Mating systems

My interest in mating systems lead me to study a bird species with suspected sex-role reversal - i.e. female competition and male choice - for my PhD. Reversed courtship roles are generally rare in species with extensive parental care, however about 1% of bird species seem to show this trade. These species represent the proverbial exception to the rule and therefore provide a great opportunity to study the factors influencing sexual selection.

In my PhD I studied pheasant coucals, a tropical cuckoo species for which only opportunistically collected data were available previously. During three field seasons I established the social mating system of these species (paper in prep.) and observed their copulation behaviour (paper in press). I also collected blood and feather-samples to investigate their genetic mating system (papers in prep.). These DNA samples were then analysed using micro-satellites I developed as a Marie-Curie fellow in Kirsten Wolff's laboratory at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne [PDF]. 

Yes, labwork can be fun.

Just go to the green-fingers lab!