Background

The WWC project has been the focus of a long-term study conducted during the breeding season on their reproductive ecology. The project was started in 1985 by Prof. Rob Heinsohn. 

Our aim in this project is to understand how their complex social organization forms during the non-breeding season and how these dynamics are carried over into the breeding season.

approach

We trap and individually mark the birds in a population covering a mix of urban and nearby non-urban habitats in the inner north of Canberra.

And continuously observe groups to record group membership and their social behaviours.

We also use Bluetooth low-energy tags to track where the birds go, estimate their home ranges across seasons, and infer their social networks. We are particularly interested in how these home-ranges change over the different seasons.

We use playback experiments to test questions about their responses to vocal stimulii across different contexts, such as testing for dear-enemy effect.

We continue to monitor their reproductive behaviours, with a focus on their investments in nest defense and nest building.

Who is working on this project?

This project is still led by Prof. Rob Heinsohn, with A/Prof. Damien Farine and Prof. Rob Magrath as co-PIs. Currently, PhD students Chun-Chieh Liao and Brendah Nyaguthii are collecting the data, with additional honours projects by Esha Shekar (finished) and Rhiana Woods.