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Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintenance of this trait. Crucially, we focus on lineages found only in Australia and PNG, where songbirds originated, to develop a robust scientific understanding of vocal mimicry across the entire songbird clade, and so provide an important new perspective on why and how song began.
Chief investigators: Prof Justin Welbergen (HIE); Dr Anastasia Dalziell (HIE); Prof Rob Magrath (Australian National University)
Partner investigators: Assoc Prof Jo Madden (University of Exeter); Dr Karan Odom (University of the Pacific) Collaborators: Prof Naomi Langmore (Australian National University), Dr Fiona Backhouse (Cornell Lab of Ornithology; HIE) Support: ARC Discovery Project (start, late 2024) Project ID: DP240102490 Contact: J Welbergen This collaborative project will take flight later in 2024, so watch this space!
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