Her research area is the behaviour and cultural evolution of animal communication, especially bird song in southern hemisphere species such as the New Zealand bellbird.

[2] She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Auckland, and for her MSc studied the calls of southern black-backed gulls (Larus dominicanus).

[2] In 1981 she embarked on a PhD at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, intending to study the behaviour of semi-social wasps – until the departmental colony died.

[5] One of her field sites is the predator-free island sanctuary Tiritiri Matangi, off the coast of Auckland, where with her student Michelle Roper she studied the ecological niche partitioning of bellbirds and hihi (Notiomystis cincta).

[19][20] Her other research interests and collaborations with PhD and MSc students include the welfare of lizard species after conservation translocation,[21] analysing the chemical composition of kākāpō feathers to determine how diet has changed over time,[22] foraging ecology of little penguins (Eudyptula minor),[3] and song dialects in the saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus).