Faculty Profile

E. Dale Kennedy

Professor and Chair, A. Merton Chickering Professor of Biology

B.A., College of Wooster, 1975; M.A., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1979; Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1989.

Appointed: 1994

Expertise Areas: Behavioral ecology of cavity-nesting birds; animal communication

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Current Courses:

Biology 195: Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity

Biology 206: Tropical Forest and Reef Biology

Biology 227: Vertebrate Zoology

Biolgy 248: Ornithology

Biology 314: Comparative Anatomy

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Research Interests: Dr. Kennedy is a behavioral ecologist whose research focuses primarily on factors that affect clutch size (number of eggs laid) and breeding success in birds.  She carries out field studies on mating and feeding behaviors, clutch size, hatching and fledgling success, and nestling growth rates of a variety of cavity-nesting birds. In recent years she and her students have examined sex ratios of nestling House Wrens and Tree Swallows, patterns and variation in songs of House Wrens and other birds, effects of nest box microclimate on breeding success of wrens and swallows, and dominance and movements of local Black-capped Chickadees.  Almost all her work is done in the Whitehouse Nature Center at Albion College. 

Selected Publications:

Dubois, N., E. D. Kennedy, and T. Getty.  2006.  Surplus nest boxes and the potential for polygyny affect clutch size and offspring sex ratios in house wrens.  Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, series B: 1751-1757.

Rintoul, D. A. and E. D. Kennedy.  2002.  Aberrant plumages in a Carolina Wren and two House Wrens from Kansas.  KOS (Kansas Ornithological Society) Bulletin 53(2):21-23.

Kennedy, E. D. and D. W. White.  2002.  Form and function:  Feeding in birds.  Wilson Ornithological Society’s Manual of Field and Laboratory Exercises for Ornithology. Online at:  http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/birds/WOSManual/Intro.html

Songer, A. L. and E. D. Kennedy.  1999.  Seed and fruit preferences of small rodents:  Effects of food location and toxicity. Michigan Academician 31:371-384. 

Kennedy, E. D. and D. W. White.  1997.  Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii).  In The Birds of North America, No. 315 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.).  The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.

White, D. W. and E. D. Kennedy.  1997.  Effect of egg covering and habitat on nest destruction by House Wrens.  Condor 99:873-879.

Kennedy, E. D. and D. W. White.  1996.  Interference competition from House Wrens as a factor in the decline of Bewick's Wrens.  Conservation Biology 10:281-284.

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