Molothrus ater (brown-headed cowbird) genome, bMolAte1, sequence data
The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is a small, obligate brood parasitic icterid native to temperate and subtropical North America. It is a permanent resident in the southern parts of its range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or April (from Wikipedia entry). This sample of a female individual was procured by Jean-Nicolas Audet at the Rockefeller University Field Research Center in Millbrook, New York, for a vocal learning study and to generate a high-quality reference genome for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genome Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Erich D. Jarvis, Giulio Formenti, and Jennifer Balacco.