Chiti arvind
Ph.D. Student
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focus lies in behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology, especially pertaining to avian vocal signaling. This stems from my previous summer projects (via the POBE program at JNCASR, Bangalore and Khorana Scholars Program at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama). On completing my Masters' thesis on - the evolution of birdsong complexity in suboscine Passeriformes, at Imperial College London , I joined the Bird Lab at IISER Tirupati to continue my research in the field of bioacoustics. As Prime Minister’s Research Fellow, for my PhD, I am examining birdsong variation and genetic population structure of the White-bellied Sholakili (WBS), a bird endemic to the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats. What is interesting is the high complexity of this bird’s repertoire, which we quantified with a newly devised metric that uses spectrogram cross-correlation. I’m also investigating whether differences in songs and gene glow patterns along this species' distribution gradient is driven by the environment and land use change patterns. Additionally, I'm experimentally validating differences in behavioural responses to local vs non-local songs using playback experiments. Apart from most of my research that focuses on focal recording, I am also exploring phenological patterns in birdsong across one of the Sky Islands using Passive Acoustic Monitoring. I use AI/ML approaches to assess singing activity linking to the breeding cycle across a landscape that receives an asynchrony in precipitation. Apart from my focal work, amongst other research projects, I co-wrote two National Geographic grants 1) for a project titled - Testing Anthropause in soundscapes of natural and urban habitats across India's cities. Through this, we aim to examine the effect of anthropogenic noise on the natural soundscapes across seven Indian cities using Automated Recording Units. The second project was to understand connectivity patterns of endemic birds in the Shola Sky Islands that has seen anthropogenic change in the form on invasive timber plantations. Previously, I was awarded the Wildlife Conservation Trust Small Grant to create a detection framework using passive acoustic recorders to detect the critically endangered Jerdon’s courser, a bird endemic to the foothills of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh. More on my journey into the field of ornithology and ongoing research is featured here (ornithology.in, The Kodai Chronicle, BBC Sounds podcast). Apart from my research, I have been involved teaching assistantships both online (Wildlife Ecology & Basics in Ornithology)) and offline, as well as managed our long-term field station at Kodaikanal for our summer internship program. I also like to write popular science articles (Research Matters) and interact with young students while engaging them with the ongoing research in my field (Teach For India - Mumbai via WonderGirls). Projects Involved: Sholakili Song Diversity, Jerdon's Courser, Avian Malaria PERSONAL AND OTHER INTERESTS
I love to backpack, explore uncommon places and try out new cuisines (it's always all about the food). When not on the move, one can find me experimenting in the kitchen, primarily baking, which relies more on intuition rather than measures. I also enjoy maintaining a green space at home. I'd love to swim on a regular basis but in the absence of a waterbody I enjoy badminton. 
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PUBLICATIONS (* mentees)
Peer-reviewed
Pre-print
Peer-reviewed
- Vinay, K. L., Arvind, C., Goyal, N., & Robin, V. V. (2025). High-quality genome assembly of the endemic, threatened, White-bellied Sholakili Sholicola albiventris (Muscicapidae: Blanford, 1868) from the Shola Sky Islands, India. Journal of Heredity, esaf049. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esaf049
- Arvind, C., Joshi, V., Charif, R., Jeganathan, P., & Robin, V. (2022). Species detection framework using automated recording units: A case study of the Critically Endangered Jerdon's courser. Oryx, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605321000995
- Sawant, S.*, Arvind, C., Joshi, V., & Robin, V. V. (2022). Spectrogram cross-correlation can be used to measure the complexity of bird vocalizations. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 00, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13765
- Sarangi M, Ganguly P, Zenia, Arvind C, Lakshman A, Vidya TNC. (2014). Common Myna roosts are not recruitment centres. PloS One 9: e103406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103406
Pre-print
- Arvind, C., Sawant, S., Srinivasan, R., G.P. Arpitha, Goyal, N., Warudkar, A. & V. V., Robin. (2025). Distinct, asynchronous processes underlie cultural and genetic variation in a bird species with complex song repertoires. bioRxiv, 2025-11. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.02.684965
- Yang, J., Arvind, C., Barber, R. A., Johnson, O., O'Brien, K., Stanley, R., ... & Tobias, J. A. (2025). Song complexity in suboscine birds: evolutionary drivers and ecological constraints. bioRxiv, 2025-10. bioRxiv 2025.10.15.682597; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.15.682597.
- Sawant, S*., Arvind, C., Joshi, V., Dutta, I., & Robin, V. V. (2025). Linguistic Rules of Syntax and Sharing in the Complex Songs of a Tropical Passerine. bioRxiv, 2025-07. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.31.666818
- Jain, A.*, Arvind, C., Jobin, V., Lele, A., & Robin, V. V. (2025). Changes in habitat connectivity for range-restricted birds reflect patterns of woodland invasion. bioRxiv, 2025-07. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.18.665495. (in review - Biological Conservation)
- Vinay, K. L., Goyal, N., Warudkar, A., Arvind, C., & Robin, V. V. (2025). Genome assemblies for seven families of birds from the Global South. bioRxiv, 2025-07. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.31.667860
- Warudkar, A., Gayathri, R., Arvind, C., Ishtiaq, F., Dharmarajan, G., & Robin, V. V. (2025). Host niche breadth differentially modulates the effects of anthropogenic disturbance across generalist and specialist parasites. bioRxiv, 2025-05. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.11.653240
- Sawant, S.*, Arvind, C., Joshi, V., & Robin, V. V. (2021). Song Richness Index: A measure to understand the diversity and repetition of notes in a birdsong. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.18.472638
