I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Reposting partly for the science partly for the meerkat photos

⚠️ Please report sightings of dead birds for possible testing for Avian Influenza. ⬇️ 📌 In England, Wales & Scotland: www.gov.uk/guidance/... 📌 In Northern Ireland: www.daera-ni.gov.uk/... 📌 In Republic of Ireland: aviancheck.apps.serv... #UKBirding #BirdingWales #BirdingScotland

dplyr 1.2.0 is out now and we are SO excited! - `filter_out()` for dropping rows - `recode_values()`, `replace_values()`, and `replace_when()` that join `case_when()` as a complete family of recoding/replacing tools These are huge quality of life wins for #rstats! tidyverse.org/blog/2026/02...

Darwin Day 2026, Endless Islands Most Beautiful on Weds 11th Feb 2026; 1.00pm–5.00pm, Julian Study Centre, UEA. An afternoon of excellent talks linked to islands and adaptation. See attached flier for the schedule and the link to sign up. Everyone is welcome.

Come and work with us this spring!

All the best Alex! Been an absolute pleasure ☺️

PhD student @ghtrabin.bsky.social with his great poster at ASAB, all about avian visual fields! Along with @smthmpsn.bsky.social and @gayatrikumar.bsky.social, a great group of first year postgrads doing research in bird flight and vision. Give them a follow!

Very excited to be giving a talk at #BES2025 where I’ll be presenting my Masters research that I carried out @biology.ox.ac.uk supervised by @sheldonbirds.bsky.social and @rona-learmonth.bsky.social 🐛🌡️

Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...

This week's seminar - last of this term - is our annual Christmas Seminar. We're welcoming Prof Tim Birkhead back to where he studied as a DPhil student ~50 years ago (can you can spot him in this 1978 photo?) Tim will be talking about "Sperm to Egg: Making a Biologist" - 3pm LT1 in the LaMB

Interested in applying for a postdoc on wildlife #microbiomes in my lab at Uppsala University, Sweden? The local Birgitta Sintring Foundation gives out generous 2-year postdoc scholarships to early-career researchers who apply with a PI at the department. Deadline Feb 9. www.uu.se/en/departmen...

Amazing work from Daniel Field on origin of modern birds and diversity in today’s EGI seminar

Excited to introduce the Latent Layers Framework – now out in @behavecol.bsky.social – to help think through when and why network differences confound inference in (comparative) social network analysis! 🧵 tinyurl.com/3k3yahwy

Interested in how life history may shape the gut microbiome of a wild mammal? Keen on getting to work with an iconic long-term study system in Scotland? Check out this PhD opportunity with me, Josephine Pemberton and @gfalbery.bsky.social Reach out to chat more! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

My new favorite kind of meme is "here are detailed instructions on how to turn off AI". 🔨

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

We did a thing. 😬

Interested in fighting, flies, and evolution? I've got a project at Durham investigating the ecology, evolution, and genetics of aggression in fruit flies (Drosophila): iapetus.ac.uk/studentships.... All questions welcome - just shoot me a message or email!

Wrote up a little intervention post/explanation for my class about why using LLMs for trying to learn programming (as first time learners!) is bad and detrimental datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-11...

Reminder of today’s seminar at 1530 - actually will be in Lecture Theatre 1 - come along!!

Reminder of today’s @egioxford.bsky.social seminar from @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social in @biology.ox.ac.uk - will actually be in Lecture Theatre 1

1/6 The Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD) is alive! Co-BreeD covers key biological parameters relevant to cooperative breeding research in birds and mammals. Get your copy of this updateable & open-access database: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @animalecology.bsky.social

Congrats to @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, who's been awarded honorary membership by @britishecologicalsociety.org, the highest honour given by the society! A recognition of exceptional contribution to the generation, communication and promotion of ecological knowledge and solutions 👇 bit.ly/474eoAb

Exciting times ahead - I'm beyond delighted to be joining @bristolbiosci.bsky.social in 2026! 🎉🕷️🎉🐌🎉 I'm also looking for a PhD student to join @multipleye-lab.bsky.social in our new home! Come and study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes with us 🌃🕷️👀 👇

Want to do a PhD in biology? Our projects for 2026 are now live! If you're considering a PhD, or know someone who is, we have projects that span the biosciences to serve as inspiration. Reach out to our academics to discuss these or more options if you have an idea of your own 👇 bit.ly/dphilbio25

New preprint! 🌳🐛 We combined experimental and genomic methods to study local adaptation of winter moths to variation in oak budburst timing in Wytham Woods, UK. With @andreaestandia.bsky.social, Lea Beaupere, Ella Cole, and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great to see this published - really interesting framework for thinking about social relationships in animals

Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*? In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts. tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7

New preprint! 🪶 We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️ With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Large citizen science datasets are powerful tools for biodiversity science, but they may have biases. Nice new paper from @louisbackstrom.bsky.social et al. showing that for eBird and Birdtrack lists there is a tendency for rare species to be over-represented onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

BIRDBASE, a new publicly available dataset, brings together "ecological and life history traits for 11,589 bird species across 254 families." #ornithology

Sir John Gurdon early work in Xenopus was one of the (many) cool reasons I studied biology at university! Sad to hear his passing

I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...

📢🚨Please share! We’re hiring! 📢🚨Have a strong interests in wildlife ecology and gut microbiome bioinformatics? 3 year Senior Research Associate for NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant. Apply here: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18.... Informal enquiries welcome! drgldavidson.github.io/ACMEresearch

Beautiful rainbow from the new Life and Mind Building @biology.ox.ac.uk - it’s been great moving in ☺️

Come and work with us! Three new academic posts (including Animal Behaviour) and superb facilities in the new Life & Mind Building

Water quality at Wolvercote Mill Stream is the worst since records began, according to Environment Agency testing. As a designated bathing site, water is tested for e. coli and intestinal enterococci which usually get into water from sewage & animal manure. environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles...

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN. It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package. Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

Are you studying animal sociality? Confused about the "non-independence" of social network data: what on earth are they? are they threatening your results? should you attempt to get rid of them? A thread summarising a part of our new paper (ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...).

Celebrating the publication of our big collaborative spatial-social meta-analysis of density-dependent transmission effects, out now in Nature Eco Evo! doi.org/10.1038/s415... (or rdcu.be/eD6eB)

"It took her nearly two decades to find a permanent academic position. She found occasional work as a visiting professor, filling in for someone on leave for a year or two. She earned grants to fund her research... but she was often living on unemployment benefits" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s...

Survey alert! If you're a social behavioural ecologist, please fill in our survey aimed at gauging interest in, barriers and solutions to, comparative social behaviour research. Thanks! forms.gle/KZJDMtLCJhvY...

Hannah Lemon gave a very clear and interesting talk about social inheritance of social relationships from mothers to their daughters and sons (to a lesser extent) in the Rum red deer @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social. @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org

Fantastic new job, advert now live - Associate Professor in Animal Behaviour, Dept Biology, Oxford. Closing date 8th Oct. Come and join us! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

@devisatarkar.bsky.social gave beautiful talk on the extent to which social network traits are heritable vs. shaped by the spatial & social environment at birth using long-term data on blue tits 🐣🧬 @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org

Whoever heard of birds splitting up? A new study from @biology.ox.ac.uk and Leeds researcher Dr Josh Firth reveals wild great tits show signs of 'divorce' months before breeding season. 🔎 Vital clues to social relationships in not just birds, but other species too. bit.ly/4fLH3Nb @ox.ac.uk