PhD Koel project

[Virginia Abernathy <>]

Dear COG members,

I am a new PhD student at ANU working under Dr. Naomi Langmore. My project is about Pacific Koels. As most of you probably know, the koel has recently expanded its breeding range and is now breeding in Canberra. It also is using a new host, the Red Wattlebird. The Red Wattlebird was first known to be used as a host by the koel in Sydney in 1978 and in Canberra in 2008. Other primary hosts of the koel that occur in Canberra, like the Noisy Friarbird and Magpie-lark, do not seem to be parasitized in Canberra, but they are parasitized north (Sydney, Brisbane, etc.). I will be spending the first summer of my study in Canberra and will be working in all the different parks (but mostly the botanic gardens). I will be searching for host nests and performing egg and koel recognition experiments on the above mentioned hosts (Red Wattlebird, Noisy Friarbird, and Magpie-lark) to determine if these species are "naive" or if they have had enough time to evolve defenses against the koel. In the second year of the study I will be going up north, most likely to Sydney, where hosts have been exposed to koels for a longer period of time. I will perform the same tests on the same hosts up there and compare responses between locations. 

I will be colour banding the hosts and all nestlings so they can be identified, but also because there haven't been many banding studies done on these birds, so I hope to add to our knowledge about these birds through banding them. If anyone happens to see a colour banded Red Wattlebird, Friarbird, Magpie-lark or Koel, if they could let me know the location/date/time/and bands, if possible, I would greatly appreciate it.

The second aspect of my project is looking at how well the koel mimics the host eggs and nestlings. I have already taken spectral reflectance measurements of koel and host eggs from the CSIRO egg collection. I will also be taking spec measurements of host (and hopefully koel) nestlings to see how similar they are in terms of colour. In addition, I plan to record nestling begging calls and behaviour. 

I would be very grateful if anyone sees/finds wattlebird, friarbird, or magpie-lark nests if they would let me know. The stage of the nest doesn't matter as I am focusing on both the egg and nestling stages. Even more importantly though, if parasitized nests are found or if koel nestlings or fledgelings are discovered, I would be extremely appreciative if I could be notified. It would be such a big help to my project, but also, I hope to increase our understanding of the natural history of these species through observation. In addition, if anyone has any tips or literature that might be of use I would greatly appreciate that as well. My school email is Thanks everyone!

Cheers,

Virginia