October 2022
The Autumn 2022 issue of World Parrot Trust’s PsittaScene includes a piece on the curious link between parrot longevity and cognition, collaboratively written by Bushra Moussaoui and fellow NMSU graduate student Jessica Brinegar. The article details recent findings of a study coauthored by Tim (Smeele et al., 2022) that long parrot lifespans are driven by larger brain sizes, and also introduces Bushra’s research on the effects of adult aging on vocal learning & social dynamics in budgerigars.

September 2022
 This short video was produced by the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation (RMEF) which is a grant agency for our elk demographic research in the Gila and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. This research started in February of 2019 and is concluding this coming May (2023). As part of this video, they followed field crews and RMEF volunteers around during our 2022 neonate capture season (May to June) documenting our research. Over the past four years (2019 – 2022), we have captured 801 elk neonates via a combination of aerial and ground capture methods. Upon each capture, we record weight, sex, and a variety of body and tooth measurements to aid with our survival models. Once the work up is complete, we fit each calf with an expandable GPS collar and VHF ear tag and release the individual. This information is then used to estimate survival rates and cause-specific mortality of elk neonates.
Watch Video

June 2022
Explore the specialized anatomy that allows parrots to talk, scream, curse, and recite facts like humans. — Whether they’re belting Beyoncé, head-banging to classic rock, or rattling off curse words at zoo-goers, parrots are constantly astounding us. They are among the only animals that produce human speech, and some parrots do it almost uncannily well. How is this possible? Grace Smith-Vidaurre and Tim Wright dig into the anatomy that allows parrots to talk, scream, curse, and recite facts. Lesson by Grace Smith-Vidaurre and Tim Wright, directed by Anton Bogaty.  Go to Video >>

August 2020
Valeria Perez ABS Research Project. Our research assessed whether invasive monk parakeets, Myiopsitta monachus, have altered their patterns of variation in call similarity across social scales after invasion in a new territory. Spectrographic cross-correlation and mantel tests were employed to assess call similarity over the individual and site scales. Results showed no change in these patterns, which may mean vocal learning patterns are not as sensitive to changes in population size, a consequence of invasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otckv5hVmuo&feature=emb_logo

June 2020
Undergraduates Jonathan Brooks and Valeria Perez created a wonderful video describing their research projects in the Wright lab. Both students are participants in the MARC program at NMSU, which provides students from underrepresented groups with the opportunities to prepare them for research careers and/or graduate research programs. We invite you to watch their video using this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ED8q_93px8

Wright lab undergraduate student, Ryan McGee, recently starred in a video discussing her project in the lab and the Discovery Scholar Program (DSP) at NMSU! Ryan did a great job of explaining her research journey and the start of her own project which is funded by the DSP. We invite you to watch the video using this link: https://youtu.be/3awW_QbWNOY

October 2019
NMSU’s University Communications publishes a piece featuring Marcelo’s work with Grace, Tim, and others on vocal and visual learning in the long-billed hermit hummingbird. The article appeared in Proceedings of the Royal Society B in May. View the article in the NMSU Newscenter.

September 2019
A short film about the Wright Lab work produced by University Communications is aired on local TV.  It features Justin and Tim discussing our use of the budgerigar as a model for adult vocal learning.  View Film.

June 2019
Our recent paper by Araya-Salas et al. in Proceedings of the Royal Society garners a small profile in the Research News and Views section of Nature.  (PDF)

March 2018
The work of Marcelo Araya-Salas and Angela Medina-Garcia on cognition and sexual selection in hummingbirds and budgerigars, respectively, is profiled in a press release by NMSU that is picked up by the Las Cruces Sun News. View article in NMSU newscenter

November 2016
The Fall 2016 Psittascene includes a piece by Tim and Chris Dahlin describing our expedition to resurvey vocal dialects of the yellow-napes amazon in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, along with an entertaining travelblog except by Dom Hellmich.

April 2016
The Psittascene features excerpts of Parrots of the Wild and the podcast interview by Charlie Moore with Tim discussing the book. (PDF)

March 2016
Our work on parrot vocal learning is profiled in a photo spread on budgerigars in the National Geographic magazine’s March 2016 issue. (PDF)

February 2016

The Wright Lab’s work and Parrots of the Wild are discussed in a lovely article on parrot behavior by Natalie Angiers that appeared in the New York Times Science Times.

December 2015
Tim is interviewed for article on African parrot trade in Wall Street Journal and published follow-up Letter to the Editor.

November 2015
Parrots of the Wild is released! See NMSU Press Release and cool podcast at the World Parrot Trust’s website.

August 2015
Tim is interviewed for Audubon online article Why do Parrots Talk?

October 2014
Marcelo’s paper with Alejandro Rico-Guevara in Behavioral Ecology on hummingbird bills as daggers is selected as an Editor’s Choice and is featured in ScienceNews and other media outlets.

September 2014
Liz’s paper in Auk on monk parakeet sociality featured in ScienceNow “Complex Social Lives Gave Parrots Big Brains”.

June 2014
Our collaborative work on monk parakeets is mentioned in a feature on invasive bird species in Science. on sciencemagazinedigital.org.

February 2014
Marcelo Araya Salas featured on National Geographic’s Website Marcelo Araya Salas’s work with the long-billed hermit in Costa Rica is featured on the National Geographic Society’s website.

November 2013
A collaboration between students and professors in NMSU Biology Department, Klipsch School of Computer and Electrical Engineering and the Manufacturing, Technology and Engineering Center produce a first generation of RFID-triggered smartfeeders for hummingbirds”.
Read more @ Las Cruses Sun News Article >>

PBS Nature documentary ‘Parrot Confidential’ Premieres on Wed Nov 13
See article describing Tim’s role as a consultant on the film

September 2012
Work by The Wright Lab and Jeremy Kirchman at the New York State Museum provides the first molecular evidence of the evolutionary relationships of the extinct Carolina parakeet. See the excellent blog by Grrl Scientist in the Manchester Guardian“

2009
CARTA – Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (Carta website). In this edition of CARTAs Human and Non-Human Culture Series, two renowned researchers, Woods Holes Peter Tyack and former UCSD post-graduate Timothy Wright discuss fascinating discoveries about the languages of Parrots and Dolphins. Nova Parrot Confidential. (view Youtube video)

2001
Parrot Conservation
Interview on NPR‘s All Things Considered, 2001 discussing nest poaching of Neotropical parrots for the pet trade.