Welcome to my site!

I am a student researcher interested in all things wild – especially birds, and I have a passion for science communication and environmental history, advocacy, and conservation. I am also a published author in peer-reviewed journals and the American Birding Association’s Birding magazine. I love exploring nature, birdwatching, and reading about the history of the environment during my free time and like to volunteer and engage with my community. I have a deep interest in the folk music of North America and the British Isles and serve as President for Harvard's student-run radio station (WHRB 95.3 FM).

Research

My interests span evolutionary ecology, and involve functional morphology, demography, behavior, and genetics. I am interested in basic evolutionary questions as well as applications of evolutionary methods in conservation biology.

  • Genetic Basis of Modularity in Avian Wing Morphology

    Edwards Lab OEB/MCZ, Harvard University

    (Prof. Scott Edwards - Advisor)
    Used CT scanning of passerine study skins and spread wings, and the PhyloAcc software, to characterize the modularity and genetic basis of wing morphology.

    Used avian whole-genome data to investigate the relationship of codon bias and tRNA sequence evolution; assisted in the collection of new specimens at Concord Field Station. 

  • Causes of Sex-specific Y-chromosome Bottleneck in the Neolithic

    Reich Lab HEB/HMS, Harvard University

    (Prof. David Reich - Advisor)

    Used simulations and analytical models to investigate potential causes of a major bottleneck in Y-chromosome genetic diversity during the Neolithic period.

  • Bird Migratory Behavior in High Latitudes

    Aero-Eco Lab, Colorado State University

    (Prof. Kyle Horton – Advisor)

    Analysis of avian migratory behavior on short high-latitude nights with next-gen radar data

  • Bird-Building Collision Study

    Aero-Eco Lab, Colorado State University

    (Prof. Kyle Horton – Advisor)

    Bird-building collision study in an urban center using next-generation radar data.

    Contributed to landmark PNAS study identifying drivers of fatal urban bird collisions.

  • Scrub-jay Morphology and Identification

    The Moore Lab of Zoology, Occidental College

    (Prof. John McCormack – Advisor)

    Assisted with scrub-jay morphology and identification of erroneously classified hybrid feral parrots from TX, CA, FL, and Mexico in the iNaturalist and eBird databases.

  • California Condor Conservation and Wild Turkey Ecology Studies

    HEDGE Lab, Middlebury College

    (Prof. Alexis Mychajliw – Advisor)

    Used palaeoecological species distribution models to create suitability maps for the endangered California Condor and to recontextualize introduced turkey ecology in California.

  • Lemming Population Modeling

    MSEAS Lab, MIT

    (Prof. Pierre Lermusiaux – Advisor) | Student Researcher, RSI Program

    One of 80 students worldwide selected for the Research Science Institute program. Used neural closure techniques previously used in biogeochemical applications to, for the first time, simplify lemming population models in ecology.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications

Sivakumar, A. H., Sheldon, D., & Horton, K. G. High-latitude night shortening forces birds to accept increasingly diurnal migration to maintain flight duration. Journal of Avian Biology, 2025.4 (2025), e03405.

Ramirez, B. R., Freeland, R. J., Muhlheim, A., Zellmer, A. J., DeRaad, D. A., Kirsch, E. J., ... Sivakumar, A. H. & McCormack, J. E. (2024). Convergent niche shifts of endangered parrots (genus Amazona) during successful establishment in urban southern California. Diversity and Distributions, 30(4), e13817.

Sivakumar, A. H., Sheldon, D., Winner, K., Burt, C. S., & Horton, K. G. (2021). A weather surveillance radar view of Alaskan avian migration. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 288(1950), 20210232.

Van Doren, B. M., Willard, D. E., Hennen, M., Horton, K. G., Stuber, E. F., Sheldon, D., Sivakumar, A. H., Wang, J., Farnsworth, A., & Winger, B. M. (2021). Drivers of fatal bird collisions in an urban center. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(24), e2101666118.

Recent Grants/Fellowships

  • Barry Goldwater Scholarship

  • Harvard MCZ (Museum of Comparative Zoology) Grant-in-aid of Undergraduate Research (GUR)

  • Jacob Wendell Scholarship, awarded to a Harvard College sophomore identified by the selection committee as the most promising and broad-ranging scholar in his or her class

  • Herchel Smith Undergraduate Science Research Fellowship, 2024 for summer research at Harvard

  • PRISE Fellowship (Program for Research in Science and Engineering) 2023 for summer research at Harvard

  • HCRP (Harvard College Research Program) Fellowship for in-term research

Experience/Service

WHRB | President | 2024 – Present
Directed operations and programming at Harvard Radio Broadcasting — a non-profit radio station with over 200 undergraduate volunteers. Substantially reduced financial deficit of more than $30K

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture | Member, Student Advisory Board | 2022 – Present
Helped design and begin executing museum collection tours for undergraduates, as well as new, more dynamic outreach and social media strategy for Harvard Natural History Museum

American Ornithological Society | Member, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committees | 2021 – Present
Reviewed plans for 2023 AOS meeting to ensure diversity and inclusion concerns were met. Offered input on new process to rename offensive English bird names. Vetted submitted abstracts and symposia for 2023 and 2024 conferences

Pasadena Audubon Society | Board Member, Chair of the Conservation and Advocacy Committee | 2021 – Present
Led the bird-friendly street trees project for Pasadena, planned window collision reduction project, voted on decisions on initiatives, researched native plant replacements for ornamental exotics. Led birding field trips

PBHA Experimentors Program, Harvard University | Experiment Director | 2022 – Present
Designed weekly hands-on science experiments for pre-K through 5th-grade students at Cambridge elementary schools

MIT RSI | Summer RSI Research Paper Reader | 2022, 2023, 2024 Summer
Evaluated research papers and offered feedback and mentorship for RSI scholars

Earthwatch | Student Field Researcher | 2019 Spring
Assisted Hawkwatch International researchers with location, capture, and banding of owls in the Chiricahua Mountains, AZ

Earlier, I founded The NativeBiota Project to fight for bird-related causes, share my love for nature with others, and preserve urban wildlife habitats. The NativeBiota Project has partnered with the Pasadena Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund - India, and numerous online birding and naturalist communities to promote native urban habitats and catalog biodiversity on 2 continents. To date, we have documented 16,000+ wildlife observations in iNaturalist spanning 2800+ species. These observations are then available to scientists for conservation and research.