Jaime A. Chaves is a Biologist from Ecuador. He is currently pursuing his third year in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department (EEB) at the UCLA doctoral program. He obtained his Masters degree in 2004 at San Francisco State University and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his PhD.

Jaime was recently advanced to PhD candidacy presenting his research on the evolution and phylogeography of hummingbirds in the Andes in South America.  He was awarded the best graduate student poster presentation this year by the EEB Department with his current work. Some of his other awards are the Fulbright Scholarship, Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund (AMNH), Lida Scott Brown (EEB), Grant in Aid of Research (SICB), and Royal Geographical Society of London.

Jaime is the author of several papers on bird frugivory, cloud forest avifauna, and life history and distribution of birds in Ecuador. He is also the author of a book on hummingbirds, and wrote and illustrated a bird field guide to Ecuador. Besides being in the forest catching hummingbirds, he also likes to play soccer and dedicate time to practice yoga.

My main interest is studying the factors promoting hummingbird diversity in South America. Specifically, I study phylogeographic patterns of hummingbird species in the Andes, paying particular attention to the role of geography, natural selection, and genetic drift in differentiating the populations of the Speckled Hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys). The impressive latitudinal range this hummingbird exhibits (Andes of Venezuela to Bolivia) makes it suitable to examine mechanisms promoting genetic and morphologic differentiation in the different habitats where it is found along the cordillera and at different elevations. 

To find out more about Jaime's projects, visit:

www.ioe.ucla.edu/ctr/staff/chaves.html 

Photo of Jaime holding an oropendola by Philip Koch.