Saturday, September 5, 2015

Fairy-wren tour of Australia, Phase I

Fairy-wrens are among the most charismatic and well-studied of Australia's birds. They are mostly known for having scandalous mating systems (lots of fooling around between neighbours) and gorgeously colored males.
However, though folks have been studying these birds for decades, they have mostly been focused on the males and very little has been done looking at the females. But the females are interesting too. Some a very brown and drab, some are a gorgeous blue, and all of them sing. And the best thing, is we have no idea why they differ so much. And that is where we come in.
Two female fairy-wrens, a superb (left) and a lovely (right)

I'm currently working on a large comparative project that involves traveling to 7 different field sites across Australia. We're working on determining the function of female song and female ornamentation and why there is such variation among species.






I've just finished phase I, which focused on the lovely fairy-wren, the gorgeous blue one above. The lovelies live in tropical Northern Australia, in and around mangrove forests.

I'm now embarking on phase II, focusing on red-backed and variegated fairy-wrens a little further south. These females are perhaps the dullest, but are still singing their little heads off.

Excited for the next adventure!