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Employee Spotlight: Lauren E. Walker

October 8, 2021

Newest member of the Bird Banding Laboratory has a long history with birds.

Lauren E. Walker holding a banded raven
Lauren E. Walker holding a banded raven (Credit: Lauren Walker, USGS. Public domain.)

Lauren Walker joined the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory on September 13, 2021. Lauren comes from Yellowstone National Park where she served as a Wildlife Biologist with the Yellowstone Bird Program. While in Yellowstone, she initiated a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding station and participated in various avian research projects.

She graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with her master’s degree in 2011 and with her Ph.D. in 2015. For her dissertation, she studied Black-capped Vireo source-sink population dynamics in central Texas. Lauren additionally brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from the National Park Service to share with the lab. As a biologist with the Bird Banding Lab, Lauren will assist with band encounter operations, and provide quality assurance and control of the band and band encounter data. Lauren will serve as a member of the Bird Banding Lab’s permit review team, assessing permit applications and contributing to other aspects of the permitting processes. She will also serve as the Flyway liaison and Bird Banding Lab representative at conferences, events and meetings as needed.

Lauren is originally from Delaware and is an avid birder. She also enjoys hiking, reading, and chasing her two boys around.

You can read more about Lauren’s graduate research and recent work in Yellowstone here:

  • Walker, L. E., L. M. Baril, D. B. Haines, D. W. Smith. 2019. Reproductive characteristics of red-tailed hawks in Yellowstone National Park, an intact temperate landscape. Journal of Raptor Research 53:309-318.
  • Walker, L. E., J. M. Marzluff, M. C. Metz, A. J. Wirsing, L. M. Moskal, D. R. Stahler, and D. W. Smith. 2018. Population Responses of Common Ravens to Reintroduced Gray Wolves. Ecology and Evolution 8:11158-11168.
  • Walker, L. E., J. M. Marzluff, and D. A. Cimprich. 2016. Source-sink population dynamics driven by a brood parasite: a case study of an endangered songbird. Biological Conservation 203:108-118.
  • Walker, L. E., and J. M. Marzluff. 2015. Recreation changes the use of a wild landscape by corvids. Condor 117:262-283.

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