Lectures on Tap - The Science of Bird Color: Feathers, Vision, & Evolution

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "The Science of Bird Color: Feathers, Vision, and Evolution"

🎤 Speaker: Prof. John McCormack

Join us for a captivating evening as Prof. John McCormack opens the drawers of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology to reveal some of the most extraordinary colors in nature. Using the museum’s bird collection as his starting point, he’ll guide us through the science behind avian color: how feather nanostructures and pigments create dazzling hues, how birds actually see these colors, and what all that visual splendor is doing in their lives and evolution.

You’ll learn how scientists historically tried to standardize color in museum specimens, and how modern tools—from genomics to advanced imaging—are transforming our understanding of bird diversity and adaptation.

Prof. McCormack is Professor of Biology and Curator of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology at Occidental College, an evolutionary biologist and ornithologist whose research has appeared in leading journals including Science and Nature. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and directs an active research program involving undergraduate students.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

7:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

7:55 PM – Host introduction

8:00 PM – Lecture begins

8:45 PM – Audience Q&A

9:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

9:30 PM – Wrap up.