Chris Clark

CHRISTOPHER J. CLARK

for Christopher W Clark, go here.

Assistant Professor of Biology
Office: 3344 Spieth Hall (Biology)
Office phone: 951-827-3646
Facsimile:  951-827-4286


E-mail: cclark@ucr.edu

Degree:  Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, May 2009.

Profile in Google Scholar

Clark Lab homepage

My laboratory studies courtship displays, how feathers and wings produce sound, and bird flight biomechanics, using hummingbirds as a model system.

My PhD was on hummingbird tail morphology and how tail feathers elongated by sexual selection affect flight performance. Along the way, I started a minor side project in which I figured out that Anna's Hummingbird produces a loud sound with its tail-feathers during its courtship dive. This unexpected finding 'deflected' my research trajectory onto the mechanics of how feathers produce sound. In the 'bee' hummingbird clade, there has been rapid divergence in male tail morphology, and males produce unique sounds with their unique tail morphologies. For some examples, see my youtube channel. Studying how they produce sounds with their tail-feathers has revealed a range interesting questions. Hummingbird courtship displays are fantastic athletic feats, an example of extreme flight performance of interest to flight biomechanics.

My lab has high-speed cameras and sound recording equipment for both field and lab work. I am building an aeroacoustic wind tunnel with a 18" x 24" working section that will be capable of flying hummingbirds and other small birds.

Current and recent projects include:

I also participate in IDEA, the UCR Institute for the Development of Educational Applications.

Some Representative Publications....