I think it's quite an old split w/ Azure-winged Magpie, so it's not thought to be an introduction currently...disjunct distribution of formerly wider range?

I know!!!! Best catch for sure

Hoopoe

Waxbill

Woodchat Shrike

Iberian Magpie

It's been great to help out on the @uniofnottingham.bsky.social undergraduate field course in Portugal. Lots of very cool birds caught, all contributing to a long-running study of their feather mites. This work has involved generations of Nottingham students, over decades! #Ornithology 🐦‍⬛

🎉 Congratulations to Will Smith for his highly-commended talk at #BOU2026 last week

Will received an @nhbs.bsky.social voucher for his talk 'Use of anthropogenic landscapes in wild Rock Doves'

#ornithology 🪶

Thank you for a great conference 😅🕊️

Exciting to finally experience my personal equivalent of ‘is there a doctor on the plane?’ 🕊️

6/6 We @jezierskimt.bsky.social now hope to compare cave vs building colonies. We hope that this will provide insights into the domestication (and conservation) of wild Rock Doves. Our pilot project was funded by: @btobirds.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social @britishbirds.bsky.social

5/6 A subset of the Outer Hebridean population has abandoned cave-dwelling, and lives completely within anthropogenic ecosystems. It is easy to imagine this happening 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, and our ancestors taking advantage of this easy source of protein!

4/6 We GPS tagged five birds roosting in a building. We found that they spend all their time adjacent to their roost site, and had completely foregone the classical 'commuting' behaviour of wild Rock Doves. Instead, they spent a lot of time inside their roost site, throughout the day.

3/6 Buildings (derelict houses or barns) constructed within farmland regions provide opportunities for Rock Doves to roost and nest much closer to their optimal foraging habitats.

2/6 This population is not actively interbreeding with feral pigeons (doi.org/10.1016/j.is...). Most Outer Hebridean Rock Doves feed in agricultural habitats, roosting in caves 10-20km away, past moorland. They 'commute' between the two, leaving in the morning, and returning in the evening.

🧵 1/6 I'm at #BOU2026, presenting the results of our pilot study, GPS tracking Outer Hebridean 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Rock Doves. These birds represent the wild form of feral/domestic pigeons. This is published as a natural history 'insight', in @amornith.bsky.social's #Ornithology.

doi.org/10.1093/orni...

Early-life microbiome assembly and its effects on bird phenotypes We are looking for a motivated Masters/HBO/internship student to partake in upcoming microbiome manipulation experiments, investigating how this fascinating community impacts phenotypes in birds. Star...

Looking for MSc student(s) to be involved in some really cool germ-free experiments with house sparrows at @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social ! 🐣🦠Get in touch if you're interested and please share :)
nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

bet they'd disappear from most places...

There are now three species in the elite 'failed non-native' category of British birds. Ruddy Duck joins the illustrious Golden and Lady Amherst's Pheasants. Oh well, they tried their best... 😅

thank you! :) have a great time

Furthest so far will be between Grimsay and Grogarry (~18km). Thanks for keeping an eye out :) We are trying to target more chicks, as I'm sure it'll be the post-juvenile movements which are furthest... We do catch doves around Orasay/Boisdale, within about the same distance... 🤔

This Rock Dove was ringed in 2022, as a chick in a South Uist ruin. This morning, he turned up again, happy and well-fed (having somehow evaded notice across 2023, 2024, and 2025...). Without colour ringing, and help from local people reporting 'their' doves, we wouldn't know that he is still alive!

enjoy! 🐑

Pigeon on the pitch: Atletico Madrid defender Jose Gimenez removes feathered intruder A pigeon briefly stopped play during Atletico Madrid's 3-2 win over Real Sociedad - with unflappable defender Jose Gimenez plucking the bird off the pitch and taking it to safety.

'It was unclear which team - if either - the pigeon supported'

⚽🐦

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba....

First Rock Dove chicks of 2026, ringed in a derelict building in Uist @jezierskimt.bsky.social. They already have their white bum patches, but there's a while to go until they lose they (gross?) yellow fluff 🐣. Hopefully we will see them later this year, and find out where they've dispersed to...

🚨 Bulbul project update: we are now measuring specimens in several collections in Asia, Europe and USA. The data will be used in a family-wide analysis of intraspecific variation and are destined for the next global dataset release (AVONET 2.0). If you want to join the project, get in touch. 🪶🌐🌎🧪

Main foraging areas (75% AKDE) of male Goshawks foraging exclusively in forest (A), in forest and farmland (B), and in forest and town (C). Foraging areas of individual birds are indicated by different colours. The town of Hajnówka is shown in grey. White dots indicate known active Goshawk nests.

Several male Goshawks breeding deep in Poland's Białowieża Forest 'routinely travelled up to 20 km to hunt feral pigeons in a town' with the authors concluding that 'urban environments shape the foraging behaviour of raptors even within primeval forests' #ornithology 🌍 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Screenshot of the EGI seminars You-tube Channel

We've uploaded recordings of many of our seminars over the last few months to our You-tube channel, including from @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social, Kristen Ruegg, Daniel Field, @jon-slate.bsky.social, Paul Acker, @thelabandfield.bsky.social & @kokkonut.bsky.social - Enjoy!

www.youtube.com/@EGIOxford

we call it 'ice cream grip' 🍦!

vs wild Rock Doves from our study population in Uist, Outer Hebrides - with 'blue' colour, 'bar' pattern, 'white' rump, and 'wildtype' eye. In most feral populations, only a minority of individuals have this combination of phenotypes. @jezierskimt.bsky.social @uniofnottingham.bsky.social

thanks.... if you ever come across a photo so I have a search image of a scruffy brown feral... all i can find is snazzy looking fancy pigeons!

Fascinating, amazing bird! Nice to see the diver too eh...

Nice :) there's some eye phenotype variation in these photos too! One colour thing I have been wondering is that I don't think I've had a 'brown' feral pigeon yet (i.e. recessive to ash-red and blue...). Only in captive domestic breeds. Have you seen many 'brown' ferals?

Love seeing feral pigeon variation...surely the most extensive of any wild bird! How amazing that they thrive in the concrete jungle. Here are some examples from across the UK, being studied for projects supported by @gensocuk.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk @britishecologicalsociety.org