Liam Ulysses Taylor

Affiliation: Biology

Doherty Kent Island Postdoctoral Scholar in Biology

I am an evolutionary ecologist and ornithologist, studying how social structures influence the ecology, evolution, and conservation of birds. My postdoctoral research is focused on pair-bonds in imperiled seabirds. My graduate research investigated the evolution of adolescent birds in colonies and leks.

I am broadly interested in using a wide range of tools and perspectives—from phylogenetics, life history theory, and ethology to conservation genetics, disease ecology, and cultural anthropology—to understand the radical diversity of birds. My weird-academic passions include gull conservation and the tidyverse package in R. My normal-person passions include bagels, The Mountain Goats, and bird-watching (rather than birding).

Fieldwork on Kent Island involves Leach’s Storm-Petrels, American Herring Gulls, Black Guillemots, and Tree Swallows. Previous fieldwork projects have included Golden-winged Manakins (in the cloud forests of Ecuador), White-throated Manakins (in the Brazilian Amazon), and Semipalmated Plovers (just beyond the tree line in Churchill, Manitoba).

Manuscripts in Review

Taylor LU and Gnam E. Revisions requested at Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (ESA). Prebreeding populations and the importance of life history for conserving imperiled seabirds. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.19.639124.

Taylor LU and Prum RO. Revisions requested at Evolution. Developmental evolution of social signals in the delayed plumage maturation of manakins (Aves: Pipridae). https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.15.654367.

Mauck RA, Taylor LU, Neirink S, Lichtner K, Chapman S*, Veitch J, Kyle I, Haussmann M, and Jones PL. Revisions requested at Behavioral Ecology. Plan ahead, or wing it? How storm-petrel parents adjust food delivery to young chicks.

Pollet I, Taylor LU, Mauck RA, Huntington CE, and Jones PL. In review. Permanent and temporary mate-switching in a long-lived seabird: Insights from a 64-year study.

Sample Publications

Taylor LU, Uyeda JC, and Prum RO. In press. Social environment and the evolution of delayed reproduction in birds. Systematic Biology. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.02.551693.

Taylor LU, Hodge W*, Shlepr KR, and Anderson J. In press. Incomplete progress toward reasoning about the gull problem: reply to Diamond et al. 2025. Conservation Biology.

McDonald DB**, Taylor LU**, and Oakley N. 2025. Female audience shapes the complexity and syntax of male courtship displays in a lek-mating bird. The American Naturalist 205(5):459–468. https://doi.org/10.1086/734995.

Taylor LU, Barychka T, McKeon S, Bartolotta N, and Avery-Gomm S. 2024. Strengths and limitations of using participatory science data to characterize a wildlife mass mortality event. Ecosphere 15(11):e70051. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70051.

Taylor LU. 2024. Young American Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus subsp. smithsonianus) have the opportunity for social development at the breeding colony. Waterbirds 47(2):1-12. https://doi.org/10.1675/063.047.0206.

Taylor LU and Prum RO. 2024. Developmental axioms in life history evolution. Biological Theory 19:237-245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-024-00469-1.

Taylor LU, Shlepr KR, Hodge W*, and Anderson J. 2024. Interspecies conflict, precarious reasoning and the ‘Gull Problem’ in the Gulf of Maine. Conservation Biology 38(6):e14299. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14299.

Taylor LU, Ronconi RA, Spina HA, Ogbunugafor CB, and Ayala AJ. 2023. Limited outbreak of highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus at Herring Gull colony, Canada, 2022. Emerging Infectious Diseases 29(10):2150-2154. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2910.230536.

Taylor LU, Benavides E, Simmons JW, and Near TJ. 2021. Genomic and phenotypic divergence informs translocation strategies for an endangered freshwater fish. Molecular Ecology 30(14):3394-3407. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15947.

Taylor LU, Woodworth BK, Sandercock BK, and Wheelwright NT. 2018. Demographic drivers of collapse in an island population of Tree Swallows. The Condor 120(4):828-841. https://doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-18-75.1.

With Riley Simon [Bowdoin]: Using eBird data to study the recent range expansions of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) in North America. Current honors project.

With Mina Shenoy [Bowdoin]: Contact and competition in a corticolous lichen community. Current summer research project.

With Kendall Brainin [Bowdoin]: Energetics and incubation schedules of Leach’s Storm-Petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous). Current summer research project.

With Henry Penfold [Bowdoin]: Offshore foraging routes of Leach’s Storm-Petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous). Current summer research project.

With Helena Souffrant [Bowdoin]: Dead Bird Stories, Exploring science, colonialism, and ecological “discovery” at Bowdoin. Co-advised with Dr. Matthew Klingle (History). Independent Study. https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2025/05/dead-birds-come-to-life-for-student-researcher.html.

With Riley Simon [Bowdoin]: Changes in burrow spatial distribution in a Leach’s Storm-Petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous) colony. Poster for the Northeast Natural History Conference.

With Caitlin Panicker [Bowdoin]: Algal egg laying preferences of the Northern Lacuna Snail (Lacuna vincta) on Kent Island. Poster for the Northeast Natural History Conference.

With Graham Lucas [Bowdoin]: Branching growth patterns across wave exposures in rockweed Ascophyllum nodosum. Poster for the Northeast Natural History Conference. Goldwater Scholarship.

With Tess Mooney [Bowdoin]: Comparing modern Kent fog pH to historic data. Poster for the Bowdoin Summer Research Symposium.

With Luke Robinson [Bowdoin]: Disturbance-mediated renovation in a cavity nesting seabird. Poster for the Bowdoin Summer Research Symposium.

With Danny Lee [Bowdoin]: Pork hide contributes to shell disease, but not acute negative impacts, in a controlled diet study of American lobsters (Homarus americanus). Advanced Independent Study.

With Molly Hill [Yale]: Phylogenetic history of delayed plumage maturation in waterbirds. Poster for the Waterbird Society. Goldwater Scholarship.

With Wriley Hodge [College of the Atlantic]: Nesting density and distribution of a colonial seabird in relation to habitat and physical features. Presentation for the Waterbird Society.

With Cora Dow [Bowdoin]: Bad weather has multiple adverse effects on Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) fledglings. Poster for the Bowdoin Presidential Research Symposium.

With Lily Fanburg [Bowdoin]: Older parents compensate for their younger partners in Herring Gulls. Poster for the Bowdoin Presidential Research Symposium.

Personal Website

Education

PhD, Yale University
MS, Yale University
BA, Bowdoin College

Biology

Liam Ulysses Taylor

Publications

Examples of Undergraduate Collaborations

Education