In recent years, significant advances have been made in understanding the behaviour of birds, including communication, cognition, sexual selection, social and sensory behaviour, parental care, personality, cooperation, and many more. This virtual issue, launched to coincide with the Behaviour 2015 Conference in Cairns, Australia, in August 2015, comprises 12 important studies on bird behaviour from Emu.
These papers encompass studies undertaken in Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, Argentina and Brazil, and include the post-copulatory sexual selection, parental roles, and cognition observed in Zebra Finches; the prestigious Rowley Review paper on bird migration in the southern hemisphere; attacks on humans by Australian Magpies; and the form and function of duets and choruses in Red-backed Fairy-wrens.
Together, the publications in this virtual issue, reveal key aspects of the cognitive, sexual, social and migratory behaviour of birds in the southern hemisphere.