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.

Corncrake centre-out mowing. First cut silage, probably the latest in the country. Saw a very late corncrake in the nettles before mowing started. Mowing is definitely the most stressful day in the year

There is no plan to release young, and the breeding stock are many (many) generations old. There is research investment into the genetics of the remaining English birds, and the reason that they declined in some places and held on longer in others, any talk about reintroduction is overzealous.

Much change coming in 2026 for me, including a trustee position at the @btobirds.bsky.social and, as finally announced in their news letter today, chair of the Ringing Committee (RIN). I'm looking forward to the challenge 🪶

Pushing to #ornithology and #science

Volume up 🔊... The wonderful sound of a couple of hundred Twite - known here in Shetland as 'Linties' - at Loch of Spiggie in one of the 40 'Bumblebird' wildlife-friendly crops grown by crofters and the Shetland Species on the Edge team in 2025. 👏 #BirdingScotland #UKbirding #Birds #UKWildlife

Happy Christmas from Severnside Ringing (birding/vismig) Group 🪶

My mate Nadeem talking about his origin story. These Earthrise x Bupa stories are all really inspiring 🪶🧪 www.instagram.com/reel/DQ_Y4AA...

I’ve blocked more bots reporting trending tags from the UKBirding feed. It’s great to have too, bird tags are regularly in the nationally trending lists.

We’re looking for keynote speaker nominations for the #BOU Avian Disease Ecology conference in 2027. Please share widely! 🪶🧪 bou.org.uk/event/avian-...

#norfolkbirding 1/2 First half of Nov saw the total of Dusky Warblers in a mile of home increase by one to at least 12, several Siberian Chiffs & a 2-day Hume’s in the north half of TG42, which along with Sean’s last week takes the TG42 total to 8

Dusky warbler vocal in the bushes down to port mellon from Mevagissey this evening, following blue tits. Approximately w3w///collision.waitress.luckier #cornwallbirding

John Endler opens up #ISBE2024 showing his long term work on bowerbirds and how they use and manipulate sensory perception. Also reminds us to remain astute natural observers as that's where all our hypotheses come from.

📣Job vacancy!📣 Research Fellow in Global Conservation at Leeds, working with Dave Williams (and me, a bit) to assess the impact of conservation initiatives on biodiversity, carbon, and people: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... #ConservationScience 🌍

🦠 SAVE THE DATE! 🦜 I'm excited to announce that the theme of the 2027 BOU conference is Avian Disease Ecology! 📍 Nottingham, UK 📅 6–8 April 2027 🔗 Full details: lnkd.in/gPvFFDJe Please share widely! #BOU2027 #Ornithology #WildlifeDisease #AvianDisease #EcoHealth

Thermal-imaging of two shearwaters in flight over St John's Valley on Lundy last Spring. As well as the bare parts, look at the radiation from the feathered wings!

Another yellow-browed warbler and a patch-tick woodcock from a foggy Aust this morning. Only goldcrest in the nets and a slow push of finches and redwing overhead.

Having dipped the Severnside patch penduline by literal minutes yesterday I was delighted to see it was still there this morning! Patch mega! #ukbirding #patchbirding

This week we are excited to welcome Jamie Dunning from @universityofleeds.bsky.social, speaking on “Avian social networks in the wild — communication, social dynamics and disease.” Join us! Today at 12:00 | ZT702 & online

Thanks to the CASCB @uni-konstanz.de and @alexhhchan.bsky.social for hosting me today. It was a pleasure to see their exciting work on perception and decision making in person, and to talk about applied models of animal social behaviour.

So pigeon day came around again in Gwent with mine (+ the UK @trektellen.bsky.social 2nd ever highest count of 242,160 woodpigeons from Goldcliff - usual watchpoint fogged in. Most moving in huge streams up to 15k strong S/SW over the Severn east of me #UKBirding #Vismig @birdguides.bsky.social

Worrying reports of bird flu (avian influenza) are coming in, including an outbreak in Whooper Swans in the Fens. Other waterbirds are also being affected, and cases are rising. 📷 Sick Whooper Swan by Kane Brides #UKBirding #BirdingWales #BirdingScotland

Twite are now extirpated from this area of Derbyshire. More broadly declines are driven by climate change, but what’s the mechanism?

This is nice. Feeds are a powerful tool here, for bird news and dissemination of research. I wonder if the increased impact from #ornithology tags on Twitter will hold over here ? royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

We are still interested in any found twite feathers for a study on the relationships and genetic diversity between the British groups - particularly now for birds of Scottish origin in the NE of England or, birds on the Avon. DM me for me more info. #birdringing