New paper out, the last one from my PhD 🎓! Age shapes behaviour, survival, and reproduction. By using longterm great tit data, we ask whether age covaries with territory quality, and if territories show spatial age structure over time: tinyurl.com/ya2xp3zc

Fantastic news. 😍

🚨 Come join the fantastic long-tailed tit team 🚨 🐦We are recruiting a field technician to collect behavioural data on a long-term studied population of wild long-tailed tits (passerine birds). 🪶20 months contract in Sheffield, UK. 🌲Deadline: 23/11/2025. jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Technici...

I am recruting a #postdoc for a project investigating the evolution of avian heat tolerance in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Fieldwork over broad latitudinal gradients, common-garden experiments, and more. Read more and apply👇 shorturl.at/WA1Qa Would appreciate a re-post! @evoldir.bsky.social

We're all looking forward to this week's seminar, being given by Kristen Ruegg from Colorado State University on the power of avian landscape genomics in the Genoscape Project. Seminar at 3.30pm on Friday 7 Nov in Lecture Theatre 1 in LaMB. Welcome in person or to join online - details ⬇️

Avocetta journal is now also on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/avoc... Follow us for news regarding our articles and other ornithological news! 🦜

Very happy to finally have this out! 🎉 A review of the diets of European insectivorous birds. Huge thanks to Klaus Birkhofer, @johanekroos.bsky.social, @henrikgsmith.bsky.social and all co-authors! 🙏 #ornithology @biologylu.bsky.social @vogelwarte.bsky.social @helsinki.fi doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

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

Similar optimism (tho that ofc was a croc-eyed optimist)

I'm very excited to go back to Oxford, where I did my undergrad, to talk about the group's recent work on jackdaws and what it tells us about the evolution of sociality and cognition!

A 1st winter male SIBERIAN RUBYTHROAT caught on North Ronaldsay!!! #RareBirdsUK #BirdingScotland #OrkneyBirding

We’re kicking off the year’s EGI seminars this Friday - follow @egioxford.bsky.social for details of these & forthcoming jobs, papers etc

I jumped down the Desmond Morris rabbit hole and was quickly rewarded. DM was elected chairman of Oxford United FC in 1978 (great piece of trivia on its own). He also re-designed the crest, introducing the (Minoan-style) ox-head, which is still in use (current version below).

New paper out now in Ecology & Evolution: "Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms: A general framework for labile traits" Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Now that we're properly moved in & set up in the new Life & Mind Building, we're pleased to restart our tradition of Friday afternoon seminar speakers, kicking off with Alex Thornton of @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social at 3.30pm on 31 Oct. Also live streamed: see below for details. Corvid-themed for 🎃

They knew how to put a good title in the old days...

Amazing autumn day at the woods helping with some teaching. I missed the ring ouzel that surprised some (well just one) of us, but the colour of the trees was amazing!

I'm advertising a PhD project on the evolution of horizontal transfer. Interested in this or other topics in evolution and species diversity, please get in touch. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

New paper out in Oikos (2025)! Cities reshape selection on carotenoid-based, plumage colouration, in 2 related bird species The widespread urban paleness of carotenoid-based plumage colouration might be driven by natural selection! 🥚🐣🐦🏙️🌳 doi.org/10.1002/oik.... #UrbanEvolution #Birds #Oikos

And the Michaelis-Menten model is the same one we use in ecology to model type-II predator functional responses! Enzymes function a lot like predators, "feeding" on reactants

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...

New work from @devisatarkar.bsky.social et al on how effects of climate variability- particularly more unusual events - depend on developmental stage & prevailing conditions in Wytham Woods great tits.

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...

Interesting qualitative study of generative AI use by students that shows that variation in their awareness of how much they rely on it explains their ability to either (a) use it to learn versus (b) developing dependency. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Han documentado por primera vez al noctulo gigante cazando un pajaro. El registro es brutal pero lo es mas cuabdo conoces a las autoras y sabes el trabajazo que ha conllevado www.eldiario.es/sociedad/doc...

I needed to go through some pictures from the fieldwork I did in Corsica, and in addition to the amazing landscapes

JOB ALERT: We have an exciting Senior Research Assistant post available for a project tracking predators and prey simultaneously starting early 2026. We need someone with experience tagging adult raptors or wader chicks. This you? app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...

Morning ringing in the woods which are turning into autumn colours!

MSc internship / Field Assistant position available in our group! Impact of urbanisation on avian reproduction 🐦🏙️ 🌳 Deadline: 7 Nov 2025 All details 👉 www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/... Please share it around!

🚨 Master’s project! Curious how birds find their way? 🧭🐦 Analyze decades of ringing data to study abnormal migratory routes and uncover what these deviations can reveal about the mechanisms guiding birds on their journeys. Drop me an email for details! #ornithology www.vogelwarte.ch/de/wir/mitar...

Matching habitat choice?

Nice morning ringing at Wytham woods

🧪 New paper out! Growing up, wall lizards undergo a UV-visible “awkward phase” (who doesn’t?) that we can’t see—but they can. These ontogenetic color changes may mediate juvenile–adult interactions by delaying the onset of adult social signals. doi.org/10.1002/jez.... #colsci #lizard #ontogeny

I found this mallard today. It seems like some kind of hybrid—if it is, is it possible to identify the species? Or is it just a chromatic aberration?

Tenemos nueva publicacion en el blog de la @eco-aeet.bsky.social de la mano de @davididiaquez.bsky.social y como siempre, animaros a participar!

Si necesitáis una lectura amena y entretenida sobre coloración y aves, he escrito una pequeña pieza para el blog de la AEET. Pido disculpas de antemano por el autobombo :-) blogaeet.org/2025/09/22/l...

Looking for enthusiastic candidates with training in behavioural ecology and experience in bird fieldwork. MSc also required!

Enjoying this more than expected. Time to do a big year? youtu.be/zl-wAqplQAo?...

Nice morning at @rspbotmoor.bsky.social

🚨 PhD alert 🚨 We are looking for a highly motivated student to use 🧬 genomics 🧬 and 🛰️ bio-logging 🛰️ approaches to disentangle cultural and genetic contributions to seabird migration 🐣 Think this is you, or someone you know? Then come to our Q&A session at on 29/09 and check out the ad below!

We offer a fully funded 4-yr contract for a PhD candidate in Evolutionary Biology to join our group (www.eco-evo-devo.com). The project will combine genomics and ecophysiology to understand the evolution of developmental plasticity in spadefoot toads. For requisites and contact info please check 👇

Counting the days until the next one!

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

What a nice end for a really nice conference. Lovely time in Olomouc meeting old friends and making new. Really amazing conference @hnbirds2025.bsky.social

After a wonderful week in Sevilla attending the Spanish Society for Ethology and Evolutionary Ecology, now it time for the @hnbirds2025.bsky.social conference, after a birding trip through Central Europe. :-)

🔬📢 Oferta #FPI (2026–2029) en el ‪@mncn-csic.bsky.social. Proyecto sobre vínculos de pareja en aves polígamas, éxito reproductivo y redes sociales. @diegogil.bsky.social & Lorenzo Pérez Rodríguez (@irec-csic-uclm.bsky.social) Excelente entorno académico y personal 🐦🥰 @behavecol-lab.bsky.social

Academia is all over this. It’s an ugly irony that nobody values tertiary education less than a professor seeking a field assistant with a biology degree to work unsalaried and covering their own travel costs.

Alguien me podría ayudar a identificar este pequeño animal multicolor que me he encontrado en el sur de España?