PhD candidate Grace Blackburn, from UWA's School of Biological Sciences, is examining animal behaviour, cognition and communication – and her investigation takes place close to home.

Her current research focusing on wild Western Australian magpies has captured media attention, featuring in recent and upcoming news on television, radio and online.

The work, much of which is conducted with magpies on UWA’s Crawley Campus, has produced interesting findings, soon to be published, about the impact of urban development and accompanying noise on the behaviour and communication of these wild birds.

In the latest episode of Research on the Record, Grace shares the findings from her research, talks about her love of working with wild animals in the field and reveals what changed her mind from becoming a vet, to pursuing a higher degree research path.

She also talks candidly about the importance of female mentors at the early stage of her academic career and the often daunting road ahead as she nears the end of her PhD.