Motus Audio Day 1: Vancouver BC.
After a year of designing, planning, and building, today is a big day: Natalie and Madison are starting a cross-Canada trip to launch 100 Motus Audio recorders. Follow us as we build a continent-wide microphone network.
motus-audio.web.app #bioacoustics #ornithology
🔊Out now with @lsburchardt.bsky.social @marcosqoliva.bsky.social, Kouřil & Petrusková:
Yellowhammer males sing using individual isochronous rhythms & maximise rhythmic dissimilarity with their neighbours.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Coexistence is the key to conserve urban biodiversity. 🐦
Science and art! Sketching an antlion larvae!
Our new article appears in today's issue of Ethology:
"In the Danger Zone: Wrens Respond More Strongly to Experimentally Simulated Predators Near Their Nest"
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We presented 3D-printed owls near versus far from nests of tropical wrens. How did wrens respond?
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Pop songs in science papers! 🎶💃🎙️🐦
We thank the many people who supported this research.
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Overall, predation risk appears to shape the evolution of vocal communication by influencing how animals signal and adjust their behavior in the presence of threats.
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Calling time (calls produced by males and females) was higher when the predator were presented near the nest.
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We found that birds responded more quickly shorter when predators were presented near the nest, both for males and females.
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The study area was a tropical dry forest of Costa Rica in Sector Santa Rosa where wrens inhabit old-growth forests and old secondary forests. Simulated owls were presented 5 m and 20m from their nest.
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We designed a multi-modal experiment to test whether the perception of a potential predador modifies the vocal behaviour of Rufous-and-white wrens (Thryophilus rufalbus) near their reproductive nest.
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Our new paper is out today in Ethology: "In the Danger Zone: Wrens Respond More Strongly to Experimentally Simulated Predators Near Their Nest" With Dan Mennill @dmennill.bsky.social
How do tropical wrens respond to simulated predators near their nest?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Thank you, Dan! 🦉
Our latest study is officially accepted! Dan @dmennill.bsky.social and I used 3D-printed pygmy owls to explore predator responses in Rufous-and-white Wrens. Check it out soon in Ethology. 🦉🔊🪺🇨🇷🇨🇦
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
Scientific productivity gap based on English-language peer-reviewed papers. Shown are the maximum % differences in the number of peer-reviewed papers published by female native English speakers from a high-income country (-45%), female non-native English speakers from a high-income country (-60%), and female non-native English speakers from a lower-middle income country (-70%), compared to male native English speakers from a high-income country (red flag).
Women, non-native English speakers & those form low-income countries are disadvantaged in science but by how much? We found that women with non-English first languages from low-income countries publish up to 70% fewer in English than their counterparts. 1/5
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
#languagebarriers
Flyer for special issue on passive acoustic monitoring
📣 CALL FOR PAPERS 📣
Special issue:
FROM CHIRPS TO INSIGHTS: PASSIVE ACOUSTIC MONITORING FOR APPLIED ORNITHOLOGY
More info: vist.ly/46pfg
Guest editors: Jan O. Engler, Jenn Foote, @silvereyedom.bsky.social , Simon Thorn
#ornithology #birds 🪶🧪
Ever wonder how birds are able to identify their nest? Jennings et al. show that nests can become scented like the birds that occupy them, which may enable birds to use olfaction to accomplish this critical task.
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
A visual summary of Peter and Juley's new open access paper in Ibis. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Great article and visuals! Congratulations!
An oil painting of a Carolina Wren. The wren's feathers are fluffed up into a round shape, and it is sitting on a rock, with strong sunlight illuminating it. The artist watermark reads: copyright 2025 Jennifer Miller "Nambroth" featherdust dot com
"Morning Light on a Carolina Wren" 5" x 7" Oil on panel
I just think they're neat
In memory of Dr. Keith Hobson, the Society of Canadian Ornithologists is collecting donations to support the Keith Hobson Early Career Research Award. If you have the means, join me in supporting this initiative:
www.zeffy.com/en-CA/donati...
Details: www.sco-soc.ca/early-career...
MSc student Connor Acorn uses a field-portable sound level meter, mounted on a tripod, to quantify the amplitude of the songs of Ovenbirds.
3 great words on a Monday morning: Accepted for publication! Our paper "Hushed disputes between noisy neighbours: Ovenbirds vary song amplitude during conflicts with territorial rivals" is coming to Animal Behaviour. 🤫🎶🐦 By Connor Acorn, Jenn Foote, and me. [📷: J. Foote] @animbehsociety.bsky.social
Thank you, Nature Guelph, for the invitation to speak about our research on acoustic monitoring of bird migration. It was great to join such an engaged and excited group of birders for the evening.
CALENDAR ERROR: My talk to Nature Guelph is TOMORROW night, Thursday December 4. (I think that I have end-of-semester brain.) Anyone interested is welcome to join Thursday December 4 at 7:30pm: natureguelph.ca/events/eaves...
CALL FOR PAPERS: Avian senescence: patterns, mechanisms and new perspectives. Photo showing zebra finches of different ages. Photo: Paul Jerem & Glasgow University, courtesy of Pat Monaghan
📣CALL FOR PAPERS - NEW SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 30 JUNE 2026📣
Avian senescence: patterns, mechanisms and new perspectives
More info: vist.ly/4fn5i
Guest editors: @jj255.bsky.social #RoxanaTorres, @brittheidinger.bsky.social @jaime-muriel.bsky.social @toblermichi.bsky.social
Please repost 🙏
Our new paper is a deep dive into the pros and cons of double quantile regression for estimating performance limits. academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
Accepted! "Acoustic differences persist in urban tits over two decades of declining anthropogenic noise in Paris, France."
Hans Slabbekoorn and I show that city-living Great Tits continue to sing at high frequencies, even as Paris reduces noise pollution. Coming to Ornith Appl. @amornith.bsky.social
