I am a conservation biologist and evolutionary ecologist with a focus on birds, especially parrots. Increasingly, I am directing my research at the landscape level as I seek to identify the broad-scale processes shaping conservation problems. However I maintain a strong interest in individual based social behaviour, cognition and tool use. This approach allows me to combine my strong background in behavioural ecology with my more recent passion for conservation biology. I am co-founder of the Difficult Bird Research Group (DBRG) at the ANU.

Professor Robert Heinsohn

Fenner School of Environment and Society
ANU College of Science
Frank Fenner Building 141
​Canberra, ACT 2600
​Australia

TELEPHONE

(+61) 2 612 52100
​Male palm cockatoos prefer certain types of percussion tool, which they create themselves from branches and seed pods.
A stunning documentary about our expedition deep into the Peruvian Amazon.
​Regent honeyeaters were once kings of flowering gums. Now they’re on the edge of extinction. What happened?

Palm Cockatoo research in the BBC

Palm cockatoos, the focal species of our newest paper published in Biological Conservation, are featured in the BBC News.

Population size of the Swift Parrot

Video abstract of our latest paper on the genetic estimations of the effective population size of swift parrots, published in Animal Conservation.

Parrots of Oceania video abstract

Summarising the findings of our review paper about the extinction risk of parrots in Oceania, published in the special issue of Emu - Austral Ornithology.