Millicent S. Ficken

Millicent S. Ficken (27 July 1933 – 7 July 2020), also known as Millicent Sigler Ficken, was an American ornithologist who specialized in birds' vocalizations and their social behaviors.

Biography Millicent Beth Sigler, known as Penny, was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Phares Oscar Sigler and Helen Elizabeth Richards.

Education After graduating from Leesville High School in Leesville, Louisiana in June 1951, Sigler enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in September 1951. There she was awarded her Bachelor of Science degree in June 1955, the same month she married Robert William Ficken. The couple had two children, John and Carolyn. (They divorced in 1989.) Among her "ground-breaking work" on bird sounds was her discovery that Black-capped Chickadees "have complex calls that qualify as a language and that birds 'take turns' singing in the morning to avoid overlapping the songs of others."

Memberships Ficken was the first woman to be elected a fellow of both the American Ornithologists' Society and the Animal Behavior Society (she was the third woman to be elected to the latter society in 1989). She was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Society for the Study of Evolution.