[2] In 2009 she received a PhD from the University of Western Sydney School of Communication Arts with a concentration in musicology, ornithology, and composition.

[5] During the 1980s and 1990s she headed the Hollis Taylor Band, an acoustic country trio, and was a member of other groups.

[8][9] She co-composed with Jon Rose Bitter Springs Creek 2014, which featured butcherbird songs she recorded in the MacDonnell Ranges in 2014[10] In 2017, she produced a double album, Absolute Bird, which featured birdsong, cane toad, and other field recordings.

[12] Taylor argues that the song of the pied butcherbird, in addition to being a form of communication, has an aesthetic character, with technique and inventiveness similar to human compositions, and that along with behavioral evidence supports the conclusion that birds have an aesthetic sensibility which may be analogous to that of humans.

[12][13] In 2019, Taylor was appointed an Australia Research Council Future Fellow at Macquarie University.