My research circumvents the siloing of disciplines that often hinders scientific progress. In our lab at UW Biology and at the Burke Museum—Ornithology—, we combine the study of underlying physics (e.g., fluid dynamics, kinematics, optics, sound) of biological emergent phenomena such as behavior and performance, to explain ecological interactions and evolutionary trends. I focus on textbook examples of coevolution; nectar-feeding animals that pollinate plants. Although I work from a comparative perspective across nectarivores (mostly birds, but also bees and bats), I have concentrated on hummingbirds, a group that pushes biological limits on several fronts: locomotor performance (e.g., unique vertebrate hovering flight and maneuverability), miniaturization (some of the smallest endotherms), physiological adaptations (highest vertebrate mass-specific metabolic rates), phenotypic diversity (e.g., most colorful bird family, bill shape varying twenty-fold range in length and vastly in curvature), and with a spectrum of foraging strategies (interference/exploitative competition).

This focus connects back to how energetically constrained animals have evolved adaptations to enhance caloric intake. Yet, on the other hand, animal competition sometimes turns into physical combat, and particular weaponry evolves. I perform theoretical and empirical research on each of these fronts and study an unexpected case of their intersection: hummingbird bill weapons. My recent discoveries revive questions dating back to Darwin and Wallace about how these birds budget energy gain and expenditure, establishing coevolutionary relationships with flowers. These novel perspectives of a data-rich mutualistic system, open the door to quantitative assessments of trade-offs between energy optimality and fighting proficiency. I translate the insights from this work into testable hypotheses for the ecological and evolutionary interplay between interference and exploitative competition. My research program is question-, rather than technique-driven; thus, I pursue cross-disciplinary approaches aimed to achieve a more complete integration across biological levels of organization.