Are you the less lucky of the co-first or co-last authors? @shougroup.bsky.social makes the case for changes to the way that equal contribution information is sent to indexing sites such as #PubMed.
🧪 #AcademicSky #publishing
Posts by Grant C. McDonald
Poster advertising the Arican Raptor Leadership Grant - African antionals applying for MSc or Hons courses at AP LEventis Ornithological Research Institute (Nigeria), Fitzpatric Institute of African Ornithology (UCT, South Africa) or Mohammed V University (Morocco) are invited to apply via https://raptorresearchfoundation.org
Are you a national of an African country? Looking to study birds of prey at one of three leading ornithological research university across the contient? This might be for you! raptorresearchfoundation.org/grants-award...
Photo of a Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus. Source: Wikimedia commons.
Fig. 2 from the article: Incubation behaviour does not differ between nests with untagged and tagged parents.
Fig. 3 from the article: Reproductive outcomes were similar between tagged and untagged groups during the 2023 breeding season.
New paper: do GPS tags affect small shorebirds? In Kentish plovers, solar-powered devices showed no detectable effects on behaviour, reproduction, or short-term survival.
➡️ vist.ly/4xcxr
#ornithology #biologging #birds #survival #reproduction
Annual survival of waders versus adult body mass, migration distance and year of study
New article in Oikos with a global review of annual survival for waders comparing estimation methods and phylogeny. Survival increases with body mass but decreases with migration distance and during past 40 years. Team led by @dillensegerg.bsky.social. #ornithology #waders doi.org/10.1002/oik....
Do you work with breeding shorebirds? Do you collect FID data? Do you have data already or collecting data this year?
We are seeking data contributors for a new project investigating the diversity of nest defence strategies across breeding shorebirds.
Get in touch if interested!
#wader #shorebird
Hudsonian godwit. Photo: Jose Valdebenito
Fig. 1 from the article: Body condition (a) and constitutive immune function (b)–(d) in post-arrival and pre-migratory Hudsonian godwits Limosa haemastica sampled within their non-breeding season in Chiloé.
Valdebenito et al show that three constitutive immune system parameters remain stable across the non-breeding season in Hudsonian godwits
➡️ nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jav.034...
Do you work with breeding shorebirds? Do you collect FID data? Do you have data already or collecting data this year?
We are seeking data contributors for a new project investigating the diversity of nest defence strategies across breeding shorebirds.
Get in touch if interested!
#wader #shorebird
Just over a week left to apply for this PhD project (unfortunately UK students only). If you're interested then please get in touch!
🚨Postdoc opportunity🚨: The impact of global change on parental care systems
Interested in Shorebirds? Global change? Parental care? Fieldwork? 🐣☀️ Come join us in Budapest!
Interested candidates - get in touch! Deadline Feb 28 2026
Post-doc position open in 2026 at UVMB Budapest to study the effects of global change on parental care in shorebirds. PhD in life sciences required. Apply via email to Grant McDonald: grant.mcdonald@univet.hu. More info: https://univet.hu/en/about/staff/mcdonald-grant #job
🚨Postdoc opportunity🚨: The impact of global change on parental care systems
Interested in Shorebirds? Global change? Parental care? Fieldwork? 🐣☀️ Come join us in Budapest!
Interested candidates - get in touch! Deadline Feb 28 2026
We're advertising a PhD project on how social isolation influences aggression in flies. Based at Durham, co-supervised by @clarahowcroft.bsky.social . Despite what the ad says, this is also open to international applicants! Any questions, shoot me a msg! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Kentish Plover with a solar-powered GPS tag just before release, Maio, Cape Verde
Kentish Plover with a solar-powered GPS tag just before release after a nocturnal capture, Maio, Cape Verde
🧵1/5 Our new paper is now published in @avianbiology.bsky.social! The first GPS tagging study of Kentish Plovers in Maio investigated the potential impact of tagging, finding no detectable impacts across multiple aspects of behaviour, reproduction & survival.
doi.org/10.1002/jav....
📰 Wader News #waders #shorebirds
Solar-powered GPS tags show no detectable harm to Kentish Plovers ⬇️
www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/S...
New post doc funding opportunity:
Are you outside Canada & interested in a post doc on insects & environment/climate? Our lab studies insect evol & ecol, esp reproduction/sexual selection. Our university seeks a nominee. Let's chat!
nserc-crsng.canada.ca/en/news/laun...
Researchers share their findings about the effects of tracking devices on survival etc., so that others can learn how to study waders as safely as possible.
1/4
New paper suggests that Kentish Plovers are not affected by tracking devices.
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
BUT ...
We assessed the effects of solar-powered GPS devices on behaviour, incubation, reproductive outcomes, and apparent survival, in an emerging avian model, Kentish Plovers.
We found no effect of tagging on behaviour or life-history indicating tagging is unlikely to manifest in demographic consequences
We assessed the effects of solar-powered GPS devices on behaviour, incubation, reproductive outcomes, and apparent survival, in an emerging avian model, Kentish Plovers.
We found no effect of tagging on behaviour or life-history indicating tagging is unlikely to manifest in demographic consequences
New research in @avianbiology.bsky.social:
"No detectable deployment impacts of solar-powered GPS devices for long-term use on a small shorebird"
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#Shorebird #Wader #GPS #Reproduction
@roasty247.bsky.social
MSc position in my lab. Come study the evolutionary & behavioural ecology of insects!
@stfx-university.bsky.social
Now in Animal Behaviour @asab.org "Inconsistent fear: repeatability in flight initiation distance and neophobic behaviour differs in a ground-nesting bird" #OA #Shorebird #ParentalCare
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
However, we did not identify neophobic personalities and neophobic responses were not correlated with boldness, indicating parents may not consistently conform to generally risk-prone or risk-averse behavioural syndromes and may not generalize fear responses across different potential dangers.
Flight initiation distances (FIDs) are often used to characterize animal personality.
We report evidence for consistent between-individual variation in FIDs in incubating parents of a ground-nesting bird, indicating variation in boldness personalities.
Now in Animal Behaviour @asab.org "Inconsistent fear: repeatability in flight initiation distance and neophobic behaviour differs in a ground-nesting bird" #OA #Shorebird #ParentalCare
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Our new study, published in Scientific Reports and led by Abril Alexander, suggests the possibility that monogamy may remove constraints on reproductive tissue investment imposed by intense sexual selection. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
LOOKING BACK in IBIS
The causes and implications of sex role diversity in shorebird breeding systems | onlinelibrary.wiley....
Tamás Székely et al | #ornithology 🪶
PhD opportunity in parental care and social ecology focusing on ground-nesting plovers in Cabo Verde, supervised by experts at the University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest. Apply by March 31, 2025: https://univet.hu/ #phd
An image of a fruit fly created by collage.
Rethinking the relationship between the sex ratio and sexual selection
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @gcmcdon.bsky.social, @daniedmunds.bsky.social, @stuartwigby.bsky.social, and @jennyperry.bsky.social
📷: Dani Edmunds
Collage of a fruit fly credit @daniedmunds.bsky.social
Huge credit to @daniedmunds.bsky.social and everyone else for this work, and Dani's Drosophila Collage!
Sexual selection was consistently stronger on males vs females, however our results reveal that changes in sex ratios do not equal changes in sexual selection.
@daniedmunds.bsky.social @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @stuartwigby.bsky.social @jennyperry.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...