My research program has three interrelated foci. The key underlying theme is the evolutionary ecology and biogeography of biodiversity—in terms of both pattern and process of how diversity if generated and maintained—and how findings from such studies can be applied to conservation of that biodiversity.
Although the majority of my research has dealt with birds, I have worked with many other organisms including mammals, Odonata, spiders, Diptera, herpetiles, and plants.
Geographical areas on which I focus on are the Neotropics and the southern Great Plains and West of North America. My tropical 
research is in Belize, México, and Costa Rica, although I also have done some biogeographical research in Venezuela and in the Afrotropics. My research in the southern Great Plains has centered on the ecology and conservation of the Lesser and Greater Prairie-Chickens, as well as on the Dickcissel, Grasshopper Sparrow, and other grassland birds. These studies examine the impacts on wildlife of anthropogenic change in these regions. My research in the West focuses on the evolutionary ecology and biogeography of the Song Sparrow, including explorations of genetic and morphological variation across this species’ widerange in the West, behavioral ecology of parapatric subspecies, and analysis of a species ring at the heart of the distribution.
left: razor-sharp boundary protecting park
from encroachment of farms
(Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda, July 2007)
top: weevil at La Selva, Costa Rica
From:
Patten MA, Kelly JF (2010) Habitat selection and the perceptual trap. Ecological Applications 20:2148–2156.
