Our Belgian chiffchaff recovery is back! 🪶💍
It was ringed on 10th October 2025 in Liège, Belgium, and was re-trapped on 8th December 2025 in Cheshire, UK (669km movement). A small insight into where UK wintering chiffchaffs may breed (although it was likely ringed on migration). #ornithology
Very pleased with how this is coming together! Think it'll be a really fun conference, with a lovely mix of old and new faces. ☺️
Left: Adult and nestling White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus; adult on top, chick below). Right: Microscopy images showing microplastics from nestling faecal samples. Birds were handled under license.
🔈New study!
Microplastics found in 62% of White-throated Dipper broods in Scotland & Basque Country. No body condition effects detected.
Led by @cmartin3.bsky.social
@sbohvm.gla.ac.uk
@aranzadiornito.bsky.social
🔗
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#Ornithology🐦 #Microplastics #Freshwater💧
Decline in body mass in adult (left) and nestling great tits. In the nestling plot, the purple line represents all nestling and the green line those that recruited to the population as breeders. Their different slope suggest an increase in the strength of selection on nestling mass something confirmed in the MS by analysing the temporal trends in selection differentials (see link for further information)
We have published a new pre-print showing a decline in great tit adult and nestling mass of around 1 gram in 47 y. [rate of approx. -0.040 Hadanes] With @ellafcole.bsky.social, @devisatarkar.bsky.social, Sam. Crofts, @mcmahok.bsky.social & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Common Tern Museum at the Bantersee
Common Tern Museum at the Bantersee
View of the ice-bound Waddensee
Profs Miriam Liedvogel & Prof Sandra Bouwhuis - brilliant leaders of the Institute of Avian Research (with some old German ornithological leaders in the background)
A richly rewarding two days reviewing @ifv-whv.bsky.social: thriving under the brilliant leadership of Sandra Bouwhuis & Miriam Liedvogel. An exciting programme of research into avian migration & life histories with many future stars. Outstanding @commonternproject.bsky.social museum by frozen sea!
Thrilled to share my very first paper with you, now out in @avianbiology.bsky.social!
We investigated whether innate immune function varies during moult in adult & juvenile blackbirds (undergoing complete or partial moult).
🚨 PhD offer (please share)
Fascinated by bird migration and movement ecology? 🦜🌍 Join us at @vogelwarte.bsky.social to study annual cycle energetics with multi-sensor loggers in multiple species
Deadline: 20 Feb 2026
Starting: June 2026
Supervision: Martins Briedis & me
Info: tinyurl.com/2dbv9nzh
Happy to share our new paper published in @cp-iscience.bsky.social We deployed 300+ multi-sensor loggers across 17 species to investigate how different species adapt their flight strategies when crossing deserts and marine areas during migration. tinyurl.com/2c8y8xvf #ornithology #birds
Such a cool bird to be included in our chiffchaff genomics project ☺️ very exciting!
We are still interested in any found twite feathers for a study on the relationships and genetic diversity between the British groups - particularly now for birds of Scottish origin in the NE of England or, birds on the Avon.
DM me for me more info.
#birdringing
One week left on this! Good opportunity for someone interested in #behaviour, #genomics and #migration to come work will some fun seabirds and some fun people 🧬🐣🛰️
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Who thought that this project would end up in an actual book people can by in shops? I am very happy that the book is out there now and I hope that many will join the journey of the robin on its way south :)
Excited to be helping with this! Always love working with ringing data, and great to do so working on such an interesting question ☺️
Mental!!!!! White-throated Needletail phone video!!! @flamboroughbird.bsky.social #yorkshirebirding
Been great fun visiting @flamboroughbird.bsky.social last week, and am super excited to be back in a few days! Awesome start to the project with 4 birds sampled in the last 4 days, we're hoping to use #genomic data derived from feather samples to see where these enigmatic birds come from ☺️
🚨 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...
Sadly this is only open to ‘home-funded’ students (essentially UK residents) owing to the funding situation. This absolutely sucks, but would be a really good opportunity for a UK-based researcher looking to take their first steps in academia!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Supervised by the inimitable @jon-seabirds.bsky.social, @genmig.bsky.social and Susanne Åkesson (alongside me!), I'm quite excited to see how this one turns out!
🚨 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/...
Thanks both for organising! Really good fun and a lot of interesting discussions. Lots to think about!
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 🦅 🐝 🐟 🐁
We wondered much the same! Likewise the little buntings, even after 10 days looking for them I couldn’t sincerely tell you what habitat they favour (aside a bit of standing water).
2 seen up in Ivalo! Spotted by @pauldufour80.bsky.social, I thought they were wood sandpiper...
Insanely cool part of the world, very lucky to be working on these birds. Though can't say I'll miss the mosquitoes (or the sweet Gudbrandsdalen cheese, if I'm honest...). Excited to see what we learn when we sequence these guys (and their European-wintering cousins)! ☺️ #ornithology
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...
Now 11 birds recaught 😎 new pressure loggers giving insights into migration I never thought possible, absolutely incredible technology. Wouldn’t be possible without the help of friends here in Georgia, Levan, Sopo, Vano and Natia 🇬🇪 ☺️
The Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis), recently better known as pope gull (Larus urbietorbicum 😁), has now a chromosome-scale sequenced reference genome! Our first publication from the #LarOmics project, congrats @eksramos.bsky.social et al., see: wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-...
Common whitethroat in the hand having been fitted with a BTO metal ring. All birds were caught and ringed under BTO licence.
My favourite passerine, the whitethroat (controversial, I know!) 💚
It's been great observing their numbers build in our local park over the last week & excellent to catch one in our first ringing session there this morning.
📷 @joewynnbirds.bsky.social
#ornithology #ukbirding
New article on the differentiation process of common chaffinches in Macaronesia. A nice collaborative work with Brian Condori, María Recuerda and Borja Milá onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
