Birds of Brazil | NightSchool, ep. 94

Grab your bug spray and mist nets — NightSchool’s taking an excursion to Brazil! Join Kelsie Lopez and Drs. Clarissa de Carvalho and Hevana Lima for an evening filled with stories, science, and birds (so many birds!) from Brazil’s scrublands, mountain plateaus, and everywhere in between.

• Kelsie Lopez (she/her): Currently a 3rd year PhD candidate at Harvard University, Kelsie Lopez is no stranger to the Brazilian Dry Diagonal, a swath of semiarid habitat that stretches across the country. Kelsie’s research combines findings from her field work, museum collections, and genetic sequencing to understand what causes bird species to evolve.

• Dr. Clarissa de Carvalho (she/her): Through her PhD work, Dr. Clarissa de Carvalho studied how epigenetics influence evolution and what underlying genes influence camouflage. Now, as a postdoctoral researcher at Federal University of São Paulo, her work is focusing on understanding how birds diversify in dry environments across Brazil.

• Dr. Hevana Lima (she/her): As a postdoctoral researcher at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Dr. Hevana Lima studies bird ecology and evolution. Her work focuses on patterns in how different bird species are distributed across Brazil’s dry diagonal — one of the most vulnerable regions in the country.