About me

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Youngflesh Lab at Clemson University and a visiting researcher and lecturer at the University of Vermont in the Wildlife Ecology Research Lab.

My research uses ecological big data to understand how migratory birds are responding to global change, with a focus on forecasting these shifts into the future. Specifically, I’m interested in understanding how changes to bird migration impact disease dynamics in wildlife and human populations. Check out the “Research” page for more.

I aim to make my work accesible to a broad audience through the creation of “products” like the Irruptive Outbreaks Forecast (a tool to forecast zoonotic salmonella outbreaks), the Rare Bird Forecast (a dashboard for predicting avian vagrancy), the Early Bird Forecast (a weekly email sent out during spring migration season that predicts what bird species will arrive in your area), the Bird of the Week Newsletter (for people who just like birds), plus interesting visualizations like the one below. You can read more about what this specific one is about here!

Outside of work, I spend most of my time running and hanging out with my dog, Eloise. You can contact me at btonell (at) clemson (dot) edu