Look at the facial (rictal) bristles on this Icterine warbler (which had hit a window in Lecce, Italy). These are generally associated with low-light foraging, including in nocturnal migrants like this one. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great to see Rufus here, and posting about his exciting work locally.

Sea-watch over the Adriatic Sea from Puglia, Italy this morning, in a decent onshore wind, delivered three Eleonora's Falcon moving NW up the coast and briefly harrying a house martin over the water - a dream for me. No photos, but here's some of the constant line of Scopoli's.

Steep Holm has Avon's only(?) breeding Cormorants, a scarce southern sea-cliff breeding population of the coastal subspecies, carbo. They are difficult to see from land, but most with small chicks now.

Glad to have timed a chance mid-morning visit to Severn Beach with a clear-weather push of Arctic Skua moving up the river. w/ @andy-1963.bsky.social, Adam and Emily.

Last weekend’s ringing trip to Steep Holm started off well, but migrants cleared as the cloud lifted. Great to see work to clear the plateau of invasive growth progressing too. Marsh harrier, and lesser Whitethroat were new for the year there (the harrier for the decade).

Here is our Biol. Rev. paper on the downsides of extra-pair behaviour in birds, expertly led (and summarised) by @jorgensoraker.bsky.social 🪶🧪

There's been a push of new birders arriving here recently and I'm glad to see it, including @joeharkness.bsky.social whose work well worth following. Here is @stevedudley.bsky.social's excellent blog on how BSky works again - bou.org.uk/blog-dudley-...

Late to posting about the extraordinary vismig on the Severn this weekend, including good numbers of Common Tern and Little Gull, stacking high before tracking inland, but also Whimbrel, Black and Little Tern (a patch tick for me). @severnsidebirds.bsky.social

Almost four years after its conception at the hole nesting birds conference in Oxford, @jorgensoraker.bsky.social and I have had our paper, The costs of extra-pair behaviours in birds, accepted in Biological Reviews. More soon. 🪶🧪

I’ve long been told ‘Barwit’ day is the best day on my adopted patch. While today was 1500 away from the best day, seeing 520 come in low up the Severn, see the M4 bridge and then head NE inland was a great spectacle @bristolbirding.bsky.social

Before I’ve had one vismig this year, there are tree pipit back on territory and singing in mid wales 🏔️

There are still seabirds moving against a cold easterly wind. Fewer Manx, kitt and fulmar. Highlights are two puffin and six common scoter and a great northern diver south. @cbwps.org.uk

Another hour from 17:00. Pom skua (!!), 990 auks (poss razorbill majority), another 2500 Manx, 48 gannet, 21 fulmar, 3 GND (inc a br. plumage), 90 kitt and 6 sandwich tern. @cbwps.org.uk

~6,100 Manx moving south from St Austell bay over an hour and a half watch just now. Also, 1500 auks, 90 kitts, 28 fulmar, 58 gannet, 2 bonxie and 2 GND. #cornwallbirding

Purple sandpiper on the rocks beyond Mevagissey outer harbour - these are semi regular here in spring.

Nice to see LMCG reported, now at least 5 years old. Despite the population collapse in Derbyshire, this bird has been recorded on passage every year since, although now alone. We have no idea if/where he breeds, but not with the West Yorks group, so a +1 on our English pop. estimate.

📢Fully-funded #PhD opportunity with us ❓Quantifying animal #movement patterns & behavioural #interactions in a changing world 👥Joint position in @bristolbiosci.bsky.social & #MacquarieUniversity 📆19th April deadline tinyurl.com/343acaev #maths #modelling #data #fieldwork #Australia 🙏PLEASE SHARE

Well done Maria who presented her MRes, on the fitness consequences of female extra-pair mating in sparrows, at @asab-meetings.bsky.social. Paper to follow later this year 🤞 #ornithology

This is excellent opportunity for 14(!) young birders to visit Lundy, boat and board included -- lundybirdobs.org.uk/news-and-sig... Additional funding for young people to get out to a bird obs. through the BTO here -- www.bto.org/our-work/you... 🪶

Voting is open for BTO & Marsh Awards! 🎉 Vote now & celebrate an inspiring ornithologist ➡️ www.bto.org/medals-a... The Marsh Charitable Trust are supported by the Marsh Charitable Trust & presented by BTO at the Society of Wildlife Artists Natural Eye exhibition at London’s Mall Galleries.

First slow worm (?) of the spring, last week in mid Wales.

Four redpoll - and an almost in focus flight shot - were a welcome garden first yesterday. They're quite scarce in the city here.

It's finally feeling like Spring at Aust after a good push of Wood pigeon and finches this week - mostly Chaffinch Linnet and Siskin with fewer Crossbill and Redpoll.

First vismig session of the season on the Severnside patch produced Crossbill, Redpoll, Siskin, Red Kite and 1,200 Woodpigeon with @j-dunning.net. Grounded migrants included my first LRPs of the year and a free-wheeling flock of 226 Knot on the estuary. Spring sure comes early nowadays #ukbirding

Spring has begun... over the last week we have received 35 reports of Sand Martins, seven of Swallow, four each of Wheatear and House Martin, and two Red-rumped Swallows! #ukbirding

Six, wild, twite returned to a breeding site in the Pennines on Friday (📸: M Rowell)

This is a difficult read, considering we all want the same thing. Here's the rewilding view on the feasibility of reintroducing pipilans Twite back to the hills of England 🪶🧪 derekgow1.substack.com/p/the-song-o...

🔊 KEYNOTE NOMINATIONS Who would you like to see deliver a keynote at #BOU2027 ? Avian disease ecology | 6 - 8 April 2027 | Nottingham, UK & Zoom & Bluesky Nominate via link ⬇️ bou.org.uk/event/avi...#BOU2027 #ornithology 🪶

New role! 📢 We're looking for a dynamic and experienced Science Manager to join us at BTO. Apply now ➡️ www.bto.org/jobs #Ornithology 📆 Full time, Permanent. 📝 £46,344 per annum. 📍 Hybrid working. Deadline for applications: Monday 9 March.

Thrilled that last weekend’s @birdobscouncil.bsky.social AGM at @btobirds.bsky.social HQ in Thetford confirmed @lundybirds.bsky.social has successfully completed its 3-year probationary period and is once again a fully accredited member of the British & Irish Bird Observatory network 🥳 #ukbirding

Seemingly limited justification for reinforcement for the 'Critically low' (actually Green Listed) Long-eared Owl population: 'decreasing winter roost counts' (= Continental migrants short-stopping?) & UK breeding population apparently stable & limited by food & Tawny Owls #UKBirding #Ornithology

This year, I will submit an application for an independent fellowship.

New (competition funded) PhD opportunity with me, @iaciac.bsky.social and @dralgernon.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Higher-order networks and animal communication. Suited to someone keen on network science theory/computational modeling and keen to adapt this to ecology & evolution.

A female Blackcap, wintering at Aust, was first caught and ringed while wintering(?) at @flamboroughbird.bsky.social in 2023. 🪶

Eleanor Grover took this cool photo of some of our colour-ringed Starlings on @lundybirds.bsky.social. These birds are all colour-ringed as breeding adults (April-June), sharing space with the long-running sparrow project. lundybirdobs.org.uk/news-and-sig... lundybirdobs.org.uk/what-we-do/b...

Our article, a birder’s guide to HPAI, was published today in @britishbirds.bsky.social - it’s open access this month. We explain how bird-flu infected seabirds in 2021/22 and the importance of citizen science to montoring future outbreaks in the wild. 🪶🧪 britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti...

We’re always looking to add competent birders to the Skopeo directory for ad-hoc, paid bird surveys in GB and Ireland, especially ahead of the busy breeding season — if you’re interested send us an email at [email protected]

Wow, this is spectacular! Evolution of beak size in an urban population of juncos in response to the loss of supplementary food (bird feeders) during the COVID pandemic, and subsequent regression. Is the UCLA campus the new Daphne Major? pnas.org/doi/full/10....

A crowdfunding appeal has been launched to secure the future of the Beacon Ponds Little Tern Project – one of the UK's most successful seabird conservation programmes:

HPAI is having a huge impact on scavengers. Here, 84.3% of dead black vultures in the US HPAI positive. Pathology confirms that digestive tract is the initial site of viral entry during ingestion of high viral doses with strong epitheliotropism. 👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Some bird news articles have been coming back as >70% ai generated recently (determined by an ai algorithm !). Some sources more than others. I’ve been removing these from the feed to avoid click-bait and misinformation creeping in. 🤖

The single Brambling was still with the linnets and chaffinches wintering at Aust midweek, but was mostly associating with Reed Buntings.

A peregrine on the Wills tower dropped two snipe axillary coverts while we were having a coffee at Bristol Museum this morning.

This chiffchaff has been on Gratitude road since Christmas. Pale throat and breast, brownish above with yellow on the super-c, feels Scandi/Northern. Appreciate looks and light can be deceiving. #BristolBirding

I've started 2026 with a great day's patch birding in excellent company. Russian white-fronts at dawn, an excellent wader roost, Pintail, Pendulines, a flyover GW Egret (not easy here) and 1,300 finches in a field of Chicory. w/ @matthall95.bsky.social & @kidphotographer24.bsky.social

Just less then two weeks left to comment on proposed new guidance on nesting birds and commercial ecological surveys. birdsurveyguidelines.org/nesting-bird... 🪶

Finding a confiding first-winter Twite on Reydon Marshes yesterday, just 2 km from home, was pleasing and at an area where large numbers used to winter in Suffolk - I have old video of a flock of over 80. Nowadays, birders twitch them in Suffolk... #ukbirding #suffolkbirding

Some small tweaks to the UK birding feed today, let me know how it can be improved.

Excellent winter birding at Aust this morning, mostly focussed on the 600+ linnet using the set-aside pasture (we managed to ring 30). Possibly two firecrest also wintering here. Only eight greylag geese over in the cold NE.