Claire L. O'Connell, PhD

Claire L. O'Connell, PhD

Behavioral ecologist and ornithologist.

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A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there is an XML version available for digesting as well.

Pages

Posts

Monk Parakeets

Published:

I had the privilege of studying one of the most charismatic and social species during my PhD, and I am excited to tell you more about their biology and behavior.

Why I study birds

Published:

Being able to identify and appreciate the wildlife around us fundamentally changes our relationship with nature, deepening our sense of wonder and appreciation.

Custom layout

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If you have been playing around with network aesthetics, you have probably spend some time trying to figure out what layout works best to represent your data. After all, networks can be a great way to represent many complex relationships in a meaningful and digestable way. So, this step should not be underestimated! Thankfully, igraph has several layouts you can use.

Network attributes and aesthetics

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Here I describe some basic aesthetics, and I show you how I incorportate attributes to my networks. Huge shout out to Liz Hobson for showing me most of these tips!!

R packages and functions

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When I first started to learn R, I really struggled to understand the structure of code. To me, it looked like a lot of technical lingo and random placement of terms I’ve never seen before. It wasn’t until I had a break through that I began to understand the general structure and patterns to coding, so I want to share it with you all.

What I learned teaching R

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As a graduate student, I teach undergraduate-level courses offered by my university. In the fall of 2021, I was a teaching assistant (TA) for Analytical Tools for Behavior Information taught by my advisor. For someone, such as myself, just starting to scratch the surface of all that is R, this was an awesome experience. Guiding students through assignments helped me understand how to break down the language and logic behind code. I strengthened my own understanding of coding best practices, troubleshooting, and how to talk about code.

5 step framework for staying organized

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As I learn to navigate R and coding best practices, I realized a crucial first step is getting organized. Staying organized is another challenge in and of itself, but it is much easier to do if you have a solid plan for your code before you get started. Thankfully, there are tons of ways to make sure you start on the right track and stay organized along your coding journey. I want to share how I approach the basics data analysis in five steps:

  1. Import
  2. Clean
  3. Wrangle
  4. Summarize
  5. Plot and test

SNA Respository

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Here is a collection of some useful websites I have come across as I learn to code!

portfolio

press

When push comes to shove, what is a fight?

Published:

Mike Miller wrote about a recent paper to come out of the lab. We created a framework to decide whether to pool or split similar behaviors when analyzing dominance interatctions. Our paper was published in Current Zoology. You can read Mike’s article here.

Monk parakeets “Test the Waters”

Published:

One of the unexpected joys of studying such a highly social species and focusing on something as recognizable as relationship formation is how easily people relate to the topic. After our paper was published, the work resonated widely, and several news outlets picked it up and shared their own perspectives on our findings. You can explore some of their takes below.

publications

A framework to evaluate whether to pool or separate behaviors in a multilayer network

Published in Current Zoology, 2020

We designed 2 reference models to test whether randomizing the number of interactions across behavior types results in similar structural patterns as the observed data.

Recommended citation: van der Marel, A., Prasher, S., Carminito, C., O’Connell, C. L., Phillips, A., Kluever, B. M., & Hobson, E. A. (2021). A framework to evaluate whether to pool or separate behaviors in a multilayer network. Current Zoology, 67(1), 101–111. https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoaa077 https://academic.oup.com/cz/article/67/1/101/6050802

A comparison of common behavioral observation software applications and recommendations for use

Published in Ethology, 2021

We review six software applications for handheld computers that are available for real-time entry of behavioral observations: Animal Behaviour Pro, Animal Observer, BORIS, CyberTracker, Prim8, and ZooMonitor.

Recommended citation: van der Marel, A., O’Connell, C. L., Prasher, S., Carminito, C., Francis, X., & Hobson, E. A. (2021). A comparison of low-cost behavioral observation software applications and recommendations for use. Ethology. http://arxiv.org/abs/2103.07576 https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.07576

Temporary Behavioral Responses to Playbacks by a Pest Parrot and Implications for Management

Published in Animal Behavior and Cognition, 2022

Our experiment evaluated the efficacy of two stimuli: predator vocalizations as potential repulsion and conspecific vocalizations as potential attraction stimuli for parakeets. Our results demonstrate that predator playbacks may be particularly useful for completing management objectives, such as temporary removal from a location.

Recommended citation: Estien, C. O., O’Connell, C. L., Francis, X., Smith-Vidaurre, G., Kluever, B. M., Hobson, E. A., & van der Marel, A. (2022). Temporary behavioral responses to playbacks by a pest parrot and implications for management. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 9(4), 363-384. https://doi.org/10.26451/abc.09.04.01.2022 https://www.animalbehaviorandcognition.org/article.php?id=1329

Perturbations highlight importance of social history in parakeet rank dynamics

Published in Behavioral Ecology, 2023

We performed a series of social perturbations to find what determines dominance rank in monk parakeets. We found that 1. bodyweight is not associated with rank, 2. reintroduced birds were not able to regain their rank following reintroduction, and 3. top-ranked birds experienced greater relative rank losses. These results, in addition to our previous work, suggests that social history is important for structuring monk parakeet dominance hierarhcies

Recommended citation: Annemarie van der Marel, Xavier Francis, Claire L O’Connell, Cesar O Estien, Chelsea Carminito, Virginia Darby Moore, Nickolas Lormand, Bryan M Kluever, Elizabeth A Hobson, Perturbations highlight importance of social history in parakeet rank dynamics, Behavioral Ecology, 2023; arad015, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arad015 https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/34/3/457/7093242

The Effect of Familiarity on the Temporal Dynamics of Spatial and Affiliative Associations in Monk Parakeets

Published in Animal Behavior and Cognition, 2025

To successfully navigate dynamic social environments, animals must manage their relationships by deciding who to interact with, how often, and when. Relationships may develop between familiar group members, but novel relationships can also form as strangers join groups. The process through which relationships form among strangers is not well-known for most species. We used a captive population of monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) with known familiar and stranger relationships to test how novel relationships form among strangers.

Recommended citation: O’Connell, C. L., van der Marel, A., & Hobson, E. A. (2025). The effect of familiarity on the temporal dynamics of spatial and affiliative associations in monk parakeets. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 12(4), 498-520. https://doi.org/10.26451/abc.12.04.03.2025 https://www.animalbehaviorandcognition.org/article.php?id=1418

Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships

Published in Biology Letters, 2025

Initiating and developing social relationships with strangers can provide fitness benefits, but it is an inherently risky process. To mitigate potential risks and develop trust, strangers may ‘test the waters’ by gradually escalating the type of social investment from low-cost to high-cost. Opportunities to capture the moment animals first encounter one another in the wild are rare, and detailed quantitative assessments of when and how animals initiate relationships are limited.

Recommended citation: Claire L. O'Connell, Gerald G. Carter, Annemarie van der Marel, Elizabeth A. Hobson; Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships. Biol Lett 1 November 2025; 21 (11): 20250399. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0399 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article/21/11/20250399/234062/Monk-parakeets-test-the-waters-when-forming-new

talks

A comparison of common behavioral observation software applications and recommendations for use

Published:

With many behavioral observation applications available, our challenge is choosing the most appropriate platform that fits a particular study question, research design, budget, and desired amount of preparatory time. We review Animal Behaviour Pro, Animal Observer, BORIS, CyberTracker, Prim8, and ZooMonitor and discuss the preliminary decisions that have to be made about the study design. We assess the six applications by reviewing 1) which behavioral sampling methods are possible per platform, 2) the setup and data collection routines, 3) the data output format, and 4) how to customize certain platforms so they will work more effectively for particular study aims or sampling methods. Our goal is to help researchers make calculated decisions about what behavioral observation platform is best for their study system and question.

teaching

Biology I Lab

Undergraduate course, University of Cincinnati, Biological Sciences, 2020

I taught two sections of introductory biology I lab in the fall of 2020. The goal of this lab was to supplement concepts learned in lectures by testing students’ ability to think critically about experimental design, developing crucial writing skills, and working hands-on with lab equipment.

CANS summer workshop

Elementary summer workshop, Clifton Area Neighborhood School, Cincinnati, OH, 2021

I ran a three-week workshop at a local elementary school to teach 1st and 2nd graders about birds. We talked about what makes a bird a bird, how to identify common backyard birds, and how and when to help birds in need.

Analytical Tools for Behavior Information

Undergraduate Course, University of Cincinnati, Biological Sciences, 2021

In the fall of 2021, I mentored undergraduate students learning to code to analyze behavioral data using the programming language R. If you are interested in the details and structure of the course you can learn more here.

Aquatic Biology Lab

Undergraduate course, University of Cincinnati, Biological Sciences, 2023

I worked with students in the lab and the field to learn and practice physical, chemical, and biological sampling techniques for lakes, streams, and other aquatic habitats. We also integrated and analyzed field data with theory learned in class lectures.

Biology II Lab

Undergraduate course, University of Cincinnati, Biological Sciences, 2024

I taught two sections of Introductory Biology II lab in the spring of 2023 and three sections in the spring of 2024. The goal of this lab was to give students the opportunity to apply concepts learned in lectures to robust experimental design, data collection and management, and apply analytical tools. We also worked on developing scientific writing skills.