently leading a Vulture Survey project as part of the et al blog 
Former Undergraduate Researchers 
Nathan Williams 
Undergraduate at Virginia Tech
Gabriel Guillermo Bermudez  
Undergraduate thesis: Cambios en la morfología y rendimiento aerodinámico en alas de una especie de ave andina en respuesta a un gradiente altitudinal: estudio de dinámica computacional de fluidos integrando modelos biológicos en 3D
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Co-Advised with Dr. Elkin Tenorio and Dr. Oscar Laverde 
David Ricardo Caro 
Undergraduate thesis: Kinematics of an aerial display in the Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana savana) during breeding season
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Co-Advised with Dr. Oscar Laverde 
Bryam Mateus 
Undergraduate thesis: Divergence of beak morphology, foraging behavior and diet among migratory and year-round resident Fork-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus savana) 
Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Co-Advised with Dr. Carlos Daniel Cadena 
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