🚨 New #seabirds paper 🚨 Following a workshop at the International Seabird Group Conference 2024 & led by @seabirdmortenf.bsky.social, we review opportunities & challenges for new technologies in seabird monitoring 🎥💻🐣 Link below! ⬇️ #ornithology doi.org/10.1093/ices...

Some good vismig on patch with the change in wind over the past two days so decided to go out ringing yesterday with @plewin.bsky.social and caught over 200 birds. 81 Chiff, 33 Blackcap, 33 Mipit, a late Whitethroat and the first Stonechat ringed on site being the highlights #ukbirding

🚨 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!

1/10 We are thrilled to announce that our new paper on conservation genomics of the Balearic shearwater has just been published online at @pnas.org! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@devisatarkar.bsky.social gave beautiful talk on the extent to which social network traits are heritable vs. shaped by the spatial & social environment at birth using long-term data on blue tits 🐣🧬 @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org

Come join us in the @biology.ox.ac.uk at @ox.ac.uk! New Associate Professor position in Animal Behaviour, with Merton College: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

ICYMI : #ASABWinter2025 will take place from December 15-16, once again in lovely Edinburgh! Registration is now open 🎉 Abstract submission deadline for posters and talks is August 29 🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♂️ More information here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

🎉 Huge congratulations to Ollie Padget on receiving the 2025 BOU Early Professional Award at #EOU2025 last week 🎉 Richly deserved recognition for an outstanding initial contribution to #ornithology 🪶 Read the IBIS citation here: onlinelibrary.wiley....

Brilliant read for those interested in movement ecology and how we can integrate costs (e.g. wind), gains (food) and external moderators (e.g. the "landscape of disgust" which is a new one for me) for prediction and use in conservation strategies! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Autumn getting into full swing at our Oxford ringing site today 🍂 62 birds, mostly blackcap and chiffchaff. Highlights were the first willow warbler of the autumn, a juvenile female Sparrowhawk, a rare pulse of acros for the site and the hoped-for addition of tree pipit to the site ringing list!

After getting back from Suffolk at midnight it was a brutal turnaround to be out ringing on patch early morning, thankfully paid off with this Tree Pipit. After ticking this species heard only last week was a joy to see in the hand. Less happy about a flyover WTE report this afternoon 😡 #ukbirding

Had a great time at #EOU2025 meeting ornithologists from across Europe, seeing their work and exploring a beautiful part of North Wales. Thanks to @eounion.bsky.social and the local organisers @bangoruniversity.bsky.social for a brilliant conference and for the poster prize!

So much cool avian vagrancy research presented and discussed at our #EOU2025 symposium today. Thanks to everyone who presented and attended @pauldufour80.bsky.social @joewynnbirds.bsky.social #Ornithology

Join us as Assistant #Curator of Vertebrates @ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿NMS! Large collections of #birds & #mammals + very active specimen prep = cool place! The ad doesn't say, but I say there's a good chance of prolongation beyond 1y. Hurry up and apply/spread the word: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/748553! 🪶🧪 #museumjobs #job

#EOU2025 Come and join us for the symposium on the importance of vagrancy in ecology and evolution. Lots of great results in the talks from the different speakers! LR4 - Friday 22 - 10:30 @alexanderlees.bsky.social @joewynnbirds.bsky.social #ornithology @vogelwarte.bsky.social

For those attending the #EOU2025 in Bangor, this starter pack might help stay on top of the conversation ;) Ping me to be included go.bsky.app/TmuEgMA

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Stephanie Harris' project investigates whether monogamous seabirds update their partners on the location of prey patches and how communication facilitates successfully raising offspring. Read now: media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/shar... @liverpooluni.bsky.social ‬

Global distribution, threats and population trends of the critically endangered Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus | doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... | Biological Conservation | #ornithology #conservation 🪶🌎

I'm delighted and honoured to receive this award from the Psychonomic Society! Thank you for the recognition and huge thanks to my fantastic co-authors :)

🦁 Happy #WorldLionDay! 🦁 Lion subspecies used to roam across the globe, with fossils showing they used to live across Europe, Asia, North America and maybe even in Peru! We now only find them in Africa and northwest India due to a mix of human activity and climatic change. Follow to find out more 😎

Almost there: Learning to navigate approximately with a grid map BehProc

📢New blog post is out on the Seabird Tracking Database Jonathan Rutter describes the distinct behaviours of Black-browed Albatross whilst they follow fishing vessels ➡️ tinyurl.com/BBAfollowves... Full paper here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Interested in animal navigation or machine learning? New paper from Joe Morford using neural networks 🖥️🧠 to investigate how animals learn to navigate 🗺️🧭 Many animals can ‘true navigate’ using intersecting cue gradients. How do they learn to use these grid maps? Find out: doi.org/10.1016/j.be...

Very excited to announce my first paper! With @sjportugal.bsky.social, published in @ecol-evol.bsky.social 🧪🌍 We studied how flocks of homing pigeons change their flight in response to different ground cover, with some surprising results... doi.org/10.1002/ece3... #movementecology #ornithology

Really pleased to see Daisy Abraham’s first paper out. About something we know very little about: what happens when birds “divorce”. We had extensive discussion with one reviewer about whether this was the appropriate term to use. “Permanent breaking of pair bond” feels too much of a mouthful…

Wild great tits display early behavioral signs of pair separation during winter, with less time spent together predicting a higher likelihood of "divorce" before the next breeding season.

Wild great tits signal ‘divorce’ long before the breeding season — even in the winter, months before the couples rebreed with different partners in the following spring New study with @universityofleeds.bsky.social in @royalsocietypublishing.org 👇 bit.ly/4lRt7TN @sheldonbirds.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

Great to see a comprehensive review of this topic - we know surprisingly little about how individual-level movements (beyond dispersal) drive range shifts in animals 🌍 There’s growing evidence that plasticity in migratory extent, routes and destinations might be a key factor in long-lived birds 🦅 🦢

New paper out 🥳 The physiological costs of leadership in collective movements. - Trying to lead the group can be stressful, so it might not always be worth it!#openaccess at @currentbiology.bsky.social @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

Glad to see this one out! The product of some thought-provoking discussions with lots of cool people 🗺️ might be worth a read for those interested in #navigation or #migration 🦅 🐝 🐟 🐁

Ever wondered how animals know where they are? Or how they find where they need to be? The answer is that they have maps and compasses built into their heads! Excited to see this new review of map-and-compass navigation led by Joe Morford out in Animal Behaviour @asab.org doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

New paper out in eLife! 🎉 Old age variably impacts chimpanzee engagement and efficiency in stone tool use elifesciences.org/articles/105... (including videos of wild elderly chimpanzees using tools! 🪨 🌰)

Why do old males produce poor quality offspring? Is it the age of their germline, or the age of their sperm? Sanghvi et al. discover some surprising answers! Read now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Late to the party but the last paper of my PhD was published earlier this year! Pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) can discriminate between pilfering and non-pilfering conspecifics, but not between heterospecifics link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Thrilled to say the first chapter of my PhD is out today in @ecol-evol.bsky.social! We used buccal swabbing & DNA metabarcoding to explore the diet of Fulmars & Manx shearwaters 🧬🐧 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New study reveals albatrosses make distinct flight hops that are almost exclusively seen when following a vessel It could help manage bycatch risk for 'hidden' fisheries 👇 bit.ly/3G86yuN @mcem-oxford.bsky.social w/ @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social @marescience.bsky.social in @jappliedecology.bsky.social

My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature! When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️ The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar bit.ly/3HvWSum

Having had time to digest the new BNG consultation, I am *astounded* at the proposed changes to the small sites metric (SSM). If the changes are implemented, the SSM could apply to developments up to 49 dwellings/1ha - affecting a lot of developments! 1/ consult.defra.gov.uk/defra-biodiv...

Am super excited that our new paper is out, it looks at how reproductive role can constrain foraging and restrict evening diving opportunities for males during the pre-laying period in Manx shearwaters🥚 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨New paper alert!🚨 We show that hummingbird beaks have changed in shape & size since around WWII, driven by the rise of commercialized feeders! 🧵 📄 Paper: dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... #ornithology #evolution #GlobalChangeBiology

Ever wondered whether other animals are curious? Check out our new paper: Do goldfish like to be informed? Now out in Proceedings of the @royalsociety.org! Co-lead by @monteirotiago.bsky.social during my PhD @biology.ox.ac.uk with Mark Walton and Alex Kacelnik doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Our review paper about same sex partnerships in birds is out today🏳️‍🌈🐦: nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... It has been so fun working with @tashgillies.bsky.social and I can't wait to do more projects together Yay to the gay birds!!! Illustration : @bertillemohring.bsky.social

Honeyguides lead you to 🍯, but if you don't reward the bird, next time it will guide you to a lion 🦁! So goes the story, but do honeyguides actually guide to dangerous animals, and is it punishment? New research suggests they do, but it's more "oops" than "revenge!" doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

A very quiet first reedbed session of the year. But our first sedge, reed and Cetti’s warblers of 2025 made it worth it. Amazing to be surrounded by two male cuckoos chasing and battling over a female for hours! Not sure she was impressed…

this was just 10 years ago. the uk was ranked highest on the rainbow europe map for LGBTQI+ rights at 86%. in 2024 the uk had plummeted to just under 52%

More signs of spring today with two sedge warblers, one willow warbler and two whitethroats singing at Iffley, plus a small passage of swallows overhead. Supporting cast of Cetti’s warblers, blackcaps and chiffchaffs against a backdrop of snake’s head fritillaries.

Spring slowly advancing this am in Oxford. Fantastic to ring our first willow warbler of the year among a flush of blackcaps and a lovely bullfinch. I also heard my first willow warbler yesterday just outside my door. Seemed to be singing somewhere in Elder Stubbs - great to hear them in the city!

🚨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....

Great to see increasing focus on the individual-level processes shaping climate-driven changes in migration. Adding to growing evidence that migratory plasticity is prevalent in long-lived birds, although not phenotypic flexibility in this case, unlike Balearic shearwaters and Bewick’s swans!