Zed Morgan Benfred
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zedmorgan.bsky.social
Zed Morgan Benfred
@zedmorgan.bsky.social
500 followers 550 following 49 posts
Seabird biologist (environmental endocrinology, behavioral ecology); trail enthusiast; inhaler of fiction.
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zedmorgan.bsky.social
Happy to advance another Middleton Island kittiwake project (rapid behavior changes associated with endogenous and exogenous corticosterone increases). This field site provides surreal access to these #seabirds - it's a dream for studying the physiology/behavior interface in free-living animals.
"The Middleton Island Tower". A muti-story, 12-faceted gray tower has a white door at the base and siding on the the bottom 2/3rds but a set of horizontal wooden beams on the outside of the top 3rd. On the beams are white spots that, upon magnification, are revealed to be small white gulls (kittiwakes)on nests. The tower is capped with struts and grating that extend over the edges of the main structure on all all sides, and also have kittiwake nests visible on them (though you're looking at the from below). The background, the sun is halfway below the horizon and casting an orange glow. The view of a kittiwake nest from inside the tower. In the foreground, a shallow bowl-like nest made of brown dried vegetation contains two small white fuzzy chicks. One of them is facing the camera and has very black eyes and beak, the other is somewhat tucked behind the first so you cannot see its face. A large adult white gull with large black eyes and a yellow beak is standing on the back edge of the nest, facing you, with its wings partially extended up behind it. The wings are mostly white but the tips of the 5 longest primary feathers are black. In the background, green vegetation spread below, with the shiny surface of a small pond visible in the distance, and a larger shining (because of the sun reflecting on it) body of water (the Gulf of Alaska) beyond the shoreline. 3 white gulls are visible in the background, flying through the scene.
July 18, 2025 at 10:19 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
I currently study physiology & behavior of siblicide in a Pacific pop. of black-legged kittiwakes (𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑎). I'm at a PUI (primarily undergraduate institution) & have amazing undergrads working on projects about the interactions of glucocorticoids, metabolism, behavior & sex. #seabirds
A small black cube (a GoPro camera) is in the foreground on the right, mounted on a black tripod and with a red indicator light illuminated, inidcating the camera is recording. The camera is pointed towards a wooden wall, but most of the frame is occupied by a rectangular clear glass window. Through window, you can see a mass of brown vegetation - a kittiwake nest. It's on a ledge and far below you can see blurry green vegetation. In the nest sits a white gull with grey wings and back, a yellow bill, and some reddish/orange visible at the corner of its mouth (part of its gape). It's sitting over a fluffy white chick with some grey on it's body, a black beak, and a red mark on its head (indicating that it is the first-hatched chick in the brood). Three fuzzy whitish/grey chicks occupy the bulk of nest made of brown straw and vegetation, with blurry green vegetation visible in the background far below, and a grey strip of ocean in the very back. The chick on the left has a read mark on it's head (first hatched, or "A chick") and seems to looking at the chick next to it, who has it's black beak open with a pink mouth/tongue visible (this is the "C chick", usually at this colony). The chick in front of the other two is facing forward and has its beak planted in the nest, eyes closed. It has a blue mark on its head (second-hatched or "B" chick). The adult is standing over the chicks, but only it's white feathered belly and banded legs are visible (left leg has a silver metal band, right leg has orange, dark green then while darvic (plastic) color bands).
December 5, 2024 at 5:01 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
Snoozy pile of PECO larvae.

(Pelagic cormorant hatchlings)
#seabirds
Three featherless, brown/gray, slightly shiny and wrinkly, baby birds with long bills and necks are sleeping, visible over the edge of a brown vegetation nest. Green, vegetation and blue ocean stretch to the horizon in the background
July 2, 2024 at 11:45 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social

Pelagic cormorants are slightly under-appreciated #seabirds on Middleton Island, Alaska. They are extra poopy and parasite-laden (the not-actually-joking joke is that when they regurgitate, the puke gets up and crawls away) but are also mesmerizing dinosaurs with stunning blue eyes.
A silhouette of a dark, long neck bird with its head, reaching up in the air, turned slightly to the left.
June 30, 2024 at 2:13 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
Access to black-legged kittiwakes at the Middleton Island tower is unparalleled. >30 years of research on this banded population of known-history individuals by the Institite of #Seabirds Research and Conservation (ISRC) and still going. Lucky to be here studying kittiwake behavior and physiology.
Looking through a tinted glass window at 3 white birds in a nest that is a cup of brown vegetation, with greenery stretching far below out to the ocean in the background. One bird is an adult gull, facing the camera with a yellow beak and large black eyes, looking down at two fluffy white, black- beaked chicks about a quarter of its size, that it is partially sitting on. One chick has a red mark on its forehead, the other a blue one (to indicated hatching order).
June 28, 2024 at 5:06 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
It’s kittiwake chick season here on Middleton I., and the hatching is fast and furious. At this site they get measured every 5 days to monitor growth. Looking like a banner year so far, but even at this young and adorable age, they engage in brutal attacks on their siblings. #siblicide #seabirds
A white fluffy chuck with back eyes and peak (with a tiny white spot at the tip of the beak) is held in the palm of an upturned, gloved hand. The setting is indoors, and a pair of calipers are partially visible in the blurry lower edge of the photo.
June 24, 2024 at 11:39 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
Solstice sunset (11PM) at the kittiwake tower on Middleton Island, in the Gulf of Alaska. An amazing place for #seabirds and science.
A large grey cement tower with 12 sides has horizontal wooden ledges all around the top third. On these ledges and on the metal grating that makes up the overhanging tower roof are hundreds of nests. They are occupied by small white gulls, but they’re hard to see because the tower is so large in comparison to the birds. A deep orange sun sits at the horizon to the left of the tower, over the ocean.
June 23, 2024 at 2:47 AM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) chicks are tiny #seabird assassins, engaging in 'facultative siblicide' (the older chick sometimes (but not always) kills the younger). At 5 days old, they have adult-like endocrine (corticosterone) responses to restraint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Two fluffy seabird chicks sit in a nest made of brown vegetation. They are white on the bottom and head, with grey, white and black fluff on the back. They have very black eyes and bills. One is head up looking at the camera, the other has its bill tucked down into the nest. The backdrop of the nest is a broken glass window.
February 28, 2024 at 10:40 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
Meanwhile, Alex Le will be giving a poster this afternoon about how age, rank, sex and repeated bleeding affect triglycerides in kittiwake chicks
Blue banner from a poster entitled "Factors affecting triglyceride levels in seabird chicks (Black-legged kittiwakes, Rissa tridactyla), with Bucknell logo on the left and illustration of a fluffy white chick with a black bill and gaping mouth on the right.
January 3, 2024 at 8:06 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
I'm stuck @ home w CoVID, but my outstanding undergrads are representing our lab at #SICB2024! Steph Walsh is talking about how parent and chick sex affect parental responsiveness to sibling competition in kittiwake in at 1:30PM today, in room 608. #seabirds #ornithology @sicbjournals.bsky.social
Title slide with a photo of a white gull with black wingtips, wings extended, soaring over distant green vegetation. Authors: Stephanie Walsh and Z.M.Benowitz-Fredericks. Title: Male parents are more responsive to female chick behavior in black-legged kittiwakes: A study in free-living seabirds
January 3, 2024 at 8:03 PM
zedmorgan.bsky.social
If you collect blood samples from birds (including #seabirds), this paper is worth a read. A nice overview of blood storage methods and their potential weaknesses for downstream analyses. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/T9YECB...
Title page of paper from Ecology and Evolution. “Preserving avian blood and DNA samples in the wild: A survey of personal experiences”
December 2, 2023 at 12:32 PM