Team

David Wheatcroft

Associate professor

david.wheatcroft@zoologi.su.se

I’m an Associate Professor at Stockholm University, interested in communication within and across species boundaries. Members of my group use acoustic, behavioral, comparative, and neurogenomic perspectives on birds, primarily the pied flycatcher. Check out some past and ongoing projects and send an email if you have any questions or ideas to discuss!

Lan Ma

PhD student (2022 – present)

lan.ma@zoologi.su.se

I am generally interested in understanding the development of bird songs. Previously, I completed my MSc at Uppsala University where I studied extra-pair mating of collared flycatchers. For my PhD, I will look at early song response and how song response could be affected by environmental factors and parents’ behaviour.

Damon Groot

Research technician (2023 – present)

Miriam Kuspiel

Research technician (2024 – present)

Luis Leal

Bioinformatician / Researcher (2025)

Population genetics

Fanny-Linn H. Kraft

Postdoc researcher (2020 – 2024)

fannylinn.kraft@zoologi.su.se

Sofia Haley

Masters student (2020 – 2021)

Marie Pairoto

Masters student (2023 – 2024)

Quanxiao Liu

Researcher (2024 – 2025)

AI-based detection and classification of songbird vocalizations.

Samyuktha Rajan

PhD student (2021 – 2025)

samyuktha.rajan@zoologi.su.se

I am broadly interested in understanding the evolution of birdsong as a complex, multifaceted signal. Previously, I completed my MSc as part of MEME (Erasmus Mundus Programme for Evolutionary biology) where I worked in two different directions: evolutionary physiology and avian acoustic communication. For my PhD, I will look at the interplay between innate and social processes on song learning and subsequently, its impact on macroevolutionary processes such as speciation. 

Mario Gallego-Abenza

Postdoc researcher (2023 – 2025)

After I completed a PhD investigating social cognition in wild ravens (Vienna University), I joined the Wheatcroft Lab in February 2023 due to my interest in behaviour and communication. My current projects aim to explore the consequences of song divergence between geographically distant populations and the role of song complexity in intra-sexual competition in pied flycatchers. Additionally, together with Prof. Wheatcroft, we lead a research project investigating the potential trade-offs of adapting acoustic sexual signals to anthropogenic noise using field crickets as model species. Observing animals in the wild and questioning their behaviours from the functional and mechanistic perspective occupy (among other hobbies) my free time.