🎉 Congratulations to Holly Green for her highly-commended poster at #BOU2026 last week

Holly received an @nhbs.bsky.social voucher for her poster 'What is needed to save the world’s birds? Understanding the conservation action gap'

#ornithology 🪶

Really enjoyed your talk, sorry I didn’t get chance to chat to you during breaks. Is that one of the Amsterdam herons in the picture?

I’ve never seen one. I’d love to see one in the UK, still can’t believe we get birds like this, spoonbills and more recently breeding storks.. our wildlife is really lovely, it’s just a shame so many are unaware of our biodiversity. That comes down to education though. We need to spread the word!

Great poster! Really enjoyed reading it.

"The greatest danger to our future is apathy."

-- Jane Goodall, born #OTD 1934

🧵1/6 #BOU2026 #ornithology #bioacoustics #AI

Investigating the impact of UAV noise on bird activity: A playback experiment

How does UAV noise influence bird behaviour and vocal activity?
We aim to address this using controlled, field-based playback experiments.

7/🧵 Many thanks to my collaborators, co‑authors and supervisors:
Sam Barrett
Dr Marc Green
Prof Mike Wood
Amy Leedale
Antonio Torija Martinez
Thanks also to the RefMap project for funding this research. Follow the links below to stay updated 👉

6/🧵
Ongoing work expands our species trait dataset 🐦📊 and refines allometric + phylogenetic models 🌳⚖️. Field tests at an agricultural site 🌾 and a forest mosaic 🌲 using simulated drone noise 🚁🔊 will help validate NOAEL/LOAEL thresholds and guide evidence based drone use.

5/🧵 Early results suggest vocal learners 🐦🎶 (e.g. oscines, parrots) and low‑freq spp. are less sensitive to UAS 🔊; mass and skull traits also key. Hypotheses: 1️⃣ Learners less affected 2️⃣ Narrow hearing/vocal ranges more sensitive 3️⃣ Medium birds vulnerable 5️⃣ Low‑freq spp. less impacted.

4/🧵 To study isolated drone‑noise impacts 📡, a trait dataset was compiled for >70 species 🐦📊 (incl. 30 UK spp.), covering mass ⚖️, skull length, habitat 🌍, sociality and diet 🍃. These traits feed phylo/allometric models 🌳📊 tested against other noise. Field drone‑noise tests to follow 🚁🔊.

3/🧵 Of 154 studies, 80 examined UAS–bird noise 🚁🐦 but only one isolated noise 🔊. Key: 1️⃣ Birds react <50 m ⬇️ 2️⃣ Little evidence for population/physiology effects 📉 3️⃣ Flushing common 4️⃣ UAS disturb less 5️⃣ Vocal shifts 🎶 6️⃣ Mostly waterbirds 🦆 7️⃣ Need wider taxa response data 🔊.

2/🧵 To understand how birds respond to UAS noise 🐦🚁🔊, we conducted a systematic review 📚 to identify evidence and key gaps. Using PRISMA 2020 📄✅ and a PEOC framework 🔍, we captured studies on avian responses to drones. Paper 👉 doi.org/10.13140/RG....

1/🧵 Anthropogenic noise 🔊 is a growing 🌐 pressure on wildlife. Drone (UAS) noise 🚁🔊 is one emerging source. At #BOU2026 I’m sharing our research on how UAS noise impacts #birds and whether phylogeny + morphology predict species‑specific sensitivity. #ornithology #ecology #drones

The DNA was from the living species. Fossil species allow (among other things) us to calibrate the phylogenetic tree, allowing us to date the tree, estimate divergence times and reconstruct ancestral states to determine how traits have evolved over time.

I hope I have explained this clearly @gilbert.lol.

It’s important to remember that phylogenetic trees can vary in their branching pattern based on the method of analysis and the amount of - and quality of data available. More/better molecular data and a more complete fossil record will help to confirm whether these assumptions are indeed correct.

In terms of extant (still living) species. It appears that the whistling ducks (Dendrocygninae) appeared first, then the stiff tailed ducks (Oxyurinae) which occur at the split between them and the geese and swans, then the rest of the ducks appeared.

Over the course of the evolutionary history of the Anseriformes (the family ducks, geese and swans belong to) a wide range of forms have appeared and gone extinct. In terms of what we refer to as “modern forms” it appears - at least from the fossil record, that ducks appeared first.

And is the result of changes in genes (genotype) and physical traits (phenotype) influenced by environmental pressures and adaptations to different ecological niches. 2/2

Not quite! The evolution in Pokemon is more like metamorphosis, relatively rapid changes in form (think caterpillars to butterfly, tadpole to frog). Species evolve and diversify into new forms through speciation, which occurs over millions of years 1/2

Sorry, I realise this wasn’t made clear in the last post - I was reaching my BS char limit. Annoyingly the slide resolution isn’t very clear upon upload either, as it’s shown on the tree on the right of slide 5. It appears to have been the ducks, due to the earliest appearance of crown-group taxa.

Many thanks to all of my collaborators. If you would like to know more then please message me at @gleneth93.bsky.social, send an email to G.Hancocks@edu.salfo... or find me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/.... Thank you for taking the time to view this presentation! #birds #BOUasm25
6/6

Bayesian phylogenetic analyses place moa-nalos in Anatinae and Alopochen in Tadorninae, confirm Cairinini’s non-monophyly as convergence, and date crown Anatidae to the Early Miocene (~19 Ma). The monophyly of several other clades was confirmed, the resurrection of Tachyerini is supported.
5/6

A novel total evidence dataset and associated phylogenetic analyses were utilized, based on 209 morphological characters (e.g., external soft tissue and cranial), as well as 13.4 kb of mitochondrial sequence data for 75 anatid taxa (72 extant, 3 fossil) and 3 non-anatid outgroup taxa.
4/6

Asteriornis shares features of Galliformes & Anseriformes, depending on phylogenetic analysis it is either placed as sister to Galloanserae or is placed within the super clade, supports the hypothesis that modern birds were around before the K/T extinction.


3/6

Historically the phylogeny of Anatidae has been studied using morphological evidence, but molecular data (primarily mitochondrial sequence data) has become increasingly available.

2/6

1/6 Today I will be presenting my masters research on the #phylogeny of the waterfowl family Anatidae via the #BOUasm25 conference on BlueSky. What came first, the duck, the goose or the swan? #ornithology #systematics #waterfowl #ducks #geese #swans
1/6

Such cool birds!

A Goldfinch perches on a mossy branch against a smooth green background, tilting its head upwards as if carefully inspecting something above. Its red face and bright plumage stand out, giving it a curious, inquisitive expression.

Hello there! A very inquisitive Goldfinch just appeared in your feed...

📷 John Lindsey

Again… you dropped the mouse AGAIN?!