My PhD research will focus on the courtship and mating behaviour of the Tooth-billed Bowerbirds in northern Queensland.

The most famous species of bowerbird, the Satin Bowerbird, is known for its complex courtship. The male Satin Bowerbird builds and maintains an avenue of sticks, decorated with various natural and man-made objects (usually blue or yellow and shiny). This complex structure is his bower and its sole purpose, along with his deep blue plumage and ritualised display behaviour, is to attract a mate.
 
As well as the Satin Bowerbird, there are 16 other species of bowerbirds and, between them; they vary, not only in their physical appearance and the brightness of their plumage, but also in the form and complexity of their bower and display behaviour. The Tooth-billed Bowerbird has the most simplistic bower, which, in this case, is called a court. The court is a cleared area of ground on which leaves are laid out with the  undersides face upwards. During the breading season, which lasts from approximately September to January, male Tooth-bills spend most of their time perched above their court giving an almost continuous stream of calls and vocal mimicry. Throughout the breeding season, females visit several males at their courts. When a female visitor arrives, the male owner descends to the forest floor and gives soft, high quality, vocal mimicry, followed by a vigorous visual display. Ultimately, the female chooses from among the potential mates, and the display ends in copulation. The female then incubates and raises her young alone.

My research will investigate the mechanisms behind this unique courtship behaviour, specifically looking at behaviours such as the selection and placement of leaf decorations, leaf theft by certain court owning males, vocal mimicry and visual display, and court placement within a population.

Prior to Cambridge

Spotted Bowerbird

I arrived in Cambridge in April 2012 after having spent 6 months working at a research project in Queensland, studying Spotted Bowerbirds. As well as helping with the on-going research at the field site, I ran several experiments. Two of these were investigating whether male Spotted Bowerbirds can learn to change their preference for certain decoration types based on what they see at neighbouring bowers and on their own experience. Another looked at the decoration theft interactions between bower owning males. These experiments were designed by my supervisor Dr Joah Madden from the University of Exeter where I had previously done my undergraduate degree in Animal Behaviour.

During my degree at Exeter, I had the opportunity to participate as a field assistant in several research projects both in the UK and overseas. One of these projects was the previously mentioned Spotted Bowerbird project. During this first stay I investigated individual consistency in bower decoration use and colour preference.  My results found that male Spotted Bowerbirds are consistent in their decoration use, both within and between years. My enjoyment and interest in the Spotted Bowerbird research motivated me to do a PhD with the less studied Tooth-billed Bowerbird. (right: Spotted Bowerbird bower)