Excellent project led by @disnatalie.bsky.social Come and work with us at @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social!

🚨 new PhD position available!!

📢4-year fully funded #PhD on seasonal timing of egg overwintering insects 🦋🦗🪳 🔬Identify universal mechanisms underlying #insect egg developmental time under #ClimateChange 📌@niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social ℹ️ vacatures.knaw.nl/job-invite/2... ❗Application deadline: 7 December 2025

Last week we did our annual beechnut sampling. A special year because it was the 50th year in which we did this! Enough reason for Dutch radio show Vroege vogels to join us and learn all about the role of the beechnut in the ecosystem of the Hoge Veluwe. share.google/64chnRK0oVV7...

Zaterdag een zeer leuke #NESTKAST lezingendag gehad op het @niooknaw.bsky.social Met 65 deelnemers uit heel NL Thema: 100 jaar nestkastenonderzoek! Met eerste resultaten al uit 1908-1912! Uniek in de wereld! @mevisser.bsky.social We zoeken nog oude data, liefst per legsel, tussen 1950 en 2010!

New publication: Long-distance dispersal is asymmetrical with respect to age, sex and breeding latitude in a long-lived monogamous bird. #barnaclegoose #avianmigration #flywaypopulation #longdistancedispersal doi.org/10.1111/1365...

𝗩𝗔𝗖𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗬 As FAIRification steward you'll scout the nature data landscape and help researchers making their data FAIR. Do you bring quantitative/technical as well as interpersonal skills? Then this vacancy of the LTER-Life digital twin project is for you! nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

Final day of #eou2025 one more AnE speaker. Watch lisenka de Vries give her talk on difference in dispersal between populations of barnacle geese. She will speak in session population ecology 2

@hanslinssen.bsky.social will present his poster on fueling and migration choices in waterfowl birds under a changing climate. You can find his poster at spot 58. Jan Geisler will show his poster on long term study on pre migration fatting up in Brent geese. You can find him at spot 116 #EOU2025 2/2

Another day at #EOU2025 another AnE line up! Today we have @tjommem.bsky.social presenting his work on modeling virus outbreaks in the Netherlands through a common avian host. He will present in the symposium 6 session. In the second poster session (even numbers of the day we have two posters.( 1/2)

Finally we have @dd10mz.bsky.social presenting his work on the colonization of the gut microbiome in offspring during development. He will show the influence of the nest microbial environment on this process. #EOU2025 (3/3)

In oral session 2 we will have Joey Burant presenting on the adjustment of incubation behaviour in female hole nesting birds in response to local micro climate changes #EOU2025 (2/3)

Today's contribution of AnE to #EOU2025 Find Morrison Pot in oral session 1. He will update you into his PhD on starling migration. He will show some results from his displacement study on juvenile starlings in their first autumn migration.( 1/3)

Interested in host-associated microbiomes? Attending @eseb2025.bsky.social? Then come check out Symposium S07 on Monday August 18th and hear all about how microbiomes contribute to adaptation. Gut microbiomes, climate change, thermal physiology, behaviour, invasion biology, blood-feeding, and more!

Excited to share my recent paper on the evolution of atypical sperm morphology in a passerine bird (the red-browed finch) in @jevbio.bsky.social with @danielmhooper.bsky.social and others. Check out their weird #sperm! academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

Reminder! There are just two weeks left to apply for this postdoc position. Send in your applications before the end of August.

New #postdoc position open 🚨 deadline 12th of September. #microbiome #ecology #reproduction

3.5-year #Postdoc position on avian microbiomes and reproduction @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social @niooknaw.bsky.social on a fully-funded ERC project focused on understanding the significance of reproductive microbiomes for host biology and fitness. Reach out for more info! nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

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!

New post doc position alert 🚨 Interested in avian reproductive microbiome? We have an exciting new post doc position available with @melissahrowe.bsky.social . Send in your applications now, deadline is the 12th of September.

We are happy to announce our very own @disnatalie.bsky.social got a Veni grant awarded for her research on winter moths!🎉🎉 We are looking forward to welcoming her back to our department. Congratulations Nathalie!!

New publication: Intensity and colour of artificial light at night affect insect attraction in a taxon-dependent manner, by @mevisser.bsky.social and others. #biodiversity #lightpollution #ALAN #artificiallightatnight doi.org/10.1111/icad...

With most nests fledged and out in the world we are concluding our 71st breeding season as a department. Despite a low occupancy in some areas and a higher mortality in chicks in others we look back on an average breeding season. #breedingseason2025

Waarom is kunstlicht zo slecht voor nachtdieren? NIOO-onderzoeker Kamiel Spoelstra legt dit uit tijdens een Klokhuis-aflevering over lichtvervuiling. Meer weten? Kijk hier de klokhuisaflevering terug (tussen 5:20 en 8:02): npo.nl/start/serie/...

Its peak caterpillar time! Which is good news for the nest box breeding birds who need the caterpillars to feed their chicks. Caterpillars are monitored in the spring using frassnets you see in the picture. Twice a week the frass (caterpillar poop) is collected and weighted. @mevisser.bsky.social

New position open! 🚨 We have a PhD position on avian reproductive microbiome available at the department. Find more information in the post from @melissahrowe.bsky.social or here nioo.knaw.nl/nl/vacatures... Deadline 29th of June.

The breeding season in our nestbox sites is in full swing! The pied flycatchers arrived last couple of weeks and started their breeding season. Meanwhile in most boxes with blue tits, great tits and nuthatches they are already at the incubation or chick stage. #breedingseason25

new preprint: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/9055 Code used in research is key to the methods and scientific output and we should ensure it’s not just "available" but easy to verify and build on. We present a practical tool to code review for scientists 🧪 work with @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social

The 2024 Nestkast report is out! Every year the NESTKAST group gathers all the data on nestbox breeding birds and makes a nice overview. A nice summary of how the nestbox breeders are doing and always a wonderful collection of the odd finds all the nestbox enthusiasts have found.

Last year I posted too early and had to retract my post 🫣, but now that all @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social nest boxes on #Vlieland have been checked, we know for sure that it is - yet again - a very early start of the breeding season! @uniexecec.bsky.social @sevans.bsky.social

New publication: Spatio-temporal #Usutuvirus model explains Eurasian #blackbird Turdus merula population trends, by @jurrianvanirsel.bsky.social and others. #citizenscience #nichemodels #transmission #vectorbornepathogen #wildlifemortality doi.org/10.1111/ecog...

Migratory Birds Advance Spring Arrival and Egg-Laying in the Arctic, Mostly by Travelling Faster | @globalchangebio.bsky.social | onlinelibrary.wiley.... | #ornithology 🪶🧪 #animalmigration 🌐

🚨Publication in @globalchangebio.bsky.social by Lameris et al. → Early snowmelt = earlier egg-laying, but only 2 waterfowl arrived earlier. → Over time, most arrived earlier—regardless of snowmelt or laying. → Why? Faster migration: shorter stopovers = earlier arrival. 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Temperatures are rising in the Netherlands and despite the very cold nights the first birds are laying eggs! 🥚🥚 First Great tit egg in the long term study this year was 30th of march which is a week later then the record first egg we had last year #breedingseason25

Always wondered what the different stages of a great tit breeding season looks like? Then good news the beleef de lente great tit camera from @vogelbeschermingnl.bsky.social are online again. Colleague Peter will guide you through the season with his blogs. www.vogelbescherming.nl/beleefdelent...

Oh oh you survived the winter but your home didn't?! Luckily the AnE assistants run a very well organized home repair business. Over the last month we repaired all nestboxes in our study areas, now with all the boxes repaired we are ready for breeding season 2025 #breedingseason25

In this paper, we present the Sarah from a 3-year common garden experiment, including a food manipulation experiment during hand rearing. Tons of work by many people.

Vind je het leuk om met dieren te werken en wil je (tijdelijk) jonge vogeltjes verzorgen? Het NIOO is op zoek naar een medewerker handopfok. Het werk bestaat uit het voeren van de jonge vogels en algemene dagelijkse schoonmaakwerkzaamheden in de maanden mei t/m augustus. nioo.knaw.nl/nl/vacatures...

Happy to share the latest paper of @utkurhan.bsky.social In one of the Corona years one of our MSc students had the idea to measure the number of people that used our long-term nest box population of great tits, for recreational activities. (1/3) nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Last Tuesday we had our very own Science Cafe, to celebrate 70 years of NIOO. This one was all about the passion in the nestbox. With presentations from @mevisser.bsky.social, a pubquiz by our very own Peter and a presentation about little owls. With 70 participants it was a big success!

Vandaag is het Valentijnsdag! Op deze dag van de liefde kondigen wij aan dat de tweede editie van het Citizen Science Café eraan komt... Op 11 maart duiken we graag met jullie de nestkast in! Aanmelden kan op: nioo.knaw.nl/passie #sciencecafe #burgerwetenschap #passie #klimaatverandering

New publication: Continent-Wide Drivers of Spatial Synchrony in Breeding Demographic Structure Across Wild Great Tit Populations, by @stefanvriend.bsky.social @mevisser.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social and others. #parusmajor #demography #agestructure #populationdynamics doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Only a few days left to apply on this position! You have until Monday to apply.

🚨 Are you interested in avian ecology and do you have a BSc or MSc diploma? Then we have an interesting vacancy for you! We are looking for a research assistant to help in the lab and the field with a microbiome study on house sparrows. @melissahrowe.bsky.social nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

In parallel session 2B @ruthfawthrop.bsky.social and @melissahrowe.bsky.social lead the session on organismal evolution within an anthropogenic niche. Make sure to find all the AnE posters during the poster sessions as well. There are plenty to look at (2/2)

When visiting the NAEM today make sure to visit the two parallel sessions organized by AnE members. In parallel session 2A Jan Geisler and Morrison Pot together with Evy Gobbens from @niozsearesearch.bsky.social will take you into the world of animal movement ecology. (1/2)

Come work with me! #sparrows #microbiomes #reproduction

Stefan Dekker wordt per 15 juni de nieuwe directeur van het NIOO. “Het onderzoek van het NIOO aan de drie thema’s biodiversiteit, klimaatverandering en duurzaam gebruik van land en water sluit naadloos aan bij mijn onderzoekinteresses”. Lees verder: nioo.knaw.nl/nl/nieuws/st...

It's February and that means we slowly start to prepare for the upcoming breeding season. Today we picked up a load of new nest boxes. Over the coming weeks we start replacing the broken ones in the field so everything is ready for the first eggs in april. #breedingseason2025

Several AnE members presented their work on goose migration, dispersal and management this week at the Goose Specialist Group meeting in the Czech Republic. We thank our Czech hosts for a very nice organized conference and our goose research family for the nice discussions.