Kaeli Swift
Kaeli has been interested in birds and animal behavior all her life, and is delighted that the emergence of corvids as a model system for questions of animal and social intelligence allows her to marry these two passions. She recently received her doctorate from the University of Washington where she studied the "funeral" behaviors of crows under the guidance of world-renowned ecologist and corvid expert, Dr. John Marzluff. During that time, Kaeli honed her teaching and science communication skills by instructing undergraduate classes at the UW, and though semi-regular media appearances where she discussed both her graduate work and crow research at large. She has appeared on programs like NPR's Science Friday, Netflix's Bill Nye Saves the World, and PBS' NOVA.
Currently, she is studying the foraging and food storage behaviors of Canada jays in Denali National Park as a University of Washington Post-Doctorate researcher. This research aims to better understand one the Denali's most iconic birds, and help park staff prepare for how climate change may affect resident species. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @corvidresearch, where she talks about crows, corvids and other wildlife and plays a weekly game called #CrowOrNo to help people learn how to correctly ID and distinguish different kinds of corvids.