@birdpicsandscience
Population/conservation Geneticist at Colorado State University. Avid birder and extreme nerd. More of my photos hosted at the Macaulay Library/eBird (https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?searchField=user&userId=USER416741).
A Drakensburg Rockjumper from Sani Pass, South Africa giving us a once over.
Time to start with photos from South Africa now that I'm editing them. My bird of the trip was this species, the Drakensburg Rockjumper. It was the species I most wanted to see, and it hopped up about four feet from us on Sani Pass!
#birds
#birdsofsouthafrica
A critically endangered Jocotoco Antpitta staring into your soul. Judging.
A Jocotoco Antpitta from Tapichalaca reserve, Ecuador. "Discovered" (by western scientists) in 1997, this critically endangered species lives in three disconnected patches in southern Ecuador and Peru. One of my favorite birds I've ever seen. Fundación Jocotoco is their key protector.
#birds
A Short-tailed Shearwater from Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan.
A Short-tailed Shearwater from Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan. Dad and I went out on a whale watching trip with our guide. Didn't see any whales, but did see somewhere around 10-50k Short-tailed Shearwaters. Incredible numbers, more seabirds than I've ever seen.
#birds
#birdsphotography
#birdsofjapan
A Blakiston's Fish-Owl from Washi no Yado, Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan chewing on a fish.
A Blakiston's Fish-Owl from Hokkaido, Japan. This giant species is endangered and restricted to a few locations.
Washi no Yado has shepherded generations of owls over the last few decades; they are one heck of a draw for birders. Worth a visit!
#birds
#birdsofjapan
#birdphotography
A soaring Black-tailed Gull
A Black-tailed Gull from Miyakejima, Japan. A very abundant species in the area, but still a really nice bird when seen well! Gulls get too little love.
#birdsofjapan
#birdsofbluesky
#birds
#birdphotography
Bathing White-browed Fulvettas from Kathmandu, Nepal.
Bathing White-browed Fulvettas from Kathmandu, Nepal. Super cute. Super fluffy. I have so many photos from this bathing spot that are just lovely, one of my favorite places I've ever birded.
#birds
#birdsofnepal
#birdphotography
#birdsofbluesky
New paper with @birdpicsandscience.bsky.social out TODAY!!
We found that choosing "highly informative loci" (aka high fst loci) may bias results in common population genetic analyses
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Explainer thread to come! #PopGen #PopulationGenomics #Evolution
An Izu Robin from Miyakejima, Japan. Lovely, cute little endemic species.
An Izu Robin from Miyakejima, Japan. I've kinda fallen in love with island endemics--made a trip to Japan almost entirely for the purposes of seeing these and the other endemics on Miyake.
Miyake was awesome: rainy, chill little island with nice people and great birds.
#birds
#birdsofjapan
A Spiny Babbler chilling in a ticket up the side of a sheer hill that nearly killed me in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The only endemic bird of Nepal, a Spiny Babbler. This bird was a serious adventure to get--ended up pulling myself up the side of a ~70-80% grade via all of the vegetation to get to the spot where these were active.
#birds
#birdsofnepal
#birdsofbluesky
#birdphotography
Hey there! Sure, I'd be happy to be added to that. Thanks for reaching out!
A White-capped Redstart just about to take off from a rock in a clear stream.
White-capped Redstart from the Helambru area of Nepal. This one is just about to take off from a rock in a fast, clear, high elevation stream where it was foraging.
Light was excellent so I was able to shoot with a fast shutter speed and get this one in action!
#birdphotography
#birdsofnepal
I liked this post but I definitely don't like this post.
A White-crested Laughingthrush giving a staredown.
A White-crested Laughingthrush perched on a branch from Kathmandu, Nepal. #goodhairday
White-crested Laughingthrush. Fabulous.
From Kathmandu, Nepal.
#birdsofnepal
#birdphotography
#birdsofbluesky
#goodhairday
A Blue Whisling-thrush from Nepal sitting on a rock with a "you lookin' at me?" face.
A Blue Whistling-thrush from Nepal. I adore Whistling-thrushes; both of the species I've seen so far (Blue and Taiwan) have huge personalities and usually aren't shy at all.
#birdsofnepal
#birdphotography
#birdsofbluesky
A Jungle Owlet perching from Chitwan NP, Nepal. Has a big, poofy head.
A Jungle Owlet from Chitwan NP, Nepal.
Tiny bird, big poof.
#birdsofbluesky
#birdphotography
#birdsofnepal
New paper out!
Monarch butterflies in Australia started migrating again after they spread across the Pacific. We found that ancestral genetic variation was maintained to help enable this.
#genomics
#PopGen
#PopulationGenetics
#PopulationGenomics
#monarchbutterfly
doi.org/10.1186/s128...
A Brown Boobook owl from Chitwan NP, Nepal, staring at you with big ol' eyes.
A Brown Boobook from Sauraha, Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Tracked this one around through dense vegetation for a solid 45 minutes before finally getting a nice look at it.
#birdsofbluesky
#birdsofnepal
#owl
#birdphotography
A Japanese Accentor on a mossy canyon wall.
A Japanese Accentor from Lake Miyagase, Kanagawa, Japan. One of several Accentors I saw on my trip to Nepal and Tokyo last January. Near-endemic to Japan and a really nice bird to find!
#birdsofbluesky
#birdsofjapan
#birding
A long-billed thrush sitting on a stone fence, out in the open, mocking us after we spent ages trying to photograph one in heavy riparian forest the day before. From Langtang NP, but not Langtang Valley.
A Long-billed Thrush. Very appropriately named. Usually very cryptic.
We spent an hour and a half chasing them up heavily forested streams to no avail. The next morning we walked out of our lodge and immediately saw one just chilling on a stone fence.
#birdsofnepal
#birdsofbluesky
#birding
High variation in final coverage at the VCF stage across samples. Points are samples, boxplots are distributions within sampling areas. Big range (2-6) despite downsampling bams to consistant coverage pre-genotyping.
Distribution of duplication rates in bamfiles--downsampling didn't fix coverage differences due to high overall duplicaiton rates which varied across samples! Points are samples, boxplots are distributions for sampling locations.
Had high variance in coverage at the VCF stage AFTER downsampling bams. I'd marked but not removed dups. Found out I had large variance in duplication rates (and high rates period) across samples. Good reason to remove them!
#genomics
#PopGen
#PopulationGenetics
#PopulationGenomics
A Striated Laughingthrush hanging sideways off of a branch in Tarkeghyang, Nepal
A Striated Laughingthrush from Tarkeghyang, Bagmati, Nepal. It's hard not to just continuous photos of laughingthrushes--they are all too dang pretty. Even a "bland" one like this species.
#birdsofnepal
#birdsofbluesky
#birding
#birdphotography
A Rufous Sibia bathing in Kathmandu, Nepal
A Rufous Sibia from Kathmandu, Nepal at the bathing pond on Phulchowki hill.
#birdsofnepal
#birdsofbluesky
#birding
A Brown Wood-Owl from Kathmandu
A Brown Wood-Owl from Kathmandu, Nepal. We had a really solid trip owl-wise. Found this one as we were driving back and saw a promising patch of woods to check right as it started to get dark.
#birdsofnepal
#birdsofbluesky
#birding
A Hodgson's Redstart perched on a spiky twig in Kathmandu, Nepal.
This female Hodgeson's Redstart doesn't seem to care about her spiky perch.
I love that I took this photo in the middle of downtown Kathmandu, but it looks like a grassland; makes me appreciate natural areas, even tiny ones, wherever you can find them.
#birdsofnepal
#birdsofbluesky
#birding
A Crimson Sunbird from Kathmandu, Nepal.
A Crimson Sunbird from Kathmandu, Nepal. Pretty bird! They have a large range in southeast Asia from Nepal to Borneo. We saw this one engaging in a bit of casual thievery, stealing nectar from some flowers by piercing the base.
#birdsofnepal
#birding
#birdofbluesky
A Chinese Hwamei from Yokohama, Japan holding an acorn in its bill.
A Chinese Hwamei from Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. This in an introduced species in Japan (and in Taiwan and a few other places), but this was still a life bird for me. They are a laughingthrush, which are one of my favorite taxa of birds.
#birdsofbluesky
#birdsofjapan
#birding
A Scaly Thrush on some leaf-litter in Kathmandu, Nepal.
A Scaly Thrush from Kathmandu, Nepal. I missed these in Taiwan a year ago, so I was very glad to see one last month, particularly with such a great view! In Taiwan they're found alongside the extremely similar White's Thrush, which makes them a bit of a trial.
#birdsofbluesky
#birdsofnepal
A pair of bathing Black-faced Wablers.
A Black-faced Warbler on a stick above a pool of water.
Black-faced Warblers from the same water hole in Phulchowki Hill, Kathmandu, Nepal. These birds move in big packs; when you see one, you see many!
#birdphotography
#birding
#birdsofbluesky
#birdsofnepal
A Stripe-throated Yuhina doing some wild moves while bathing in Kathmandu, Nepal.
A Stripe-throated Yuhina from Phulchowki Hill, Kathmandu, Nepal. There's a pond about 2/3rds of the way up which offers amazing photo opportunities. I took a TON of photos along with a few friends and Yubin Shrestha, who guided for us.
#birdphotography
#birding
#birdsofbluesky
#birdsofnepal
Lidth's Jay
A Lidth's Jay from Amami Island, Japan. They are one of a handful of endemic species on the island, and one of my favorite-ever birds.
#birdphotography
#birding
#birdsofbluesky