In this study, Master student Will Sweet  explored how multiple Neotropical bird families independently evolved the remarkable habit of following army ants to catch fleeing insects.
By analyzing evolutionary patterns across lineages, we found that this specialized foraging strategy evolved repeatedly and once gained, it was never lost.
It’s a fascinating story of convergence, specialization, and birds that quite literally make a living by following the swarm! Now we are really evolutionary biologists !. 
Thanks to our collaborators Juan Pablo Gomez, Henry Pollock and our postdoc Justin Baldwin for the team effort and Micah Riegner for the beautiful artwork that made the cover .