Dr Anastasia Dalziell
Current Positions
Research
In my research I use avian model systems to investigate key issues in behavioural and sensory ecology: how animals communicate with each other, and why communication signals have evolved into certain designs. Being especially curious about signals and cues involving sound, I conduct research into integrated song and ‘dance’ displays, vocal mimicry, the dawn chorus, and song dialects (among others). The overarching aim of my fellowship at the University of Wollongong is to investigate the responses of a versatile vocal mimic to anthropogenic soundscape change. In this project, as in much of my previous work, I have the great privilege of using the superb lyrebird ( Menura novaehollandiae) as a model species.
Appointments
From 2017 I have held a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Previously, I was an inaugural Postdoctoral Associate, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, USA (2014-2016). At the Lab, I was affiliated with the Macaulay Library and the Bioacoustics Research Program. I was also affiliated with Cornell’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. I am currently a Lab Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and I hold visiting fellowships at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment of Western Sydney University (Australia), and the Australian National University.
Background
My academic background is in behavioural ecology. My first degree was a BSc/BMus from the Australian National University, which included a year’s exchange at the University of Oxford. For my honours’ research I investigated the structure and function of dawn choruses in the superb fairy-wren, Malurus cyaneus, with Professor Andrew Cockburn. Next, I pursued my interest in birdsong in Costa Rica where I joined a research project on the banded wren, Thryophilus pleurostictus, run by Professor Sandra Vehrencamp and Dr Michelle Hall from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Back at the Australian National University, I investigated the ecology of vocal mimicry in the superb lyrebird for my PhD research, under the primary supervision of Professor Rob Magrath, and advised by Professor Cockburn, Dr Hall, Dr Naomi Langmore and the late Dr Richard Zann.
Academic Publications
Google scholar page
Mixed media
The mimics among us
Video abstract: Coordinated song and dance in lyrebirds
Video of a lyrebird performing in the wild
The talented superb lyrebird
Lyrebird moments
Discovery Channel
Balangara Films
Hello Birdy Documentary
- Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences; University of Wollongong
- Lab Associate, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Visiting Fellow at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment
- Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University
Research
In my research I use avian model systems to investigate key issues in behavioural and sensory ecology: how animals communicate with each other, and why communication signals have evolved into certain designs. Being especially curious about signals and cues involving sound, I conduct research into integrated song and ‘dance’ displays, vocal mimicry, the dawn chorus, and song dialects (among others). The overarching aim of my fellowship at the University of Wollongong is to investigate the responses of a versatile vocal mimic to anthropogenic soundscape change. In this project, as in much of my previous work, I have the great privilege of using the superb lyrebird ( Menura novaehollandiae) as a model species.
Appointments
From 2017 I have held a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Previously, I was an inaugural Postdoctoral Associate, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, USA (2014-2016). At the Lab, I was affiliated with the Macaulay Library and the Bioacoustics Research Program. I was also affiliated with Cornell’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. I am currently a Lab Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and I hold visiting fellowships at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment of Western Sydney University (Australia), and the Australian National University.
Background
My academic background is in behavioural ecology. My first degree was a BSc/BMus from the Australian National University, which included a year’s exchange at the University of Oxford. For my honours’ research I investigated the structure and function of dawn choruses in the superb fairy-wren, Malurus cyaneus, with Professor Andrew Cockburn. Next, I pursued my interest in birdsong in Costa Rica where I joined a research project on the banded wren, Thryophilus pleurostictus, run by Professor Sandra Vehrencamp and Dr Michelle Hall from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Back at the Australian National University, I investigated the ecology of vocal mimicry in the superb lyrebird for my PhD research, under the primary supervision of Professor Rob Magrath, and advised by Professor Cockburn, Dr Hall, Dr Naomi Langmore and the late Dr Richard Zann.
Academic Publications
Google scholar page
Mixed media
The mimics among us
Video abstract: Coordinated song and dance in lyrebirds
Video of a lyrebird performing in the wild
The talented superb lyrebird
Lyrebird moments
Discovery Channel
Balangara Films
Hello Birdy Documentary