Centre for Research on Ecology, Cognition and Behaviour of Birds

already on the to-order list!

To peck or not to peck: the influence of early-life social environment on response inhibition and impulsive aggression in Japanese quails | Royal Society Open Science Deficits in response inhibition (RI; i.e. the ability to suppress inappropriate responses) may contribute to increased impulsive aggression (IA; i.e. unplanned behaviours that harm others). Since earl...

New paper out!
To Peck or Not To Peck: The influence of early-life social environment on response inhibition and impulsive aggression in Japanese quails royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1929 Can't sign in? Forgot your password?

It forms part of an exciting Special Issue of Phil Trans, "Selection shapes diverse animal minds", edited by @ellileadbeater.bsky.social & @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social

Co-authors include @ecobird.bsky.social @samellisq.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

The survival of the smartest? Assessing how cognition shapes fitness in animals. A really fun collaboration to be part of—thread below! 👇

Proud to share our newest gecko paper published @ecol-evol.bsky.social! We raised geckos either with or without their parents and found some effects on the development of behaviour and cognition! Read the rest here:
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

New paper led by @anneleendewulf.bsky.social out now! 👇🎊

Nice to see more media attention for this paper 📰🥳

www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/ar...

This new #RSOS paper looks at neophobia across social contexts in juvenile herring #gulls. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @ecobird.bsky.social‬

This work has also made it to the news 📰

📢 www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

📢 www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

🚨New Paper Out!🚨

We found that juvenile herring gulls in groups were less neophobic (quicker to eat & spent more time near novel objects) than individuals tested alone🤝

🎉 Read the preregistered report, led by Sophia Knoch & Reinoud Allaert, here:
doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

A great @ecobird.bsky.social team building day at the Zwin Natuur Park in Knokke-Heist 🐦

Nice day out with the @ecobird.bsky.social team! saw some birds, ate some snacks & embarrassed myself in some beach games 🥐🦆⛱️

Thanks to the @ecobird.bsky.social
team for the warm welcome these past two days! I really enjoyed sharing ideas, learning about their work on chickens and quail, and having great conversations. Hoping for fruitful collaborations in the future! @katywillcox.bsky.social @birgitszabo.bsky.social

Towards a better understanding of avian collision in wind energy facilities using automatic detection systems Data from automatic detection systems are a promising non-invasive approach that requires few human and logistical resources to develop a more comprehensive bird collision risk mitigation strategy. T....

Data from detection reaction systems on turbines provide a unique opportunity to study bird behavior in wind energy facilities. To learn more, check out our recent work in @jappliedecology.bsky.social 👇

I am very proud to share our new gecko research!

We wanted to know if experimenter identity influences gecko behaviour during experiments that increases error of behavioural measurements.

The answer is yes, identity matters but only in a familiar context!

OA paper:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of sharing ECoBird’s research with filmmakers and producers at DOCVILLE’s Science Pitch. Regardless of the competition’s outcome, it was a genuinely enjoyable experience—and great to see how much interest there is in birds! 🐦🎬 @ecobird.bsky.social #DOCVILLE

New paper in press! 🐎🏁
"What We Can Learn from Horse Races: Response Inhibition Across Species" 📄 doi: doi.org/10.31219/osf...
In this paper, I argue for applying frameworks like the horse race model to study response inhibition in animals.

@AnneleenDewulf presents her talk discussing a two-stage model of #MotorInhibition in Herring Gulls where results showed that in most trials birds paused or slowed down in response to the stop signal which supports a two-stage model of stopping! #CO3_2025 🧪🥼🔬

The quails got company...

Another chapter in their young life (and in our pilot): the quails have arrived at their new home, where they have a bit more space to explore and run around 🐥. Soon they will be joined by some waxbills and silverbills (as part of another pilot study).

Always very happy when you turn on the light in the morning #happyquail

Big news: the quails for our new pilot study have hatched! 🐣At just two days old, they’re already mastering the art of social bonding—because nothing brings young tiny quails together like the cozy warmth of an electric hen.

Foraging efficiency related to site fidelity in Black-faced Cormorants - Seabird Tracking Database Black-faced Cormorants (Phalacrocorax fuscescens) are endemic to Australia and only breed in a limited number of locations, often on offshore islands. Until

@tcansse.bsky.social wrote a blog post for Seabird Tracking, discussing his latest research on Black-faced Cormorants: www.seabirdtracking.org/foraging-eff... #seabirds #ornithology

Great tit being held in hand after capture

⭐New paper out on great tits' social behaviour⭐
We manipulated food access & stability of social interactions at feeders (small-scale) to investigate their effects on individual-level social network position & dyadic assoc.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
(birds handled with required permits)

Are you wrapping up your PhD in the US and unsure what to do? We have a really nice postdoc funding program in the EU: marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/post...

Establishing bio-logging data collections as dynamic archives of animal life on Earth Nature Ecology & Evolution - Animal-borne electronic tags, or bio-loggers, are increasingly used for research and wildlife conservation. This Perspective discusses the importance of...

Onze @peterdesmet.bsky.social schreef mee aan artikel in @natureecoevo.bsky.social dat pleit voor standaardisatie en archivering van biologging-data. Met @oscibio.bsky.social is het @inbo.bsky.social hier pioneer in: onze data voor vogels en vissen zijn publiek beschikbaar. rdcu.be/d5ptG

with @vernouilleta.bsky.social, @katywillcox.bsky.social, @anneleendewulf.bsky.social, @camilletroisi.bsky.social, and several other ECoBird members

New preprint from the lab: To Peck or Not To Peck: The influence of early-life social environment on response inhibition and impulsive aggression in Japanese quails. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#Ornithology excursion with 2nd bachelor biology students of #GhentUniversity in the Uitkerke ramsar area, prime area for wintering geese in Flanders. No less than 67 future biologists!
@ecobird.bsky.social @natuurpunt.bsky.social

Another great year at the NVG Annual Meeting!

MSc student Tine Uytterschaut presented her work on released rehabilitated gulls 👏

Frederick presented the 📢recent pre-print📢(osf.io/hzxus) led by Sophia Knoch & Reinoud Allaert on neophobia across social contexts in juvenile gulls 🐤