Supporting students of ornithology and ecology is a high priority for Birds Australia, as they will make a major contribution to the future of Australia's native birds and their habitats.

2007 PAKRA Recipient

The winner of PAKRA 2007 is Anja Skroblin whose project aims to gather data on the distribution, abundance and phylogeography of the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren as well as the spatial structure of its habitat.  It will examine the relationship between patch occupancy, dispersal behaviour, population genetics and pattern of habitat patches at a landscape scale.  The effect of habitat loss and degradation on population dynamics will be investigated to predict implications of current land management practices and to make recommendations for effective conservation of riparian specialists such as the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren and other patchily distributed species.

Variation in plumage pattern and phenotypic measures were identified between catchments surveyed.  Males and females where found to differ in head-bill length, tarsus length and wing-length across catchments.  Further sampling is required to test the significance of this body-size variation.  Males have been also been found to vary in pattern of breeding plumage.  Whilst most males have entirely faun coloured backs, some males were found to have dark feathers across the rump (see photo).  It will be interesting to see if these males are genetically, as well as, phenotypically distinct.

Anja Skroblin is currently studying at ANU, and her supervisor is Professor Andrew Cockburn.