ד"ר יוסף כיאט

Feather moulting caught my attention as a young bird ringer, first as a technical method for identification, and later as an important and relatively overlooked life-history process in the avian yearly cycle. As a result, in parallel to my BSc and MSc studies, and later also as a PhD student and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Field Museum of Natural History, I study the ecology and evolution of feather moulting, a focus that has produced many published scientific papers and improved the understanding of the factors shaping avian life.

​Currently, I'm a PI and Senior Lecturer at the School of Zoology and Curator of Ornithology at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, studying the evolution of feathers and plumage in feathered dinosaurs and modern birds.

Education:
 

2011-2015                   BSc, the Open University, Israel

2015-2017                  MSc, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences,
                                   The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

2017-2021                  PhD, Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, the University of Haifa, Israel.

Academic Appointments:
 

2022 – 2024                Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA.

2024 – Present            PI and Senior Lecturer at the School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University.

2024 – Present            Curator of Ornithology, the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University.

Other Positions Held:
 

2010 – 2015                Coordinator of the Israel Bird Ringing Center, BirdLife Israel, the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel.

2015 – Present            Director of the Israel Bird Ringing Center, BirdLife Israel, the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel.

Feathers are a special feature of birds, and their ancestors the Pennaraptoran dinosaurs, and are central to many essential functions in avian life. They also affect bird colour and shape and hence, are very important in visual communication. And of course, flight feathers increase the surface over which aerodynamic forces operate, thereby enabling flight.
 

​Feather moult is a critical process in the life of birds because feathers must be renewed as they get worn with time. Birds moult their flight feathers every year, a process that is considered one of the most energy-demanding processes in the avian yearly cycle. In addition, moult strategy is of great importance in relation to flight performance. Although feathers are the unifying characteristic of all birds, and several dinosaur species, our understanding of the causes, mechanisms, patterns and consequences of the feather moult process lags behind that of other major avian life history phenomena such as reproduction and migration. In my research, I focus on the effects of life-history traits and environmental conditions on the evolution of feather moult strategies. I use feather moult data from natural history museums, as well as data collected during bird ringing activities in several localities across Israel and the Palearctic region to understand how moult strategies are shaped by life-history traits and environmental conditions.

Kiat, Y., & O’Connor, J.K. (2024). Functional constraints on the number and shape of flight feathers.‏ The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 121: e2306639121.

Kiat, Y., & O’Connor, J.K. (2023). Rarity of molt evidence in early pennaraptoran dinosaurs suggests annual molt evolved later among Neornithes.‏ Communications Biology. 6: 687. 

Kiat, Y. (2023). Moult terminology: Let's make it simpler! Ibis. 165: 697-703.

Kiat, Y., & Sapir, N. (2022). Evolutionary trade-off between male colouration and feather moult extent also indirectly determines female moult. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 35: 278-287

Kiat, Y., Slavenko, A., & Sapir, N. (2021). Body mass and geographic distribution determined the evolution of the wing flight-feather molt strategy in the Neornithes lineage. Scientific Reports. 11: 21573

Kiat, Y., Davaasuren, B., Erdenechimeg, T. Troupin, D. & Sapir, N. (2021). ​Large-scale longitudinal climate gradient across the Palearctic region affects passerine feather moult extent. Ecography. 44(1): 124-133.

Kiat, Y., Balaban, A., Sapir, N., O'Connor, J.K., Wang, M. & Xu, X. (2020). ​Sequential Moult in a Feathered Dinosaur: Implications for Early Paravian Locomotion and Ecology. Current Biology. 30(18).

Kiat, Y., Vortman, Y. & Sapir, N. (2019). Feather moult and bird appearance are correlated with global warming over the last 200 years. Nature Communications. 10: 1-7.

Kiat, Y., Izhaki, I. & Sapir, N. (2019). The effects of long‐distance migration on the evolution of moult strategies in Western‐Palearctic passerines. Biological Reviews. 94: 700-720.

Kiat, Y. & Sapir, N. (2017). Age-dependent modulation of songbird summer feather moult by temporal and functional constraints. The American Naturalist. 189: 184-195.

Kiat, Y. & Izhaki, I. (2016). Why renew fresh feathers? Advantages and conditions for the evolution of complete post-juvenile moult. Journal of Avian Biology. 47: 47-56.

1.  Postdoctoral fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year at the National Natural History Collections, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (not claimed due to personal reasons).
   
    
2. Award for the best early career researcher (ECR) paper for 2022 in Ibis.
   
    
3. Zuckerman Israeli Postdoctoral Fellowship for the 2022-2024 academic years.
   
    
4. Negaunee Foundation and Field Museum Postdoctoral Fellowship for the 2022-2024 academic years.
   
    
5. Winner of 5 Synthesis travel grants: Synthesis of systematic resources (SYNTHESYS), SYNTHESYS+ project (call 3), funded research travel grants (GB-TAF, DK-TAF, DE-TAF, CZ-TAF, AT-TAF) by European Commission, June 2022 – February 2023.
   
    
6. Winner of excellence award for a short PhD lecture at the meeting of the Zoological Society of Israel (3rd place), December 2020.
   
    
7. Winner of Prof. Rahamimoff Travel Grant for Young Scientists of the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF; T-2019130, received in June 2019).
    
8. Winner of 3 Synthesis travel grants: Synthesis of systematic resources (SYNTHESYS), SYNTHESYS+ project (call 1), funded research travel grants (GB-TAF-2755, FI-TAF-2559, BE-TAF-2558) by European Commission, November 2019 – August 2022.
    
9. Winner of 5 Synthesis travel grants: Synthesis of systematic resources (SYNTHESYS), FP7 project (call 3), funded research travel grants (DE-TAF-6398, SE-TAF-6442, DK-TAF-6443, AT-TAF-6444, ES-TAF-6445) by European Commission, January – July 2017.
    
10. Winner of a Synthesis travel grant: Synthesis of systematic resources (SYNTHESYS), FP7 project (call 2), funded research travel grant (FR-TAF-5571) by European Commission, April 2016.
     
11. BSc with distinction (received in March 2015).
     
12. The Gidi Zakai’s award for special contribution to Israeli ornithology for the year 2002, International Center for the Study of Bird Migration at Latrun, Dept. of Zoology, Tel Aviv University and Israel Ornithological Center, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.