17 Female Birds
About this episode
Female birds have been overlooked for far too long. Dr Vicky Austin shares the appearance, behaviour and vocalisations of female birds, and how to notice more when you go birdwatching.
Episode illustration: Female Superb Lyrebird
Dr Vicky Austin is interested in bird behaviour and how birds interact with each other and their environment. She is particularly fascinated by the vocalisations of female birds. Vicky’s PhD at Western Sydney University focused on the vocalisations of female Superb Lyrebirds (such as mimicry) and how females use these sounds to protect themselves and their chicks. Vicky reckons that vocalisations of female birds are just as spectacular as males and she’s here to share what she knows.
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Kirsty: This episode was recorded on the Countries of the Wurundjreri, Dharug and Gundungurra peoples. I would like to pay my respect to Elders both past and present. And acknowledge any other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person listening to this podcast.
Kirsty: Welcome to Weekend Birder. I'm your host, Kirsty Costa. This podcast shares the stories and advice from the birdwatching and bird loving community. And in this episode, you and I are going to learn from Vicky Austin. Here is how Vicky discovered her love of Australian birds.
Vicky: I think I have always been interested in birds in some capacity since I was a small child. I guess I was always interested in animals and I was always interested in watching how animals behave. And the beautiful thing about birds is you can walk out your front door and they're there. Right?! Even as a child, if you can't go to the zoo or you can't go somewhere exciting, birds are around. And so I think I've always watched birds. I became interested in birds from a scientific perspective a bit later in life. I had started my university degree studying science and I knew I wanted to keep being interested and keep investigating animal behaviour. And so the question to me was "Well, what animal? What do I want to be my study species?". And I won't lie - for a little while there I was thinking about reptiles because I think reptiles are very, very cool as well. And I see the links between reptiles and birds. If you watch them move, there's some similarities there. But ultimately I ended up going with birds and one of my motivations, apart from them being amazing in themselves, is that birds can take you anywhere in the world and there are just so many species and it doesn't matter a time of year. There's always going to be a place where you can go, where you can watch birds. And so I think that was my main motivation.
Kirsty: An adaptation is a physical or behavioural characteristic of an animal that helps it to better survive in its environment. Birds have got lots of different types of physical adaptations. For example, they've got wings to help them fly and they've got beaks to help them eat. They also have what's called behavioural adaptations. These are the things that they do on a daily or yearly basis to live. Vicky is really curious about how and why birds behave like they do, and she's particularly interested in the songs and sounds of female birds.
Vicky: I have been studying vocalisations in birds, so by vocalisations I mean the song and sounds that you hear coming from birds. What I'm particularly interested in though, is song and vocalisations in female birds. And that really captures my attention because historically we've really focused on male birds and that makes sense in a way, because male birds are usually more obvious than females. You can hear them sing, you walk out your door and often they're the bird that you hear singing. So it makes sense that scientists were the ones that kind of really focused on males. But not too long ago, in only 2014, we realised that female birds do sing and there's lots of song happening all over the world. And so female birds are my real focus. They're much more subtle than males. But I think equally, and I would argue more interesting, than males in a lot of ways.
Kirsty: One of my favorite birds is the Golden Whistler. You can hear them in the forests of northern Queensland, eastern and southern Australia and the middle of Western Australia as well as Indonesia, Fiji, New Guinea and the Solomons. I guess this bird has captured my heart because of its loud song and the bright yellow, black and white feathers of the male. I've always wanted to know why the female Golden Whistler doesn't have these bright colours. They are generally grey with a pale olive tinge on their backs. So Vicky is here to tell us why female birds like the Golden Whistler have different physical and behavioural adaptations to male birds.
Vicky: Males and females act differently because they have different goals or purposes. If you want to talk about the way they behave, we often think about it in terms of the term sexual selection, which is what someone (a very famous scientist called Charles Darwin) termed. Basically, Darwin observed birds in the wild and he noticed that males are really colourful and really loud. And he proposed this idea that the reason males are colourful and loud is because females are selecting males that will only mate with males that have those beautiful colours and those beautiful songs. Because that colour and that song is a sign of their quality. And so, of course, if you're going to have offspring, you want to mate with the prettiest and most clever male that there is. This idea of sexual selection on males accounts for why they're so beautiful and colourful and loud, but females aren't being selected for usually. There are exceptions - there are cases where females are attracting mates, but it's not usual. The most common thing is that male birds attract females. And so what that means is females have no need for these elaborate colours per se, in the same way that males do. The song of female birds doesn't have to be as complex and ornate or beautiful as males because they're not trying to impress anyone in the same way. But they do have beautiful song and they do have complex song and they can be pretty. They do have pressures acting on them. They're just not in the same way that they are on males. So for females, your main motivation for singing, for example, would be that you are protecting your young or your territory. And females by and large do the majority of care in most species. Again, there are exceptions, always exceptions. But in most species. And so because of that, there is pressure for females to sing but the context in which they use their song and their vocalisations is different. This is kind of the basis for why males and females both have song but may not sing as much as each other, use them in different contexts, and also accounts of the differences in plumage that you see as well.
Kirsty: That makes total sense. I don't know about you, but I've never really thought about female birds in this way. Their appearance and their sounds, their adaptations help them and their chicks to survive in their environment. You may argue that female birds are not getting the love and attention they deserve from birdwatchers and Western Science. Vicky is working to change this.
Vicky: Another reason that females may benefit from not being as colorful as males is because they do spend a lot of time around the nest and around their young. And in that context, bright colours aren't really going to service you in any way. And the biggest threat that female birds face at the nest is predation. So predators and predators won't just come for their offspring, they'll come for the female as well. And so bright colors, really, it's you don't want to draw attention to where your nest is. And so that would explain why in a lot of females, the colors aren't necessarily as flash and bright as the males, because females that do have those colors historically probably wouldn't have survived. And then if we extend that, it makes sense that females (even though they do sing) don't sing as often as males. If you're sitting on a nest and you're singing from your nest location, you're probably going to draw attention to where that nest is or even in the vicinity of the nest. Now, that doesn't mean that females don't do that - there are some species where females will call from the nest and they make noises at the nest. They do it in particular context and there's a risk involved with doing that.
Vicky: Females really have to weigh up when they use vocalisations and why and just subtlety of behaviours around the nest in general. So that refers to their colors being dull, but also when they time coming and going from the nest. So I guess people often will say, "Well, then why? Why study female birds? If they're quieter and they're not as pretty as males, why would you bother?". And honestly, I think that we are we are geared for quick fixes and immediate gratification from when we see things just in the world generally. If you walk down the street, you can hear a male bird and you're like, "Oh, wow! I can hear that song!". The beautiful thing about females is their subtlety and the fact that they have as complex song as males. But you have to be willing to listen and also understand that when you hear a bird sing, it's not necessarily a male. You may disregard it and think that it is a male, but it may not be. And so the beautiful thing about female birds is they make you take a moment, they make you step back and just really observe. My argument for why female birds are so fascinating is because if you just sit and watch, they're always doing something that is quite interesting, particularly in the breeding season nest building. If you've ever had the pleasure of watching a female bird build a nest the way they are seeing and fly around the territory and also female birds are not meek and mild. They can actually be very aggressive, which is one of the reasons that they sing. And that aspect of female bird behaviour really captures me as well. So in the case of lyrebirds (which has been my study species), female lyrebirds raise their offspring all by themselves. They build a nest all by themselves, and then they have to defend this territory all by themselves. They have to defend that territory from other female lyrebirds that will come and destroy their nests. One of the findings we found recently was that female birds will destroy each other's nests, they'll destroy the eggs of each other. And I've even witnessed in the field a female lyrebird attacking a fledgling of another female. And so this is really amazing because you see these beautiful birds and they're actually really, really aggressive. And so then you tie it back to vocalisations. Well, what's the purpose of that? And for female lyrebirds, it's not just to deter predators. You also need to deter other females. When you're walking through the forest and you're hearing the male lyrebirds during the breeding season doing all these elaborate sounds and songs, it's very obvious where they are. If you hear less long songs but frequent kind of moving around you, it's probably a female in her territory going around the perimeter of her territory to make sure that other females don't come in. Females have to be thinking all day about making sure that advertising to other females to stay away. But also then they have to balance that as they don't want to advertise too much in the wrong location because then you're actually advertising to that female, "Well, here I am and here's my nest". I really think female birds really need our appreciation and understanding that when they use vocalisations. It's really with purpose but this beautiful, fine balance between raising their offspring and making sure that they don't get eaten in one. I just think that that is amazing and we just don't give them enough credit. The beautiful thing about females, too, is that you can just sit. And if you sit and watch and listen, you can learn so much about these birds, which I just I really appreciate.
Kirsty: Vicky's research into bird adaptations is really important because it is not only building our understanding of birds, it is also building our understanding of the language of other animals (including humans).
Vicky: When you study birds and you're so focused on one thing, it's hard for the broader population to understand why you would bother. And don't get me wrong, people, most people are really interested in what I do. But there's also, I would say, a good portion of those that think that it's interesting and think, "Well, why? Why are you doing that? That can't be that important". And apart from their intrinsic value, because I really believe in the intrinsic value of animals and studying them just for the sake of studying them, there are lots of reasons why vocalisations and studying birdsong are particularly important. One of those reasons is the linkage between birdsong and vocalisations and language in general. By 'language in general', I mean language in other species including humans. Birds have this beautiful capability of producing many different sounds. Vocal mimicry is actually widespread amongst songbirds. The famous ones are obviously lyrebirds, but many, many birds use vocal mimicry - magpies and thornbills for example. They're all around us. And so this idea of not only being able to produce your own sound, but another sound is really interesting and the way birds make up their vocalisations into these syntax (how vocalisations are constructed). By studying birds and understanding those structures of vocalisations, we can then link that back to humans to better understand how language develops over time. By looking at one type of animal, we can provide insights for human cases as well, which can obviously be very important for our understanding of human language. So there are linkages there as well, but also vocalisation. Studying vocalisations is really, really important for conservation generally too. There's an entire center in the US now at the Lab of Ornithology based around this idea of vocalisations for conservation by studying animal sound. So animal sound in general, it allows you to know what's in the environment without having to go out and physically see an animal that can be really, really difficult to do. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are listening today that have heard lyrebirds but have never actually seen one studying vocalisations. You can stick a recorder out in a forest and get these beautiful soundscapes that allow you to understand what animals are there. And then if you leave them out for long enough, you can understand when they're there at what time of year. If that changes when different weather events happen, and in the face of climate change and these extreme weather events that we are seeing, the study of vocalisations is allowing us to get a better understanding of the animals in that environment to help with conservation.
Kirsty: Like many other Weekend Birder guests, one of Vicky's favorite things to do is to sit and watch the birds around her.
Vicky: Female birds are just wonderful, and if you just need a moment in your day, really just going for a walk is great. But if you can just take a moment to pause and just watch, whether it be a female bird or a male bird, you'd be really, really surprised about what you can learn from these birds just by taking a moment and watching. And I really encourage and promote the idea of of getting involved with citizen science groups that are studying animals and bird behavior. I've worked closely with the Sherbrooke Lyrebird Research Group, for example, as part of my PhD. And the knowledge that this group has collectively is absolutely astounding. They've been studying these birds for many, many years, and I think collectively their knowledge can extend beyond that of scientists throughout the world. The scientific scape is there for everybody - if you are interested in contributing to that, there are many, many conservation projects throughout Australia that you can get involved in and there can be really, really simple things. It could be just walking through a forest and noting the birds that you see and submitting that to a website somewhere. There may be opportunities for you to get involved with a project where you can do desktop work, where if you're unable to go outside and walk around, you can work from your computer and upload images or sounds or songs that may be recorded. There are lots and lots of ways to get involved, and I really encourage that because while it's wonderful to get outside in nature, you can still experience it in many different ways including from in your own home. I really would encourage that as much as possible because I really believe that this science landscape is for everybody, not just for scientists.
Kirsty: You can learn more about the Sherbrooke Lyrebird Study Group and other citizen science projects. In previous episodes of this podcast, Vicki says that one of the ways to become a better birder is to get to know bird sounds.
Vicky: As a person that studies vocalisations, I really value sources that enable me to do that. And so I have to two websites that I love and I encourage everybody listening to please go and visit because it really will change your understanding of birdsong. So one of those sites is called xeno-canto and another one of those sites is called Macaulay Library. Now, these sites are spectacular and they link back to the citizen science that I was just talking about. So you today can go out and record a bird in your garden and upload it to these websites and be a citizen scientists. And I, as a scientist writing papers, go to these websites and use these vocalisations that people have recorded. It's such a valuable tool as a birder just casually because you can hear something and hear it fleetingly and not remember it. Everyone's different, but it takes me a little bit of time to remember what something sounds like. And so I can go to this website and play a song and really secure in my mind what that birdsong is. I'm in awe of the many, many twitchers that are listening to this, that can hear one little note of a song and be like, "That's a thrush!" or whatever. I actually don't have that talent. For me, it takes a bit more time. These two websites are really, really helped me with that. The beautiful thing about them (that I just want to plug just from an interest perspective beyond the birding) is that you can go to these sites and you can look at sound so they have images of sound. These images are called 'spectrograms' and you can go and you can actually look at what bird sound looks like. That's really wonderful if you're hearing impaired or you are better visually than hearing things by looking at them, you can actually see how similar birdsong can be to language. And I just love that. I really, really encourage anyone to go on these sites and it will really help you to go out into the into the natural environment and and know what birds you're hearing.
Kirsty: The best time of day to hear the orchestra of bird songs and vocalisations is at dawn.
Vicky: You're going to hear most birds in the morning. They have this beautiful time of day called the 'dawn chorus', where birds are kind of waking up and re-establish in their territories. It's the best chance of seeing what birds are in your environment or hearing what birds are in your environment. Morning is the best time of day to do it. I know we're not all early morning people but I promise you that you will be rewarded nicely if you can get up in the morning and go out early. I think that that will give you your best rewards if you go out. In the peak of heat in the middle of the day, what you're going to see and what you're going to hear (especially as a new birdwatcher), will be really difficult. If you go really early (which I've had the pleasure of doing for many, many years), if you go pre-dawn, and then you sit and you listen as the sun rises you go from that beautiful silence of dawn to this amazing chorus. I feel like that's something that is around us all the time and we don't appreciate enough. If you want to really feel good on a weekend and start your day nicely, that's one way to do it.
Kirsty: Visit weekendbirder.com or check out the episode notes to access the free tools that were just spoken about. Many thanks to Vicky for opening our eyes and our ears to the appreciation of female birds. And many thanks to ecologists like Vicky who are working tirelessly around the world to build a knowledge library about birds for people like you and me. Stay tuned for more great Weekend Birder episodes and in the meantime, you can find our growing community on social media by searching for @birderpod on your favorite platform.
