Do you live close to BTO HQ in Thetford, Norfolk? If you do and would like to find out more about the birdlife in your local area, why not sign up to take part in our ‘Meet the BTO’ Online Session on Monday 16 March? Register before Friday 13 March ➡️ www.bto.org/our-work/eve... #NorfolkBirding

✨ Vote for your favourite bird image! ✨ We need you to pick our new Birds in Greenspaces icon for our brand-new mobile phone app! Vote here ➡️ bit.ly/VoteBiGsIcon Will it be the Goldfinch, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Pied Wagtail, Green Woodpecker or Chaffinch? 🤔 Voting closes on 15 February.

📢 We're looking for a PhD student to focus on habitat use of wintering Curlew in and around coastal SPAs. Apply now ➡️ bit.ly/CurlewPhD The student will be based at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social and BTO, starting in October 2026 for four years. 📆 Deadline to apply: Wednesday 18 February #Ornithology

Longevity record! Last night, @washwader.bsky.social recaught this Black-tailed Godwit, first caught and ringed 29 years ago. The metal ring was wearing thin (and was replaced) but the bird is still going strong. Blog about longevity of waders: wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w... #ornithology

The Least auklet (Aethia pusilla) everybody! *SO* tiny 👏 #leastbutnotlast #auktober

What an honour to open the 50th @waderstudy.bsky.social conference with a plenary on Spoonbill migration culture on the beautiful stage of DOT in Groningen. The Spoonbill-inspired concerto 'Solanum' by Tjibbe Stelwagen and Caspar Kootstra made for a perfect tandem wt the arts. #ornithology

Here we go then! Our 50th annual conference is officially open 🥳 #IWSG2025

Thank you to all of today's speakers for a really interesting array of talks! So much great research, and more on the way tomorrow! #IWSG2025 #waders #shorebirds #ornithology

Sound on 🔊 Over the last few months our team released 56 headstarted Curlew in Norfolk! 🙌 The birds are already visiting the coastlines and moving around nicely.

📣 Nominations for this year's round of @bou.org.uk awards are currently OPEN! Your chance to recognise those key people in #ornithology 👏 Find out more and make your nominations here: bou.org.uk/about-the-bo... 📆 Deadline 15th Sept 2025 1/5

Looking to help breeding waders? Here's a tool-kit: wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/t... Blog summarising presentation at @bou.org.uk workshop at IOC Vancouver by @jengill.bsky.social 🎂5️⃣ #ConservationScience🌍

Happy Birthday to @washwader.bsky.social 66 today! 🎂 Still at the forefront of shorebird research. There's a blog about the first 6O years: wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/08/15/s... Here's the Black-tailed Godwit section of the blog 👇

Shorebird chicks are hatching here in Greenland! This year, egg predation has been intense, especially on Turnstone clutches, so every successful hatch feels extra special. This Turnstone male brooded its four chicks right next to my phone. A bit too close maybe...

It’s #SwiftAwarenessWeek! These amazingly adapted #birds eat, sleep & mate on the wing! 🐦‍⬛🌀 📝Add them to your GBW list if they’re nesting in your home or feeding low over your garden 🐞 Gardening for wildlife helps boost their insect prey! #CitSci #UKBirding

In NE Greenland today, I watched a male Sanderling give his all to impress a female-- song and calls, slowmotion dive and nest scraping. She was not impressed and calmly kept foraging. #shorebirds never cease to amaze.

At least 1298 Curlew chicks were released after headstaring (hatching and rearing in captivity) between 2014 and 2023. What have we learnt? New paper in @waderstudy.bsky.social journal: www.waderstudygroup.org/article/18880/ #openaccess 1/4 in short thread ... #ConservationScience🌎

New paper in @waderstudy.bsky.social led by @btobirds.bsky.social reviewing headstarting across Europe as a tool for #Curlew #conservation Read the blog post: www.curlewrecoveryproject.co.uk/european-hea... Read the open access paper: www.waderstudygroup.org/article/18880/ #waders #shorebirds

Our next conference #IWSG2025 in Groningen, Netherlands 🇳🇱 isn't just talks and workshops! There are some great excursions to choose from too. More details here ⬇️ www.waderstudygroup.org/conferences/...

⚠️ We need your help to survey priority sites for Dartford Warbler, Woodlark and Nightjar as part of our Heathland Birds Survey. 🐦 Find a vacant survey site near you ➡️ www.bto.org/heathlan... #Ornithology #UKBirding #BirdingWales 📷 Dartford Warbler by Philip Croft/BTO

Is well know species differ in the prey they eat, but do individuals also specialise? Here I discuss how oystercatchers differ in diet, whether stab or hammer to enter prey, whether attack upper or lower surface and whather attack left or right side. youtu.be/XDMX-nwSXvY?...

Establishing how long waders live for is a key factor in understanding their population dynamics. WWRG has been researching waders on the Wash for over 60 years: new longevity records for the species demonstrate the value of long term sustained studies wwrg.org.uk/record-break...

Yesterday's news that a @washwader.bsky.social Oystercatcher had broken the @btobirds.bsky.social longevity record for a wader (now 43 years from ringing to latest capture) begs the question: "How long do other waders live for?" Answers here: wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w... #ornithology

#FrescoFriday and here’s some beautiful birds from Pompeii. 📷 mine 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

1/ Have you seen these Curlew? Please report any Curlew you see with yellow leg flags ➡️ bit.ly/ReportACurlew Here’s why these birds are so special. ⬇️ #WorldCurlewDay #Ornithology 🌍

Us too, Curlew… us too. 😴 #MondayMotivation #WorldCurlewDay

🧵1/8 Welcome to #BOU2025 Frontiers in ornithology, our annual conference. Over the next 3 days, we’ll be in-person in Nottingham, and here on Bluesky Follow the #BOU2025 for conference threads and to join in! #ornithology 🪶🧪

The IWSG conference will be in the Netherlands this year and for anyone who hasn't noticed there are still a few days left to apply for the grants to help support members from low-income countries! Details can be found on the @waderstudy.bsky.social website -> www.waderstudygroup.org/news/

Calling all wader-lovers and researchers! Can you help with this project ⬇️

We are running competitions for World Curlew Day again this year! You can enter our art, poetry or baking competition! The deadline for entries is in a month: midnight of 10th April 2025. For full details, read our post about the competitions:

🚨NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER🚨details how we delineated six #MarineFlyways using #seabird #tracking data & novel analytical methods ➡️ doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004 🧪 #ornithology #migration #BLScience @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social We are grateful to GOBI @iki-germany.bsky.social for funding the project 🧵1/5

1/ Can you help us survey Woodlark for our Heathland Birds survey? Monitoring has started for this species, so visit our website to sign up. ➡️ www.bto.org/heathland-birds-survey #Ornithology #UKBirding

Nature valentines. Thanks to my Patrons for keeping me drawing www.patreon.com/birdandmoon

Our final discussion session is on 'Post-release Monitoring' by @modelbirder.bsky.social from @btobirds.bsky.social. 📷 @wisebirding.bsky.social

We had an excellent first day for our headstarting workshop yesterday! Today we will be looking at various aspects of headstarting in more detail. We have two pre-recorded talks, and we will share the links. The other sessions will be discussions, and we will try to capture key points here.

The first day of our headstarting workshop consists mainly of pre-recorded presentations, which we will be sharing in a thread here. 🧪 #Birds #Conservation #Curlews #UKBirding

Our eighth talk is 'Headstarting Curlews in Norfolk (England)' by Chrissie Kelley from Pensthorpe & @modelbirder.bsky.social from @btobirds.bsky.social The project is working in Norfolk to take eggs from airbases that were scheduled for destruction & rearing them for release as headstarted curlews

1/ Great news! 🎉BTO, JNCC and RSPB are making decades of Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data freely available for everyone in the conservation and research community. This includes over 7 million records! 📝 Find out more ⬇️ or read the paper➡️ bit.ly/_BBSData #Ornithology #UKBirding

How can you tell that this hedge is Norman and nearly a thousand years old? youtu.be/kM3F-BkKgds?...

JOB VACANCIES! We're seeking 3 Conservation Scientists to join our friendly team of #seabirders at the RSPB. We're an inclusive team where everyone is welcome. DEADLINE: Friday 3rd January. #conservationjobs #ornithology #seabirds #science Details: app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...

We humbly interrupt your scroll to bring you the news that Wisdom—the world's oldest known wild bird—is breeding again, age 74. Go on girl. 😍

Day 4 of our #CurlewAdvent features this adorable Curlew chick, taken by @ellen-bradley.bsky.social during Curlew Action's trip to Belgium earlier this year. What an absolute cutie ❤️

Is it possible to count breeding shorebirds/waders without spending days and days in the field? wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/c... Blog summarising study in @ibisjournal.bsky.social journal. Need to understand species' behaviour. #ConservationScience🌍

Out now!🔊 The SMP Report provides an overview of the status of the UK’s breeding #seabirds since 1986. It further highlights declines as shown by the recent Seabirds Count, a census of Britain & Ireland’s seabirds. Read the report➡️ www.bto.org/smp-publications @rspb.bsky.social #Ornithology

⚠ New paper by Rüffler et al. investigating behavioural-based co-existence of seabirds in colonies feeding on the same fish: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... When species differs in hunting and flying traits, they naturally feed at different distance from the colony, and co-existence easily arises 🦆🐟

Very sad news today #waders #shorebirds ➡️ www.birdlife.org/news/2024/11...

The desperately sad news that the Slender-billed Curlew is now globally extinct: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #conservationscience🌍 #ornithology