Crow research from Associate Professor of Biology Andrea Townsend was featured on a recent episode of the weekly University of Colorado Boulder podcast “OK, But... Birds.” Townsend describes the effects of illness on wild birds, from their brains and behavior to their family dynamics.
The podcast’s website describes the episode. “Birds get sick too, and a lot of what happens next looks surprisingly familiar. Associate Professor Andrea Townsend of Hamilton College has spent two decades following American crows through disease outbreaks. In a recent episode of the podcast ‘OK, But… Birds,’ Andrea walks Scott Taylor, an evolutionary biologist at CU Boulder, through what illness really does to a bird.
“In the episode, Townsend and Taylor discuss:
- Why West Nile virus killed old crows as readily as young ones, and what losing adults does to a crow family
- How crows’ surprising mate choices leave them more vulnerable to disease, from avian pox in the nest to shorter lives
- What Campylobacter, a gut bacteria carried by about 60% of the crows studied, does to their appetite, motivation and memory, and how sick birds behave”
Posted October 8, 2026
