Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a great tit population Abstract. Lack’s seminal work on bird clutch sizes has spurred expansive research on reproductive trade-offs, especially focusing on offspring quantity–qua

Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a #greattit population:

@lbliard.bsky.social et al. 2026:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Great paper showing impact of extreme spring weather on woodland birds (in nestboxes). Besides rain/cold affecting nestling growth, in natural cavities another major impact of extreme weather is the nest hole soaking with rainwater, which can be a big killer. Broods even drown in severe downpours.

My second DPhil paper is out! A nice example of how continuous long-term monitoring of natural populations can be so valuable for understanding impacts of climate change on wild animals 🪶

📍Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire 🌳🪺

Would not be possible without your help!

Climate extremes hinder early development in young birds

Climate extremes are on the rise, and early life is extra vulnerable 🌧️

New research led by @devisatarkar.bsky.social reveals that cold snaps and heavy rain can stunt growth and survival prospects in young great tits 👇

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...

What drives aggression? Linking Ecology, Evolution, and Genes

Interested in fighting, flies, and evolution? I've got a project at Durham investigating the ecology, evolution, and genetics of aggression in fruit flies (Drosophila): iapetus.ac.uk/studentships.... All questions welcome - just shoot me a message or email!

Examples of some recent papers from graduate students in my group - a full list of recent papers and preprints can be found here (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=pTdxVdIAAAAJ) and profile of the group here: https://egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/members

The annual Wytham Field Team Photo!

Celebrating a successful field season with great food & good company - May 2025

Front view of the Life & Mind Building, which opened in Oct 2025: The new home of Biology at Oxford

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Integrative analysis of fine-scale local adaptation of winter moths to variable oak phenology For herbivorous insects whose fitness depends on tight phenological synchrony with host plants, spatial variation in plant phenology can impose strong selective pressures and promote local adaptation ...

New preprint! 🌳🐛

We combined experimental and genomic methods to study local adaptation of winter moths to variation in oak budburst timing in Wytham Woods, UK.

With @andreaestandia.bsky.social, Lea Beaupere, Ella Cole, and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our study offers crucial insights into how wild populations may fare amid ongoing climate change, revealing how life history trajectories are shaped by interacting climate stressors and prevailing environmental conditions. Highly relevant as extreme events increase in frequency and intensity! ⛈️ ❄️ 🔥

Combined effects can worsen outcomes! When chicks face extreme heat + heavy rain, their mass at fledging can reduce dramatically (up to 27% 🔥). Timing is also important. Late broods within a season are predicted to suffer the most, fledging up to 35% lighter under extreme heat and rain ⛈️

We show that cold snaps hit young hatchlings hardest, while older nestlings are more affected by extreme rain and heat — likely because these conditions indirectly influence the abundance and activity of caterpillars, the great tit’s main food source 🐛

a 14 day old great tit nestling, ringed for individual identification

Figure from the paper showing that extreme climatic events interact with ambient climatic conditions and breeding timing within a season, in a developmental stage-specific manner, to influence nestling growth in great tits

New preprint! 🪶

We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️

With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@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

Thank you so much!!

Great tits show early signs of splitting up: researchers uncover social clues to bird 'divorce'

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

Great tit at Bagley Woods by David López Idiáquez, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford.

New research shows that the early-life environment of great tits shapes their adult behaviour more than their genetics 🐦🍃.

Read more here ⬇️

bit.ly/40SkDDT

@devisatarkar.bsky.social, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @iremsepil.bsky.social

📷 @davididiaquez.bsky.social

Lovely to see Devi Satarkar’s first DPhil paper out in print

Had such a wonderful time at #ECBB2024 where I had the privilege of presenting my PhD work at an international conference for the first time ever! Beautiful city & campus and absolutely brilliant people & research 🤩

Thanks to everyone for being so encouraging about my work 🐣

@Ben_Sheldon_EGI @iremsepil

Excited to share the first preprint from my PhD https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.11.603055 Turns out social phenotypes are not heritable in great tits!

Presenting this at #ECBB2024 tomorrow (10 am, Meerkat room). Please come along if you like social networks and birds!...

Presented my first ever poster at the @royalsociety conference on age and sociality this week and immensely enjoyed 2 days of really cool research and chatting with even cooler people 🤩

Massive thanks to the organisers for such an enlightening meeting ✨

The review also has comprehensive descriptions of the structure and function of the receptor. Along with how it was discovered and how it came to be ✨

There's more about wound healing 🩹 in there too, with a special focus on zebrafish 🐟 research! @FrontCellDevBio

this.

www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2...

Excited to share my 1st ever paper that got published last week! It's a #review on the role of CXCR3 (a chemokine receptor) in neuronal 🧠 and cardiovascular 🫀 diseases. Beyond grateful for @drchinmoypatra's encouragement and guidance as I wrote...