Since 2002, I have been developing a comparative brain collection for the primary purpose of understanding how the avian brain evolved and the relationship between neuroanatomical and behavioural diversity in birds. To date, this collection has hundreds of specimens of nearly 200 species, including owls, hummingbirds, waterfowl, songbirds, vultures and many other species. This is the largest comparative brain collection in Canada and, as far as we know, the largest bird brain collection in the world. Almost all of them are serially sectioned and stained for use with our high resolution slide scanner and stereology system and we are continuing to add new species to the collection annually.

At the moment, we are primarily working on the following projects, but we are always keen on new collaborations or ideas:

1) anatomy of the auditory and visual systems in hawks and falcons

2) evolutionary morphology of the cerebellum across all birds

3) determining the allometric relationships between neuron numbers, neuron sizes, and brain region sizes in sensory systems

4) testing if bowerbird brains differ from other birds (in collaboration with Catherine Carr)

Photos of: Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus, top) and Turkey Vulture (Cathartes auratus, bottom) from the collection.