{"id":594,"date":"2015-03-30T14:53:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T18:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/?post_type=profile&p=594"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:11:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:11:59","slug":"michael-d-sorenson","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/people\/profiles\/michael-d-sorenson\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael D. Sorenson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lab Website<\/a>CV<\/a>Google<\/a>ResearchGate<\/a><\/p>\n

Current Research<\/h3>\n

My research interests are primarily in avian behavioral and evolutionary ecology, including the population genetics\/genomics of brood parasitic birds, species that reproduce only by parasitizing the parental care behavior of other species. Past work has focused on the brood parasitic indigobirds (<\/span>Vidua\u00a0<\/i>spp.) of Africa, in which learning and mimicry of host songs facilitate an evolutionary process of speciation by host shift, and on the speciation genomics of a group of 13\u00a0<\/span>Lonchura\u00a0<\/i>munia species in Papua New Guinea and northern Australia that represent an extraordinary example of rapid evolutionary diversification. In collaboration with colleagues, I have also recently examined the genetic basis of host specific adaptation in several different groups of parasitic birds. Current research includes analyses of the consequences of maternally inherited adaptation for patterns of molecular evolution and a comparative genomics analysis of the loss of parental care across all seven avian lineages in which obligate brood parasitism evolved.<\/span><\/p>\n

Selected Publications<\/h3>\n