Incredibly honoured and happy to have been awarded a consolidator grant from the ERC! This grant will expand my group and fund my research at @biologylu.bsky.social for five years, and focus on different factors that disrupt animal migration at large scales 🦅🦋🌍🧲💡🌡️. Exciting times ahead!

Take three minutes to look at pretty birds, explore radar data, and see how we connect the structure of skies to MacArthur's ideas of niche partitioning. 📡🐦☁️🎧

A typical Batumi migration scene, illustrating the idea of an ‘aerial niche’. For Steppe Buzzards in our bottleneck, that niche is often somewhere between the clouds: great to watch, tricky to count. Fascinating paper by @cnilsson.science et al: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... 📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social

So proud of this cover that features @barthoekstra.bsky.social amazing photo!

November issue out online now www.cell.com/ecology-evol... We hope you enjoy it! The cover article is by Cecilia Nilsson and colleagues, photo by Bart Hoekstra The penultimate interviews in our Disability series feature John Dennehy and Tara Cronin

To reduce negative impacts of #renewables (eg #windenergy) on migrating birds, we need to know *where* and how *high* they fly. Using weather radar, we mapped 6yrs of nocturnal migration over the Netherlands, revealing patterns we can use to avoid and minimize impacts: doi.org/10.1016/j.je... 🧪🪶

The structure of the annual migratory flight activity in a songbird | royalsocietypublishi... | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | #ornithology 🪶

Interested in how animals use the sky? 🌌 I’m recruiting a PhD student (Fall 2026, Purdue University) to study Purple Martin flight behavior and airspace use using barometric transmitters. Details ➡️ jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id... #Aeroecology #AvianEcology

New radar research is revealing how long-distance bird migrants change the pace of their migration once they reach South America. #ornithology

High above us, the atmosphere is teeming with life. New research from @cnilsson.science at Lund University reveals how the atmosphere is an ecosystem, with complex ecological processes that affect how animals move between different altitude levels of the airspace. www.biology.lu.se/article/hidd...

Truly impressive number of birds migrating tonight. More than 800 MILLION birds up in the air right now❗ #BirdMigration

7-Day Bird Migration Forecast We’re entering the peak of fall migration across most of the U.S. Hundreds of millions of birds are on the move, with Thursday and Friday forecast to be the biggest nights of the season so far — over 400 million birds predicted to be taking flight.

Are animals randomly distributed in the air, or is there a structure to where and when we find them? In our new paper we outline factors that shape habitat use in the air, from abiotic structure to biotic interactions. A lot of fun discussions behind this one! 🦅🦋🦇🌬 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

This is definitely one of those papers that goes in the, 'hm, I never really thought of it that way' category. I love these 'simple' but somehow mind shifting papers. And it's probably more relevant to my own niches than I had previously considered. Cool!

Online now: Animal niches in the airspace

Very excited to show the results of this work for the first time! Shout out to my amazing collaborators @joely-desimone.bsky.social @cenemes.bsky.social Brian Tsuru, Meredith Anderson, Colette Berg, Cat David and @emlbcohen.bsky.social

4. Flight Behaviors: Birds fly faster (higher airspeeds) and are more selective about flying with tailwinds over the Corn Belt compared to more forested landscapes. This is similar to their strategies for crossing natural barriers like the Gulf of Mexico.

1. Did you know that the Corn Belt in the Midwest USA is so vast you can see it from space? 🌽 How would this affect billions of migrating songbirds passing through each year? 🐦 Check out our new study in @conbiology.bsky.social to find out! 🧵1/8 conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Birders, we need your help! Call and tell us your high-drama bird tales: 877-4-SCIFRI

Really excited to share this new article from the lab. We synthesize the profound importance of movement and connectivity for conservation and provide a vision for future policy and management. Let's work toward a well-connected planet for biodiversity and people: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A lot of blood sweat and tears put into this one: we revisit Robert MacArthur's classic warbler study—with @eliotmiller.bsky.social and colleagues—using, among other techniques, fecal metabarcoding. 🧪🦉 📸 Ronnie d'Entremont royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @psubiodept.bsky.social

Brilliant and thought-provoking new paper by @silasfischer.bsky.social with real-world consequences for ecological knowledge and conservation!

Bird #bioacoustics folks: @kitzeslab.bsky.social is hosting a hands-on "Advanced topics in bioacoustic monitoring" workshop at AOS 2025! We'll make custom sound ID models, estimate birds' positions using acoustic localization, and discuss how to use sound ID results to make ecological insights.

#standupforscience DC on Friday

Thousands of scientists at the #standupforscience2025 @standupforscience.bsky.social protest in DC today demonstrate that we won’t take the attack on science and the federal government lying down!

Welcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025! Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide! #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

Happy Friday! We made it through another week. Take care of yourself this weekend, and try to fit in some time in nature. 🐦🌳🍃

Any talk you hear from the current administration about making the US more competitive in science and technology is utter bullshit. What they are doing is sabotaging our country for years if not decades to come.

We do this all to stay focused, not flooded. I share the sense we’ve made in a late Friday night debrief. There is a lot to feel sad & sick about. I can’t tell you things will be okay, but I can tell you A LOT about efforts to make it better. This was week 4. buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

"These kinds of shocks are going to lead to a mass exodus … for minorities in particular.” For my latest @science.org story, I spoke with early career researchers who have been affected by the federal upheaval and are concerned about what it means for their future. www.science.org/content/arti...

MaryBeth Hastings has devoted her career to human rights, one of the many people in #MD08 who have seen their lives, livelihood and work upended by the attacks on USAID. Thanks MaryBeth for reminding us: foreign aid is critical for democratic solidarity.

📣 TWO WEEKS UNTIL WE STAND UP FOR SCIENCE! 📣 On March 7th, we’re Standing Up for Science in DC & ALL 50 STATES to make our voices heard. We hope you’ll join us! ☀️ #sciencenotsilence #scienceforall #standupforscience2025

As a small token of gratitude, Kudoboards have been setup to allow the PI community to give thanks to these tireless public servants, who dedicated their careers not to the pursuit of their own research goals, but to helping us achieve ours. 2/3

There's a new guest post on the WOS blog! WOS Research Award recipient @mikkojimenez.bsky.social writes about his efforts to ground-truth radar #ornithology data in Colorado.

🪶Do you need a bird break?

This is absolutely devastating www.wired.com/story/nation...

For a video abstract, go here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdkD...

Interested in ornithological Flocks? Have some spare change to help us keep the project going until we can secure private funding? Cool, we'll take whatever you've got –– and thanks! gofund.me/68737e3a

Dear federal scientists: If you have been affected by the probationary firings and would be willing to speak with Science, please reach out to me by email ([email protected]) or on Signal. We can guarantee annonymity.