A male rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) in winter plumage. Ptarmigan is from Gaelic 'tarmachan' meaning "croaker". The p- was added when people mistakenly assumed it was a Greek word. A bird forever warning people: "A werewolf!" (just in case of werewolves).

Hope 😍

Christmas came early, my "big chicken paper" has been accepted 🎉 very grateful to everyone involved and looking forward to sharing it soon

Tighter visa rules will cost UK up to £10.8bn giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

JOB ALERT! 🦜🔭🌿 Are you passionate about #Birds, #Ecology, #Fieldwork, #Research? The University of Salford is looking for a #ResearchTechnician to assist with ecological monitoring of #Ringneckedparakeets in Manchester, UK. More info & how to apply 👇 Hurry! Closes 15 Dec @salforduni.bsky.social

Today in end-of-phd-brain: had a hyper-realistic dream where I came up with some great research ideas for an animal that, unfortunately, only existed in that dream

Relatable Corvid

Love looking through all the submissions on the Gulls Eating Stuff project website. Getting pretty good coverage of the UK too! If you have photos of gulls eating stuff, you can submit them at citsci.org/projects/gul.... Thanks to @scistarter.bsky.social for promoting the project too :).

This #GivingTuesday please consider donating to @abcmicrogrants.bsky.social to support undergraduate students globally!! 🫶🗺️ Help us make #animalbehaviourresearch more inclusive 🐝🐝🐝 Sign up to be a monthly donor, or make a one time contribution using this link opencollective.com/animal-behav...

A huge congrats to Dr Jai Lake! Jai just gave his exit seminar at Macquarie on why lizards are social. To be slightly more precise, his PhD was about the mechanisms underlying sociality. Papers are submitted and in prep! Watch this space. Jai was cosupervised by Geoff While at Univ. Tasmania.

Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door. This is who it was:

New results means new punny titles

New study on the way 📣 I am currently raising cute quails 🐥 to study the effects of enrichment on the development of the brain, cognition, behaviour, and health! I am learning loads of new skills @ecobird.bsky.social

🐦 EcoBird is hiring a Postdoc in animal cognition! Join us + @themanybirds.bsky.social to investigate innovation & problem-solving in birds. 📅 Start: as early as Jan 2026 🌍 Funded through UGent’s international mobility scheme More info & how to apply ↓ www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...

Turns out gulls don't like being shouted at (or stared at!) New paper led by excellent masters students @uniexecec.bsky.social with @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Is the psychology replication crisis (at last) catching up with animal cognition? "Our results indicate low statistical power and inflated effect sizes in both primary studies and meta-analyses." Preprint here: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Interested in early life learning and cognitive development ? In our new pre-print we present data on developmental trajectories of three cognitive traits spanning wild meerkat pups critical life transitions 👇🏼 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It took almost a year to write this review on causes and consequences of ranging in chicken 🐔! This was a huge collaborative effort by @ecobird.bsky.social @pec-exeter.bsky.social and @vitorhbf.bsky.social ! I am very proud of the outcome. You can check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.32942/X22...

Just last week, one of the cinereous vultures born at Planckendael this spring was transferred to Bulgaria as part of the ongoing reintroduction programme. We visited the acclimatisation aviary to check in on our feathered friend — doing great and getting ready for release next spring.

New preprint out on bioRxiv 🌳 doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🌳 Using data from 19 forest plots in Flanders, we found that forest structural complexity isn’t a consistent predictor of multidiversity and responses across taxa were mostly weak or inconsistent. @ecobird.bsky.social | @fornalab.bsky.social

Social relationships promote access to food and information in wild jackdaws https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.25.684536v1

Excited to announce that Eli Garcia-Pelegrin and I are co-editing a special collection for Animal Cognition on "Social Cognition in a Human World". Do you study how urbanization, pollution, heat stress, fragmentation, ... affects cognition? We want to hear from you! link.springer.com/collections/...

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...

Exciting ASAB news: increased grant money 💰💰 😍😍

Wonderful to see this project published! We were glad to contribute a small part to this impressive collaborative effort through ECoBird.

🐦Funded PhD @Bristol for UK-domiciled applicants of Black heritage ✨ How does human pressure impact the stability and longevity of bird populations in the Global South 🌍 Train in R & Bayesian modelling with partners in Tanzania, Kenya, SA, @zslscience.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Fancy joining us? Check out this excellent @royalsociety.org Career Development Fellowship: royalsociety.org/grants/caree... If you're eligible & are interested in social behaviour, vocal communication or anthropogenic impacts on wildlife, feel free to DM or email me. @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

🚀 Calling early-career biologists! The @biologists.bsky.social Travel Grant gives you up to £800 to attend conferences, workshops, or lab visits. 🗓️ This round closes 30 September — don’t miss it! ✅ Apply here: www.sebiology.org/grants/grant... #ScienceFunding #TravelGrant #Biology

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Postdoc job alert! We are hiring a NYU-based postdoc to work on our project on the social and environmental determinants of aging. The 3 year post will be based in James Higham's lab and will focus on endocrine, immune, and inflammatory aspects of aging. Please share! apply.interfolio.com/173938

Full circle ! 🥚

Super happy to share the first chapter of my PhD, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface ✨🐀 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... Iridescence in mammals is not as rare as we thought, but it’s all created in the same way!

Accepting applications for Graduate Students! PhD & MSc I am seeking highly motivated individuals to join my research team. Application details here: https://bit.ly/4mlBd6x Deadline 01 Dec 2025 Please share widely! (1/3) 1/3

🚨 Calling researchers, students, technicians in cognition 🚨 We’re running a 10-min anonymous survey on how animal cognition is defined and studied across disciplines (from ecology, ethology, psychology, neurology, etc). 🧠✨ Scan the QR code & share widely #AnimalCognition #ResearchSurvey #Science

Just wrapped up one of the biggest chapters of my life—successfully defended my PhD! 🎓✨ Years of fieldwork, writing, and countless late nights have finally come together. Feeling grateful, relieved, and excited for what’s next. 🌿🪶 #PhDDefense #NewBeginnings #BehaviouralEcology

Long overdue egg update 🐥

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...

Had an amazing week in Kolkata at #Behaviour2025! Very grateful for the opportunity to present my work 🐥 Also super glad I got to explore the city and see some of it's wildlife, and to chat cool science with so many nice people!

Back in Hong Kong after attending #Behaviour2025 in Kolkata and very glad we got to see some of the city's wildlife before our return - some lovely langurs and striped palm squirrels!

Excited to share that I presented at the Behaviour 2025 Conference in Kolkata 🎓🕊️. My talk focused on nest site fidelity in painted storks, i.e. their tendency to return to and reuse nesting sites across seasons. #Behaviour2025 #Ornithology #PaintedStork #BehaviouralEcology

On my way to Kolkata for #Behaviour2025 !! Still using the same joke in my titles but I promise new results and cute chick photos 🐥

We had 4 talks, and two posters so great representation of @ecobird.bsky.social from Ghent University.

Successful @ecobird.bsky.social #EOU2025 trip. Great presentations by @cesarepacioni.bsky.social, Jolien Van Malderen, Caoimhe Abdul-Wahab, Mélibée Morel and me! Well done team 👏 Loads of fun, and surprisingly good Welsh weather 😇

@ecobird.bsky.social at #EOU2025 🐦 Looking forward to sharing our work and connecting with the European ornithology community Caoimhe Abdul-Wahab | Poster S1 @lucyjmitchell.bsky.social | Symp 11 Mélibée Morel | Oral 17 @cesarepacioni.bsky.social | Oral 8 Jolien Van Malderen | Symp 2 & Poster S1

The first of firsts is out! 😁🥳 From my PhD project on object play in wild ravens: here we validated findings from captivity and propose that object play in ravens likely serves dual functions - exploration of the physical as well as social environment! Link to paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Is aggression influenced by your social environment? This #RSOS study tackles this question by comparing Japanese #quails raised in a small & large social groups: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @vernouilleta.bsky.social @katywillcox.bsky.social @anneleendewulf.bsky.social

Bielefeld University seeks a postdoc for a 6-year scientific assistant position in Animal Behaviour, starting March 2026. Apply by Sept 10, 2025. More info: www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/biologie/forschung/arbeitsgruppen/behaviour #job

New postdoc position available 🚨 We are looking for a new post doc to work on adaptive management in geese. Are you experienced in working with animal movement patterns? And are you used to working with large files of transmitter date? Then apply before the 1st op september!