By CARSON REY, Contributing Writer
September 18, 2014
The Campus
The hooded warblers Mumme studied were marked with colored bands around their feet to make them more easily identified.
Ronald Mumme, professor of biology at Allegheny College for 25 years, recently studied the hooded warbler bird species. He began his study on the hooded warbler in 2010 because of its similarities to his previous research on a different species called the slate-throated redstart.
“I’m interested in how some species of birds use striking plumage patterns to actually startle insects,” Mumme said on his interest in the hooded warbler. “Usually when you see birds’ plumage ornaments you think it’s some kind of social or sexual signal, but I’m interested in the situations where it’s not that.”
Mumme composed a paper on the subject of the hooded warbler’s foraging techniques and the research he did that was published in April earlier this year by “The Auk: Ornithological Advances,” and appeared in the “BirdWatching Magazine” in August.
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