william feeney (PI)

Group Leader (Donana Biological Station, Spain)

I’ve been based at a few universities and research institutes across Australia, Germany, the UK and the USA over the past few years. I am currently a Group Leader at the Donana Biological Station in Seville, Spain. I work about equally across marine and terrestrial study systems and my work broadly focuses on understanding the behavioural ecology and evolution of species interactions.

colleen poje

PhD Student (Cornell University, USA)

Colleen graduated from her undergraduate degree at SUNY College of Environment and Forestry (USA), where she majored in Conservation Biology. After working on various projects throughout Australia, Costa Rica and the USA, she starter her PhD with Prof Michael Webster (Cornell University) and I in 2019. Colleen is working on understanding avian social systems, and the evolution of mating strategies in the cooperatively breeding fairy-wrens at our Australia field site.

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rebecca bennett

Honours Student (Griffith University, AUS) (2020-2021)

Rebecca graduated from her undergraduate degree from Griffith University in 2014. After working within the environmental industry focusing on vertebrate pest management, she returned to Griffith University in 2020 to complete her Honours with myself and Prof Darryl Jones (Griffith University). Rebecca’s research used long-term data to investigate the effects of drought conditions on arid-zone birdlife. After graduating, she secured a PhD scholarship to continue her research career at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

Mel Christi

Honours Student (Griffith University, AUS) (2021-2022)

Rebecca graduated from her undergraduate degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2017 and a graduate diploma in 2019 before starting Honours with myself and Prof Hamish McCallum in 2021. During her Honours, she worked closely with citizen-scientists to examine how closely-related finches responded to variable climate conditions in arid-zone Australia. Since graduating with First Class Honours, she’s been working as a Field Ecologist the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

James kennerley

PhD Student (University of Cambridge, UK) (2018-2023)

James graduated from his undergraduate degree at Durham University (GBR) with First Class Honours, and after working on ornithology projects throughout the Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Honduras and the UK, he started his PhD with Prof Andrea Manica (University of Cambridge) and I in 2018. James worked on brood parasite-host relationships at our Australian study site, and in particular focused on understanding how these relationships operate in areas where more than one cuckoo and host exist and interact with one another. He has recently submitted his PhD and has just started as a Biologist with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory in Canada.

website