Very happy to have been able to help get this experiment out in the world! Amazing work by @mandyridley.bsky.social and the Pied Babbler team!

So happy to see this come to print after life took over & there was a delay btw data collection and writing up! We conduct an experimental test of central place foraging theory & ask how provisioning/distance trade-offs might differ in a cooperative breeder. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Response to intruder number is related to spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in a wild bird #bird #Cognition #NumberSense doi.org/10.1093/behe...

The media release for our recent article on magpie quantity discrimination is out now! Check it out below 🐦⬇️ www.uwa.edu.au/news/article...

Thrilled to see our magpie research featured in "Why Do Birds Sing?" now out and recently highlighted in The Canberra Times! Amazing to see how our work on female song and social complexity in magpies is resonating ❤️ @mandyridley.bsky.social @gblackburn.bsky.social

Protecting darkness and minimising light pollution is important for human and wildlife health. Please consider signing and sharing this petition. Petition EN7346 - National Legislation for Light Pollution Regulation and Dark Sky Preservation www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/... Closes 19 September.

Our new cognition paper is out, headed by @gblackburn.bsky.social, and one of the last chapters from her exceptional PhD thesis!

New paper alert 🚨 We test quantity discrimination in #magpies using both a cognitive task and playback experiment and find that birds can discriminate between quantities in both! Interestingly, performance in the two task was negatively correlated! 🐦 @mandyridley.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Researchers across the major universities in Western Australia working in partnership with government epitomise the multi-faceted approaches required to deal with shot-hole borer. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Interesting research, suggesting poorly designed or excessive private lighting is contributing as much to ALAN pollution as street lights. 🌏🧪 This seems to be one of the few areas where our own actions can make a significant positive contribution! Turn it off! 💡 theconversation.com/street-lamps...

Check out new #CEB paper by @gblackburn.bsky.social et al. that found that Western Australia magpies sing less when exposed to anthropogenic noise, but not necessarily louder. 🐦🚧 This may save energy, yet could cost social & territorial signals. doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... #Bioacoustics #UrbanEcology

Another #PhD chapter out in the world! We investigate the impact of anthropogenic #noise on the territorial song of WA magpies 🔊🐦🔊 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @mandyridley.bsky.social @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social @dutourmylene.bsky.social

Our new paper, led by @gblackburn.bsky.social, finds a very sharp decline in the rate of carol calls (the main territorial call) given by magpies during anthropogenic noise, but no change in the amplitude. @dutourmylene.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Our new #cognition paper, led by Masters student Holly Hunter, has just been published in Animal Cognition! doi.org/10.1007/s100... @ceb-uwa.bsky.social @mandyridley.bsky.social

@gblackburn.bsky.social & I recently wrote this piece in Nature Climate Change about the potential conservation implications of climate-induced divergence of song. This may occur more often under a rapidly changing climate & cause greater isolation between popns. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great piece on our new research highlighting the severe impact of using second generation anticoagulant rodenticides. We are killing quolls snd Tasmanian devils when we poison rats. www.watoday.com.au/national/wes...

Lethal second-generation rat poisons are killing endangered quolls and Tasmanian devils theconversation.com/lethal-secon...

Happy to share that today I started a #Postdoctoral #research fellow position at Central Queensland University working with Capricorn yellow #chats! 🐦 Very excited for this new adventure!