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 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.
Lyrebirds
Lyrebirds (family: Menuridae) are fabulous and intriguing birds that throw a spotlight on murky areas of biology. Sadly, both extant species - Albert’s and superb - are in decline, as are the cathedral-like forests in which they live. To facilitate research on lyrebird evolutionary ecology and conservation Professor Justin Welbergen and I have established “Lyrebird Lab”. Please see Lyrebird Lab’s web page for details of our research program, research team and the broader impact of our research.
Appointments
Since 2022 I have held a Prioritising Emerging Research Leaders (PERL) Fellowship at the University of Wollongong, Australia. This follows a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship also at the University of Wollongong (2017-2021). Previously, I was an inaugural Rose Postdoctoral Associate, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, USA (2014-2016), where I was affiliated with the Macaulay Library, the Bioacoustics Research Program and Cornell University's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. I am currently a Lab Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and I am the recipient of a visiting fellowship at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment of Western Sydney University (Australia).
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, Professor Naomi Langmore and the late Dr Richard Zann.
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
- Prioritising Emerging Research Leaders (PERL) Fellow, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences; University of Wollongong
- Lab Associate, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Visiting Fellow at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment
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 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.
Lyrebirds
Lyrebirds (family: Menuridae) are fabulous and intriguing birds that throw a spotlight on murky areas of biology. Sadly, both extant species - Albert’s and superb - are in decline, as are the cathedral-like forests in which they live. To facilitate research on lyrebird evolutionary ecology and conservation Professor Justin Welbergen and I have established “Lyrebird Lab”. Please see Lyrebird Lab’s web page for details of our research program, research team and the broader impact of our research.
Appointments
Since 2022 I have held a Prioritising Emerging Research Leaders (PERL) Fellowship at the University of Wollongong, Australia. This follows a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship also at the University of Wollongong (2017-2021). Previously, I was an inaugural Rose Postdoctoral Associate, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, USA (2014-2016), where I was affiliated with the Macaulay Library, the Bioacoustics Research Program and Cornell University's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. I am currently a Lab Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and I am the recipient of a visiting fellowship at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment of Western Sydney University (Australia).
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, Professor Naomi Langmore and the late Dr Richard Zann.
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