When we hypothesised female terns to have lower mercury levels than males due to egg laying, @matteobeccardi.bsky.social et al designed an elegant experiment to prove the effectiveness of this pathway. That proof just got published & the open access paper can be found here: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Out now in Environmental Pollution: 'Experimental evidence for maternal offloading of mercury pollution via reproduction' By @matteobeccardi.bsky.social, @commonternproject.bsky.social, @pablosalmon.bsky.social, @icbm-uol.bsky.social & @oscarvedder.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2025.127121

I'm happy to share with you our new paper out now in Environmental Pollution! Here, we experimentally studied the maternal offloading of mercury pollution via reproduction in an avian model species. Read the paper here for more details👇 doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

#Birds and #ClimateChange ⚠️ spoiler alert ⚠️ Check out my #EOU2025 #poster in advance about #AlpineSwifts and Extreme Temperatures... Interested? Come chat at the poster session Wednesday afternoon! link: osf.io/cfe46 @eounion.bsky.social #ornithology

So much cool avian vagrancy research presented and discussed at our #EOU2025 symposium today. Thanks to everyone who presented and attended @pauldufour80.bsky.social @joewynnbirds.bsky.social #Ornithology

#EOU2025 delegates birding at the beautiful South Stack nature reserve

#EOU2025 at the start with a plenary by Tim Birkhead! Fascinating talk about long term studies of seabirds in Wales!

Out now in Environmental Research – Anna’s new paper in which she assesses the levels of 118 contaminants in unhatched eggs and dead chicks found in the last and endangered population of gull-billed terns in Central Europe, breeding at Neufelderkoog: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Ooooh, one of our beautiful terns made it to the cover of the issue of Ethology that contains Melina's study on individual behavioral responses to novel stimuli: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Are you interested in the effects of mercury contamination on seabirds? Check out the latest @commonternproject.bsky.social paper pubblished in Environmental Research!👇 "Mercury levels in chicks of a long-lived seabird – parental effects and links with growth and survival". doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

New publication by @commonternproject.bsky.social with @coralinebcht.bsky.social, @mmoiron.bsky.social, @matteobeccardi.bsky.social & @icbm-uol.bsky.social: 'Mercury levels in chicks of a long-lived seabird – parental effects and links with growth and survival'. doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

And here it is - Justine's last thesis chapter got accepted too and can now be read as an open access paper in Environmental Research: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Cute findings for a hot Wednesday morning.

Hatching is hard work. ❤️

Arrival was earlier, but it does not look like we are going to end up with many more birds this year than last. I guess the 'silent reservoir' was used up, such that we now wait for new recruits from last year's cohort to start making up for the severe losses HPAI induced in 2022 and 2023.

Three weeks ago, the little one on the picture on the left was found cold and almost dead. But yesterday, it was the first chick from 'island A' to get its transponder. Happy fledging, little survivor. May you recruit to produce many little survivors yourself. ❤️

The facial expression of a parent with teenagers. I can relate. 😂

Weekend loveliness: retrapping a gull-billed tern carrying a GPS and getting to know a few of the newest colony members.

The tracking of the gull-billed terns of @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social is going really well and we're seeing lots of interesting variation in space use. Here's two examples of tracks collected across the last 8 days:

I am looking for a postdoc wanting to use functional genomics to understand why birds 🐦 struggle with climate warming in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Ideal candidate is a molecular evolutionarybiologist. Join us at @biologylu.bsky.social. Details 👇 shorturl.at/wijEq Would appreciate a re-post!

Individual routes of common terns Sterna hirundo are adaptive: they can be flexibly adjusted to environmental variation, as shows Kürten et al. in a new paper based on data from light-level geolocators. Read more on doi.org/10.1098/rspb... . @birgenhaest.bsky.social

68 nests with chicks now. ❤️

Here’s a video of a fun pilot study on tern personality aspects, in which Melina tested how the birds respond to a novel object placed at their nest. Linea from nest 431 did not care much about an orange cone making an appearance. :-)

ETHOLOGY: How do breeding common terns react to novelty? 🐦🪺🔺😲 Castano et al. find that females take consistently longer than males to return to the nest after encountering a novel object—and that responses vary by reproductive stage but not age. #AnimalBehavior #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1111/eth....

Fresh siblings and lots of chick ringing during today’s check of the colony. Even the rain held off to let us do our job. 🐣

Live from the field: the first 4 chicks of 2025 have hatched. ❤️ #babyboom

Just back from the #ECSconference2025 in the beautiful Azores — my first scientific conference! I presented a poster on striped dolphins distribution in the Aeolian Archipelago. So inspiring to meet researchers passionate about marine mammals, like me!🐬 #ECS2025 #MarineBiology #Cetaceans #Azores

In our latest work, we experimentally manipulated the reproductive status (gamete production) of Japanese quails to study the effects of reproduction on mitochondrial functions. See preprint for more information: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Live from the field: 328 registered birds and 121 nests today. #fieldwork #seabirds

Good morning from the Banter See! Arrival is looking comparatively good this year. 321 registered birds so far (vs. 236 on the same day last year), and counting. #phenology #seabirds

Chapter 10 is dedicated to the Banter See common terns, showing how they too have suffered from a population crash following the outbreaks of avian influenza in 2022 and 2023.

Out now, the East Atlantic Flyway Assessment 2023, raising concern about the status of migratory waterbird populations along the East Atlantic Flyway, given that 33% are declining: flyway.waddensea-worldheritage.org/resources/ea...

In other exciting news, the gull-billed terns in Neufelderkoog have started breeding too: gelochelidon.de/blog/laying-...

meanwhile in #Georgia - where and how long do #blackcaps breeding in this eastern #location migrate? @joewynnbirds.bsky.social @andalgalornis.bsky.social and @oscarvedder.bsky.social are on a mission & have already caught 9 returning #geolocator birds. stay tuned! @ifv-whv.bsky.social

Male inbreeding reduces fertility, but does not accelerate in vivo sperm senescence: an experimental approach in a polyandrous bird royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... | #BiologyLetters #Behaviour #Evolution

And here's another shout-out to the wonderful tern-and-quail team, which, led by Nathalie and @matteobeccardi.bsky.social, prepared a gorgeous hat for Justine. ♥️

Male inbreeding reduces fertility, but does not accelerate in vivo sperm senescence: an experimental approach in a polyandrous bird | royalsocietypublishi... | Biology Letters | #ornithology 🪶

Happy to share our new publication on the effect of inbreeding on male fertility and sperm senescence, out now in @royalsocietypublishing.org. Many thanks to @oscarvedder.bsky.social, @btschirren.bsky.social and @ifv-whv.bsky.social. Take a look below if you want to know more about this work👇😉

New publication by @matteobeccardi.bsky.social and @oscarvedder.bsky.social (with @btschirren.bsky.social) in @royalsocietypublishing.org: 'Male inbreeding reduces fertility, but does not accelerate in vivo sperm senescence: an experimental approach in a polyandrous bird' doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

Freshly out in Environmental Pollution – Anna’s new paper in which she assesses mercury pollution in the last and endangered population of gull-billed terns in Central Europe, breeding at Neufelderkoog, a heavily mercury-polluted area: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

ISBE26-the 20th International Society for Behavioral Ecology Conference will take place in Turin, Italy, from 20-24th of July 2026. We invite you to join us to enjoy a 5-day meeting rich in top-notch science and ample networking opportunities, in our beautiful city. Website out soon! #ISBE26

The Relative Roles of Selection and Drift in the Chaffinch Radiation (Aves: Fringilla) Across the Atlantic Archipelagos of Macaronesia | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🌐 🪶 🧪

New article on the differentiation process of common chaffinches in Macaronesia. A nice collaborative work with Brian Condori, María Recuerda and Borja Milá onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

There has been a little arrival explosion. 49 birds arrived yesterday, bringing the total to 58, among which 27 males and 31 females, aged 4 - 18. #phenology #ternscience

Anthropogenic solid waste is ubiquitous in bird nests in coastal multiple use protected areas | Marine Pollution Bulletin | www.sciencedirect.co... | #ornithology 🧪🪶 #seabirds #shorebirds

They're back! The first three terns arrived yesterday morning. The very first one was 18-year old Calimero. He was followed by 7-year old Severina and 13-year old Fabrice. All arived between 10:29 and 10:54. ♥️ #phenology #seabirds

Poor developmental conditions decrease adult body size and egg size, but not egg laying rate and survival throughout adulthood: A long-term experiment in a precocial bird | J Animal Ecology @britishecologicalsociety.org | besjournals.onlineli... | #ornithology 🪶🧪

New publication in @animalecology.bsky.social by @oscarvedder.bsky.social & @matteobeccardi.bsky.social 'Poor developmental conditions decrease adult body size and egg size, but not egg laying rate and survival throughout adulthood: A long-term experiment in a precocial bird' doi.org/10.1111/1365...

I'm very happy to announce our new pubblication out now in @animalecology.bsky.social🥳 Many thanks to @oscarvedder.bsky.social and @ifv-whv.bsky.social. Read the full text if you want to know more about this work👇 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....