Behavioural Ecology and Evolution Lab
Our research combines studies of behaviour and genomics to understand the genomics of behavioural traits in birds and their importance in reproductive isolation among related species. Our primary study system is tinkerbirds, which are African barbets found in forest and savannah throughout Sub-Saharan Africa
© 2022 by Alex Kirschel, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cyprus
OUR LATEST RESEARCH
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Much of our recent work has focused on the innate songs of tinkerbirds. In Sebastianelli et al. (2024), published in Nature Communications, we show that vocal rhythm has a genetic basis linked to two genes known to affect human speech. Read the paper here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47305-5, and see a video from Springer Nature on our work here:
https://youtu.be/Iqj5WIuRqh8?si=PqFWQXrq5gqP0eSi
See video below for an example of a yellow-fronted tinkerbird singing.
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