Research
How does short-term climate variation influence social behavior?
A species’ social structure can have important consequences for evolution, but we know little about the social structure of many birds outside of the breeding season. I studied Red-backed Fairywrens during the non-breeding season (winter) to understand how their social structure is different during the non-breeding season from the breeding season and how these differences are driven by climate variation within a year. I found that Red-backed Fairywrens exhibit a complex social structure during the non-breeding season composed of social groups of interacting individuals and larger communities of interacting social groups. I also found that both photoperiod and rainfall were associated with seasonal shifts from non-breeding to breeding season social structure.
Why do individuals of the same species vary in appearance?
Males of many species exhibit variation in sexual signals used to attract females, but some species exhibit more variation than others. Red-backed Fairywrens are one example of a species with extreme signal variation, where the age at which a male acquires ornamented red and black plumage can range from one to three years old. I studied how temperature, rainfall, and social environment influenced when males obtain ornamented red and black plumage and what the consequences are of obtaining this plumage earlier than normal.
Signal variation on a continental scale
Following my PhD research at a single study site working with a single species, I’ve teamed up with Allison Johnson and citizen scientists from across Australia to study how temperature and rainfall influence when male fairywrens obtain their ornamented plumage each year. The timing of acquiring this signal is important for reproductive success in at least three species of fairywrens. Males that acquire ornamented plumage early obtain higher reproductive success than males that acquire ornamented plumage late. Allison and I launched the Fairywren Project to collect these data on plumage types of fairywrens across the continent and will compare across-population variation to temperature and rainfall variables. Read more at www.fairywrenproject.org.
Hybridization in Australian fairywrens
I’m working with a group of citizen scientists and researchers to document cross-species hybridization in Australian Fairywrens. Through the Fairywren Project, we’ve found three new records of cross-species hybrids. Read more here.
Right: drawing of a potential Red-backed x Superb Fairywren hybrid.
Low-amplitude Song in Birds
Most bird songs we hear in nature are high-amplitude, long-range songs, but many bird species have additional repertoires of songs they sing softly at low amplitudes. Working with Dustin Reichard, we found that low-amplitude songs and calls are fairly common across birds and that low-amplitude songs were more common in courtship contexts than in aggressive interactions.
Read the paper in The Auk.