Fernando Machado-Stredel, a postdoctoral fellow in The University of New Mexico Department of Biology, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Florence Merriam Bailey Publication Award from the American Ornithological Society.

This award recognizes an outstanding article published in Ornithology or Ornithological Applications by an early-career researcher within the past two years. It is named after Florence Merriam Bailey, a pioneering ornithologist and conservationist whose work during the late 19th and early 20th centuries helped establish modern bird study in North America.

Machado-Stredel was recognized for his 2024 paper, The Roles of Abiotic and Biotic Factors in Driving Range Shifts: An Invasive Pomacea Snail Facilitates Rostrhamus sociabilis (Snail Kite) Northward Range Expansion. The article examines the Snail Kite and how changes in the bird's bill morphology, together with its relationship with an invasive snail species, have contributed to the species' northward range expansion in Florida.

In his research, Machado-Stredel and his collaborators discovered how the endangered Snail Kite has recently expanded its range into northern Florida by following the spread of an invasive apple snail. As the birds' ecological habits shifted toward consuming this larger, more abundant prey, they also developed larger bills that make feeding on the invasive snails more feasible.

Using several ecological modeling approaches, Machado-Stredel and his team deduced that climate conditions in the bird's historical habitat in Florida have remained largely unchanged over time, suggesting that climate is not entirely responsible for the northward expansion. Although native snails have long been present in northern Florida, suitable wetland habitat has historically been limited, preventing Snail Kites from establishing stable populations there.

Over the past 15 years, Snail Kites have expanded their range by approximately 175 km (109 miles) north of their previous limits in the Kissimmee River Valley. During this time, the birds' bill size increased in parallel with their northward expansion, indicating that larger bills may have allowed the birds to more readily consume the invasive snails and successfully thrive in these new ecosystems.

Fernando Machado-Stredel is an evolutionary biologist who received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2023. His research focuses on how animals evolve and adapt to their environments over time, with a particular emphasis on birds. Using data analysis and computer models, he studies how species spread to new areas, respond to environmental change, and evolve across different landscapes and time periods.

In addition to his appointment in the Department of Biology, Machado-Stredel is a participant in the Faculty Forward Postdocs and Visiting Scholars Program through UNM's Division for Change and Empowerment (DiCE), which supports the recruitment, development and success of outstanding scholars from a wide range of backgrounds across the university. He received the People's Choice Award for his poster at the annual New Mexico Postdoc Research Symposium in March 2026.

The American Ornithological Society will recognize the 2026 award recipients during its annual meeting in Amherst, Mass., this August.