Will Smith

What will happen to the hybrid zone between Hooded and Carrion Crow? Mathematical modelling provides insights into the fate of this classic hybrid zone.

New story on the Avian Hybrids blog!

What will happen to the hybrid zone between Hooded and Carrion Crow?
avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2026/01/28/w...

Based on a nice simulation study by Dirk Metzler and his colleagues | #ornithology

yeh it's a woodpigeon, not feral

Mostly wild-looking.

Forehead shape is a bit flatter than you'd expect in a 'pure' Rock Dove, and cere a bit larger, but I would not call it a feral pigeon if it's 90% wild/10% feral (which is what these probably are, roughly: we included DNA from some Caithness birds in our 2022 study).

😍

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

congrats! 🥳

Host whole genome sequence data represent an untapped resource for characterising affiliated parasite diversity Parasites are ubiquitous and exert varied ecological and evolutionary pressures on their hosts. Yet, characterising parasite diversity and distributio…

New paper published! 🧬🐥🦠

Host WGS data can be repurposed to uncover endoparasite diversity at low cost, without destructive sampling, and outperform 18S metabarcoding. We test it in silvereyes.

This work was led by PhD student Sarah Nichols @biology.ox.ac.uk

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What I’ve learned from studying the wild pigeon The wild rock dove is little understood and largely overlooked by scientists.

The wild rock dove is little understood and largely overlooked by scientists.

What I’ve learned from studying the wild pigeon The wild rock dove is little understood and largely overlooked by scientists.

Here is a new year read for pigeon lovers! 🕊️🧬

I've written a little piece @theconversation.com about our work in Scotland studying wild Rock Doves: theconversation.com/what-ive-lea...

Guimaraesiella (Guimaraesiella) impiger sp. nov.

Guimaraesiella (Guimaraesiella) stellana sp. nov.

Managed to sneak in one paper before the New Year with coauthors @flyliceresearch.bsky.social and Daniel Gustafsson (not on Bsky)!

Introducing 2 new species of bird-infesting lice that, despite having no wings, appear to be adept at jumping across bird hosts and continents!

doi.org/10.1111/mve....

congratulations! i am excited to read it :)

377 #pigeons sampled later, I’m happy to share that the first paper from my PhD is published in One Health Journal

It’s about monitoring #disease in the #urban #landscape and why a one number city-level #prevalence report can be misleading

You can read the full PDF here: doi.org/10.1016/j.on...

Interesting new paper, reviewing past work on Rock Dove navigation: doi.org/10.4081/rio.....

We published a small GPS-tagging project (using Scottish doves) earlier this year, as a bit of a pilot study (doi.org/10.1093/orni...). There is loads more to learn about these birds! 🕊️🔭

(PDF) The first drone census of the Gannet colony on St Kilda, 2023 PDF | An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (hereafter drone) survey of Gannets at St Kilda was carried out in June 2023. The survey was the first census at St... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ...

The first drone census of the St Kilda gannet colony is now published in Scottish Birds!

We counted 59,205 AOS in 2023 - similar to previous years. The overall impact of #HPAI appears less than at some other colonies, with notable declines in flatter areas 🧮

#ornithology #seabirds #NTSseabirds

As I'm planning next years field season, I wonder if anyone on here would like to run a small island project on Skúvoy with me. I will be catching and samling great skuas, but there will be good opportunities to investigate other aspects of seabird island ecology 🌍🧪 #seabirds

wonder why they haven't really spread beyond the Chilterns? they seem to be doing well within their current range? But were originally introduced ages ago...(Wikipedia says 1902)

New issue of #BirdStudy
Little Terns nesting in Morocco
Urban Sparrowhawk diet
Urban Blackbird & Robin song shifts
Goosander tracking
Alpine Wheatears
Supplementary feeding of Turtle Doves
Red Kites and wind turbines
Białowieża Robin paternity
www.tandfonline.com/toc/tbis20/c...
#ornithology #birds

Our new paper is out today in Journal of the Royal Society Interface (link below). All about eggshell roughness: "Scratching beyond the surface: examining macroecological patterns in avian eggshell texture". Congrats first author Marie Attard, and thank you @leverhulme.ac.uk for the funding.

Contributed to #theBOUblog to share my experiences at the #EOU2025 in Wales this summer!

Final Uist trip *of this year 😅 we will be back in March!

Third and final Uist trip finished! That's 481 individual Rock Doves ringed/recaptured/resighted during 2025, providing great data to help us understand this population. It's been nice to also get the opportunity to update the community on our project progress. @jezierskimt.bsky.social

Big congratulations @rsmehlhausenfranks.bsky.social on passing your viva today with minor corrections. It’s been a pleasure supervising you. Thank you to the examiners @rjpheathcote.bsky.social and @markjfbrown.bsky.social! And thank you Paul Devlin and @evolecollab.bsky.social for your help too!

@sjportugal.bsky.social have you seen? :)

Not yet - but it's on the list for the next year or so. I'm going to do York and maybe Edinburgh first I think...

No, those were just metal ringed! I'll hopefully be back in Orkney at some point over the next 12 months to collect some more samples.

We've been catching lots of Rock Doves in Uist 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 this week. @jezierskimt.bsky.social and I are here for our ongoing monitoring work. Hoping for lots of reports of colour-ringed birds to generate survival + movement data 🤓 🤞@uniofnottingham.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk

Molluscan genome assemblies—problems and progress A reference genome assembly is a starting point for research (Davison & Neiman, 2021) in a wide variety of subdisciplines of biology, including mollusc

Problems and progress in getting molluscan 🐌 genome assemblies, new paper out. Although the publication was much delayed, we recently redid the analysis, finding that actually not much ahs improved 😔 academic.oup.com/mollus/artic...
🧬 & 🖥️ #genomics #snails #molluscs

Congratulations! Very well deserved 🥳

We are still interested in any found twite feathers for a study on the relationships and genetic diversity between the British groups - particularly now for birds of Scottish origin in the NE of England or, birds on the Avon.
DM me for me more info.
#birdringing

Congrats! I am excited to read it :)