Very pleased to welcome Dr Alexandra Cones (LMU Munich) for an EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk at 4pm this Friday 17 April. Alexandra will speak on "Embracing Complexity: Untangling sources of phenotypic variation across scales using birds" - also live-streamed: joining details below: ⬇️
🎥🎞️The last EGI seminar of the term (but don’t worry, we will have one extra seminar in April), given by Jennifer Morinay on what determines helping behavior in long-tailed tits is now uploaded to our YouTube-page!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=7wb2...
Remember the EGI seminar later today! Last one of this term!
🚨🚨 Breaking news from Wytham Woods: The 80th year of data collection of the long-term tit study officially started today with this nest with 3 Blue Tit eggs (pic: @mcmahok.bsky.social). First egg inferred 23 March which is our earliest EVER nest - beating the previous record of 26 March by 3 days!🚨🚨
The last of what’s been an outstanding term’s @egioxford.bsky.social seminars this Friday. All planned and organised by DPhil students & postdocs. Many available on our YouTube channel
www.youtube.com/@EGIOxford
Such a good EGI seminar from Innes Cuthill today on the ‘survivability onion’ - wide-ranging talk on defensive camouflage in birds, insects and more. One of those seminars that appeals across the department
Can you spot the bird in the picture?
Really looking forward to the EGI seminar tomorrow that will be given by Prof Innes Cuthill on defensive coloration!
Also streamed, so contact us if you want to tune in! Details below⬇️
In a return to his former stamping ground, this week's EGI seminar will be given by Prof Innes Cuthill from @bristolbiosci.bsky.social on how to understand defensive coloration - see if you can spot him in this old photo! Seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk at 3.30 on Friday - joining instructions below ⬇️
Wonderful seminar today by @pauldufour80.bsky.social on how vagrancy in birds can help us understand aspects of bird migration! Particularly interesting to see the altitude Richard’s Pipits reach each night during migration (27:50)
Now also on YouTube!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=UD1h...
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 🌳🪺
Poster for a seminar - Talk abstract: Vagrant birds were historically neglected in migration research due to their rarity and the limitations of early tracking methods. Yet, growing research shows that vagrancy can help us better understand several aspects of bird migration and its consequences. In this talk, I will show how abnormal migratory movements can inform key processes in bird migration, including the colonization of new territories, the emergence of novel migration routes, and the navigation systems of migratory birds.
This week's seminar will be given by @pauldufour80.bsky.social of @vogelwarte.bsky.social on how we can understand bird migration through the study of abnormal movements such as vagrancy. Lecture held in @biology.ox.ac.uk at 3.30 on Fri 13 March - all welcome; online joining instructions ⬇️
🎥📽️🎞️ The two recent EGI-seminars by Alex Bond and Hanna Kokko are both uploaded to the EGI YouTube-channel (@EGI Oxford)! We have quite a few excellent seminars on the channel now, so give it a go!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMQ7...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=C15E...
I have really enjoyed working on this project, which hugely benefits from the amazing efforts of so many field-workers and funders over so many years! @egioxford.bsky.social
Also, we found that the correlation in selection for laying date and clutch size for great tits and blue tits were highly correlated, both when using number of fledglings and number of recruits as fitness components. This suggests that they share (at least correlated) drivers of selection!
We found that selection varies mostly temporally and in a spatio-temporal interaction. Only a small proportion of the variation in selection was due to consistent differences among the subpopulations, suggesting that these subpopulations experience mostly similar selection regimes.
In general, we detected non-linear selection for earlier laying date and larger clutch size for both great tits and blue tits.
Selection can vary spatially, temporally or in a combination of those two. Using mixed-effect modelling we decomposed the variation in selection into these three components.
📑📊We have just uploaded a new pre-print where we decompose spatial, temporal and spatial-temporal variation in natural selection on reproductive traits for great tits and blue tits.
With Yimen Araya-Ajoy, @ellafcole.bsky.social and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
This week's EGI seminar will be given by Prof Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz @unimainz.bsky.social on the role of time in avian trade-offs. All welcome in person in LT1 in LaMB @biology.ox.ac.uk 3.30pm on 6 March. Also live-streamed: details available ⬇️
This week's EGI seminar will be give by @ruthedunn.bsky.social from @lancasteruni.bsky.social on Seabird-driven energy and nutrient flows, in person in @biology.ox.ac.uk on Friday 27 Feb at 3.30. All welcome! The seminar will also be live-streamed - joining details available below ⬇️
This week's EGI seminar will be given by Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social of @nhm-london.bsky.social on his long-term work quantifying effects of plastic pollution on seabirds. Seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk at 3.30 on Friday - all welcome & streamed live: details below ⬇️
This week's seminar will be given by Dr Paul Acker from NTNU, Norway on "Processes of life-history adaptation to spatio-seasonal environmental changes" - seminar at 3.30 on Friday in Life & Mind Building @biology.ox.ac.uk All welcome & will also be streamed - see details below
This week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk will be given by Dr Kirsty MacPhie from @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social on the contrasting insights to be drawn from studies of phenology in @phenoweb.bsky.social and @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social. Usual time and place - details below with streaming info ⬇️
This week's EGI seminar will be given by Prof Jon Slate @jon-slate.bsky.social of @sheffielduni.bsky.social at 3.30 on Fri 30 Jan in LT1 in LaMB @biology.ox.ac.uk. OK, it's not quite birds, but our colleagues' work on @soaysheep.bsky.social has much in common with what we do. All welcome: details ⬇️
We are seeking to appoint four full-time field assistants to work on the Wytham Tit Project for 4-8 weeks in spring 2026. Two 8-week field assistants will join the nest monitoring team; duties for these posts will include (i) collecting standardised data from nest-box breeding populations of blue and great tits, (ii) catching and ringing parent birds, (iii) ringing nestlings, and (iv) inputting data collected in the field. These positions with run from approximately Tuesday 7th April to Monday 1st June. Successful candidates for these positions must have (or be qualified to obtain) a BTO permit to ring adult great tits and blue tits. A further two field assistants will be hired to support a project collecting behavioural (foraging) data for great tits breeding in the Wytham population. These roles will involve a significant amount of nightwork. Duties will include (i) setting up and calibrating electronic tracking equipment and nest box cameras in the field, (ii) mapping tracking equipment locations using GPS, (iii) helping with catching and ringing parent birds and fitting tracking devices, (iv) assisting with mistnetting to re-trap tagged parents, and (v) inputting data collected in the field. These positions with be approximately 7 and 4 weeks in duration, starting from 13th April and 4th May, respectively. Possession of a BTO ringing permit with misnet endorsement and driving license are highly desirable for these roles. All fieldwork will take place in Wytham Woods, near Oxford. All Successful candidates must be able to demonstrate skill and enthusiasm for biological research as well as experience of fieldwork under arduous conditions, and both lone work and working as part of a team. Due to the short-term nature of these posts, successsful applicants must already have the right to work in the UK. Salary & Accommodation: Field assistants will be paid at grade 5.2 (£17.37/hour). Contact eleanor.cole@Biology.ox.ac.uk
We are hiring at the Wytham Woods for the upcoming field season. 4 roles available. Please share with anyone who might be interested. #UKbirds #birdringing
Delighted to begin this term's seminars with Malcolm Burgess @piedflynet.bsky.social from @rspb.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social on Migration behaviour, demography & phenology of declining migratory birds. Seminar at 3.30 on 16 Jan in LT1 in the LaMB @biology.ox.ac.uk: all welcome - see details ⬇️
Looking forward to an excellent series of seminars for the forthcoming term - programme now full till late March & will share programme very soon when we have a few last details. All seminars will be at 3.30 on Fridays in the Life & Mind Building (and usually streamed live)
Congratulations Abby!🥳🎉
Still present! Incredibly cooperative bird showing excellent for about 100 birders today.
This week's seminar - last of this term - is our annual Christmas Seminar. We're welcoming Prof Tim Birkhead back to where he studied as a DPhil student ~50 years ago (can you can spot him in this 1978 photo?) Tim will be talking about "Sperm to Egg: Making a Biologist" - 3pm LT1 in the LaMB