Joan Strassmann

Thrilled to welcome an outstanding group of speakers:
Lutz Becks
Yen-Ping Hsueh
Andrew Lovering
Joan Strassmann @joanstrassmann.bsky.social
David Queller
Renske van Raaphorst @vrrenske.bsky.social

An exciting mix of evolutionary biology, microbiology and ecology!
More speakers coming soon :)

Birds of a feather flock together | The Social Lives of Birds: Flocks, Communes, and Families Joan E. Strassmann (Tarcher, New York, NY; 2025) ISBN: 978-0-593853-061

A short book review that I wrote for @currentbiology.bsky.social on @joanstrassmann.bsky.social’s new book, The Social Lives of Birds. The book is well worth a read if you like birds, behavioral ecology, and/or social evolution.

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

Did I really see the Rough-legged Hawk? Dear reader, I confess that I went back to Columbia Bottom Conservation Area the very next day, last Monday, to take another try at seeing the Rough-legged Hawk. This was because I had read more ab…

What other birds will amaze me soon?

really watching those birds: 'slow birding,' with joan strassmann A NEW BOOK I'm reading emphasizes the word "watching" in the expression "bird watching," as in: Don't be in such a hurry to merely note that you've seen a bird, but instead really have a

awaytogarden.com/really-watch...

Chasing the Rough-legged Hawk at Columbia Bottomlands I cannot remember ever chasing down a bird just because someone else saw it and eBird told me about it, but it was a chilly Sunday with little else outdoors to do. So my husband, little dog Zeus, a…

slowbirding.wordpress.com/2026/02/08/c...

That is why I narrate my own books, Slow Birding and Social Lives of Birds.

Feeling happy to have given up my office phone, saving the department some money. There are better ways to reach me.

Science Of The Times Do you want to learn a little more about topical science findings? Do many of the science stories you hear leave you with unanswered questions? Syma and Tim will discuss in non-technical language and ...

@scienceofthetimes.bsky.social is back after the summer break! We talk to @joanstrassmann.bsky.social about her fabulous new book "The Social Life of Birds". If you like the podcast: subscribe, like, share! We enjoy making it but have no idea how many folk listen!
scienceofthetimes.transistor.fm

Enjoy!

Apply online by November 1st! Wiko Early Career Call for fellowships 2026/27 in the #NaturalSciences and #LifeSciences. Gain time to think during a 3–5 month #fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin – Institute for Advanced Study: wiko-berlin.de/fellow-werde... #cfa

I got the hard copies of my new book findable anywhere books are sold on September 23!

That is absolutely true which is why we are fighting it. But this is a powerful group in this rural county.

Up here in lovely Leelanau County Michigan we have a problem. A fancy resort community deals with its sewage by spraying so it drifts onto our landmark Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Their permit to do this is up for renewal and we are fighting it. Homesteadsewage.org Help would be great!

Why sing so late in the morning, Tufted Titmouse? If I am not already awake, I will awaken enough to hear the dawn chorus out my open window here in Leland, Michigan. It begins with the American Robins and their familiar song and then Northern Car…

Do you have a bird you saw behaving unusually recently?

Referee finding: a role for AI? I had to ask ten people just to find two willing to review a paper I serve as editor for. I wanted three people but decided to go with two. Everyone knows how hard it is these days to get referees.…

Use AI to find referees?
Sociobiology.Wordpress.com/2025/07/08/referee-finding-a-role-for-ai

Social Lives of Birds is coming in September and here is an anticipatory post on the dawn chorus!

Recommendation letters: be careful about bias Friends in the business world tell me that they do not write letters of recommendation any more. The most they will do is verify that a person worked in their company and give the dates. The reason…

Heck out my series on recommendations

Listen to Northern Cardinals and write in the Slow Birding Journal Sometimes nature overwhelms. I wake up to a chorus of mostly robins but then the other birds join in, Song Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, Black-capped Chickadees, and then the one I wait for, the Northe…

Have you tried any of the activities in the Slow Birding Journal? Here is one I did slowbirding.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/l...

The Social Lives of Birds by Joan E. Strassmann: 9780593853061 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books An exploration of all the ways in which birds are social creatures—from breeding to nesting to babysitting In The Social Lives of Birds, evolutionary biologist and author of Slow Birding Joan Strassm...

I'm so excited to share the cover for my book, The Social Lives of Birds, available for preorder now! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768621...

"A report by economists at American University in Washington DC estimates that a 50% reduction in federal science funding would reduce the US gross domestic product by approximately 7.6%."

Science is an amazing engine of economic activity and progress for the US ... or at least it was.

Thanks! Stay tuned for worldwide social birds on 23 September when Social Lives of Birds comes out

Sure for writing I agree but AI can do a lot of other things like answer questions , look for certain ideas in a paper, help you explore what we know, help with r code.

Anyone actually using Slow Birding Journal for observations? #addbirder

Evolution 2025 logo. A plane traveling from a globe toward a silhouette of Georgia with a pin over Athens. Text: Society for the Study of Evolution International Travel Stipends.

Applications now open for the 2025 International Travel Stipends to attend #Evol2025! Funds cover registration, travel, food, and lodging. Can also be used to attend #ESEB2025! Apply by January 31: https://buff.ly/3ZEWUqe @evolmtg.bsky.social

Social life cycle of D. discoideum illustrating clone mixing. Life stages are not drawn to scale. Labels on the illustration read: 1) vegetative amoebas feed on bacteria, 2) when starving, amoebas aggregate to form multicellular mound, 3) mound matures into a motile slug and moves towards light, 4) during fruiting, most amoebas develop into spores, ~20% are sacrificed to form stalk, 5) spores disperse to new environments and hatch into vegetative amoebas, 6) by disproportionately investing in spores, cheater genotypes can outcompete cooperators.

The hidden cost of aggregation lies in the incompatibilities between cells with different genetic dialects
doi.org/10.1093/evle...

Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @jahanisrat.bsky.social, @treyjscott.bsky.social, @joanstrassmann.bsky.social, and David C Queller

Add

Signing copies of Slow Birding and Slow Birding Journal at my local bookstore, Left Bank Books.

Just in time learning advantages

Do you feel vaguely guilty when you get emails from your institution exhorting you to attend learning sessions for some new software? Right now I'm getting them often. They want me to…

https://sociobiology.wordpress.com/2024/11/07/just-in-time-learning-advantages/

Where are people sending RNAseq samples, eukaryotic samples

Love the Black-throated Blue Warbler we banded today!