Doctor Fiona Backhouse
Dr Fiona Backhouse is an acoustic and spatial ecologist with a focus on the ecology and evolution of lyrebird vocalisations. She is particularly interested in how anthropogenic interference and changes in habitat impact the vocalisations of birds.
Fiona received a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from The Australian National University in 2016. She completed her PhD at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment in 2023 with a thesis on the geographic variation in the vocalisations of male Albert’s lyrebirds, supervised by Professor Justin Welbergen, Dr Anastasia Dalziell, and Professor Rob Magrath. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (USA) under the supervision of Professor Irby Lovette. While at Cornell she researched the geographic variation, evolution, and function of song and dance displays in both Albert’s lyrebirds and superb lyrebirds.
Fiona joined the HIE as a postdoctoral research fellow in January 2025. She is working with Professor Justin Welbergen and Dr Anastasia Dalziell on their ARC Discovery Project on avian vocal mimicry. This project investigates the origin and maintenance of vocal mimicry with a focus on Australian endemic songbirds.
Areas of research
Behavioural ecology; evolutionary biology; bioacoustics; conservation biology
Grants and Awards
- 2022 - John Cairney Award for Outstanding Student Publication, HIE
- 2022 - Travel award for the International Society for Behavioural Ecology Conference
- 2018 - Funding for Research and Education Projects, BirdLife Northern NSW
Selected publications
Backhouse F, Mirando H, Herwood T, Odom KJ, Dalziell AH, Welbergen JA, (2025) 'Display court ecology in male Albert’s Lyrebirds', Emu, vol.125, no.1, pp 80-87
Backhouse, F, Welbergen JA, Robinson BW, Dalziell AH (2024). Performative manipulation of the environment by displaying Albert’s lyrebirds. The American Naturalist, 204(2): 181-190. doi.org/10.1086/730523.
Backhouse, F, Welbergen, JA, Magrath, RD, Dalziell, AH (2023). Depleted cultural richness of an avian vocal mimic in fragmented habitat. Diversity and Distributions. 29: 109-122. doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13646.
Backhouse, F, Dalziell, AH, Magrath, RD, Welbergen, JA (2022). Higher-order sequences of vocal mimicry performed by male Albert's lyrebirds are socially transmitted and enhance acoustic contrast. Proc. R. Soc. B. 289 (1970): 20212498. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2498.
Backhouse, F, Dalziell, AH, Magrath, RD, Rice, AN, Crisologo, TL, Welbergen, JA (2021). Differential geographic patterns in song components of male Albert’s lyrebirds. Ecology and Evolution. 11: 2701– 2716. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7225.
