Katharine Bowgen

Six individual bird illustrations focusing on the head of the bird are lined up in a collage. Species depicted include the Goldfinch, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Pied Wagtail, Green Woodpecker and Chaffinch. Artwork by Will Rose.

✨ Vote for your favourite bird image! ✨ We need you to pick our new Birds in Greenspaces icon for our brand-new mobile phone app!

Vote here ➡️ bit.ly/VoteBiGsIcon

Will it be the Goldfinch, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Pied Wagtail, Green Woodpecker or Chaffinch? 🤔

Voting closes on 15 February.

A Curlew, a wading bird with a long downcurved bill, stands on an estuary shoreline with water in the background. Wording below reads: PhD opportunity with BTO and Liverpool John Moores University. BTO logo is top right of the image.

📢 We're looking for a PhD student to focus on habitat use of wintering Curlew in and around coastal SPAs. Apply now ➡️ bit.ly/CurlewPhD

The student will be based at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social and BTO, starting in October 2026 for four years.

📆 Deadline to apply: Wednesday 18 February #Ornithology

Longevity record!
Last night, @washwader.bsky.social recaught this Black-tailed Godwit, first caught and ringed 29 years ago.
The metal ring was wearing thin (and was replaced) but the bird is still going strong.
Blog about longevity of waders:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w...
#ornithology

The Least auklet (Aethia pusilla) everybody! *SO* tiny 👏
#leastbutnotlast #auktober

What an honour to open the 50th @waderstudy.bsky.social conference with a plenary on Spoonbill migration culture on the beautiful stage of DOT in Groningen. The Spoonbill-inspired concerto 'Solanum' by Tjibbe Stelwagen and Caspar Kootstra made for a perfect tandem wt the arts. #ornithology

Here we go then! Our 50th annual conference is officially open 🥳 #IWSG2025

Thank you to all of today's speakers for a really interesting array of talks! So much great research, and more on the way tomorrow! #IWSG2025 #waders #shorebirds #ornithology

Sound on 🔊 Over the last few months our team released 56 headstarted Curlew in Norfolk! 🙌 The birds are already visiting the coastlines and moving around nicely.

Medals and awards - British Ornithologists' Union Each year, the BOU presents awards to recognise individuals who have made an outstanding contribution within ornithology. Each award celebrates a specific contribution and nominations are warmly encou...

📣 Nominations for this year's round of @bou.org.uk awards are currently OPEN!

Your chance to recognise those key people in #ornithology 👏

Find out more and make your nominations here: bou.org.uk/about-the-bo...

📆 Deadline 15th Sept 2025

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Tool-kit for wader conservation Decades of drainage and agricultural intensification have caused huge declines in numbers of breeding waders in the lowland wet-grasslands of Western Europe. Although we were already well aware of …

Looking to help breeding waders?
Here's a tool-kit:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/t...
Blog summarising presentation at @bou.org.uk workshop at IOC Vancouver by @jengill.bsky.social 🎂5️⃣
#ConservationScience🌍

Happy Birthday to @washwader.bsky.social
66 today! 🎂
Still at the forefront of shorebird research.
There's a blog about the first 6O years:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/08/15/s...
Here's the Black-tailed Godwit section of the blog 👇

Shorebird chicks are hatching here in Greenland!

This year, egg predation has been intense, especially on Turnstone clutches, so every successful hatch feels extra special. This Turnstone male brooded its four chicks right next to my phone. A bit too close maybe...

This image is an id plate that describes the common swift (Apus apus), a fast-flying bird with dark plumage, long sickle-shaped wings, and a forked tail. It typically lays 2–3 eggs and can live up to 17 years. Swifts feed on flying insects and are present in the UK mainly from May to August, nesting around towns and villages, with an estimated 59,000 breeding pairs. The graphic is labeled with clear icons and text on a blue background, and includes a photo of the bird in flight.

It’s #SwiftAwarenessWeek!
These amazingly adapted #birds eat, sleep & mate on the wing! 🐦‍⬛🌀

📝Add them to your GBW list if they’re nesting in your home or feeding low over your garden

🐞 Gardening for wildlife helps boost their insect prey!

#CitSci #UKBirding

In NE Greenland today, I watched a male Sanderling give his all to impress a female-- song and calls, slowmotion dive and nest scraping.

She was not impressed and calmly kept foraging.

#shorebirds never cease to amaze.

At least 1298 Curlew chicks were released after headstaring (hatching and rearing in captivity) between 2014 and 2023.
What have we learnt?
New paper in @waderstudy.bsky.social journal:
www.waderstudygroup.org/article/18880/
#openaccess
1/4 in short thread ...
#ConservationScience🌎

East of England project contributes to review of European curlew headstarting projects - Curlew Recovery Project Curlews breed across Europe in grassland, heathland and bog habitats, but are among the most threatened of European breeding bird species. As a result, they are the focus of a suite of conservation in...

New paper in @waderstudy.bsky.social led by @btobirds.bsky.social reviewing headstarting across Europe as a tool for #Curlew #conservation

Read the blog post:
www.curlewrecoveryproject.co.uk/european-hea...

Read the open access paper: www.waderstudygroup.org/article/18880/

#waders #shorebirds

Our next conference #IWSG2025 in Groningen, Netherlands 🇳🇱 isn't just talks and workshops! There are some great excursions to choose from too. More details here ⬇️
www.waderstudygroup.org/conferences/...

Straight on view of a Dartford Warbler perched on Gorse with blurred green foliage and blurred bright blue sky in the background.

⚠️ We need your help to survey priority sites for Dartford Warbler, Woodlark and Nightjar as part of our Heathland Birds Survey. 🐦 Find a vacant survey site near you ➡️ www.bto.org/heathlan... #Ornithology #UKBirding #BirdingWales

📷 Dartford Warbler by Philip Croft/BTO

YouTube video by Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts Individual specialisation of oystercatchers

Is well know species differ in the prey they eat, but do individuals also specialise? Here I discuss how oystercatchers differ in diet, whether stab or hammer to enter prey, whether attack upper or lower surface and whather attack left or right side. youtu.be/XDMX-nwSXvY?...

Establishing how long waders live for is a key factor in understanding their population dynamics. WWRG has been researching waders on the Wash for over 60 years: new longevity records for the species demonstrate the value of long term sustained studies wwrg.org.uk/record-break...

Yesterday's news that a @washwader.bsky.social Oystercatcher had broken the @btobirds.bsky.social longevity record for a wader (now 43 years from ringing to latest capture) begs the question:
"How long do other waders live for?"
Answers here:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w...
#ornithology

#FrescoFriday and here’s some beautiful birds from Pompeii.

📷 mine

🏺 #AncientBlueSky

Image of young Curlew being held in the hand. The bird has a yellow leg flag with the letters JP on and an orange ring on its legs. Image credit reads: Curlew by Katharine Bowgen/BTO.

Image of Curlew being held in the hand. The bird has a yellow leg flag with the letters NH on, an orange ring on its legs and a GPS tag. Image credit reads: Curlew by Katharine Bowgen/BTO.

1/ Have you seen these Curlew? Please report any Curlew you see with yellow leg flags ➡️ bit.ly/ReportACurlew Here’s why these birds are so special. ⬇️ #WorldCurlewDay #Ornithology 🌍

Us too, Curlew… us too. 😴

#MondayMotivation #WorldCurlewDay

🧵1/8 Welcome to #BOU2025 Frontiers in ornithology, our annual conference.

Over the next 3 days, we’ll be in-person in Nottingham, and here on Bluesky

Follow the #BOU2025 for conference threads and to join in!

#ornithology 🪶🧪

The IWSG conference will be in the Netherlands this year and for anyone who hasn't noticed there are still a few days left to apply for the grants to help support members from low-income countries! Details can be found on the @waderstudy.bsky.social website -> www.waderstudygroup.org/news/

Calling all wader-lovers and researchers! Can you help with this project ⬇️

World Curlew Day competition | Curlew Action Find out when World Curlew Day is, how to enter Curlew Action's competition, and who our esteemed judges are.

We are running competitions for World Curlew Day again this year! You can enter our art, poetry or baking competition!

The deadline for entries is in a month: midnight of 10th April 2025. For full details, read our post about the competitions:

Infographic map showing the six marine flyways (Atlantic Ocean Flyway, North Indian Ocean Flyway, East Indian Ocean Flyway, West Pacific Ocean Flyway, Pacific Ocean Flyway, Southern Ocean Flyway) in a spilhaus projection, and the general direction of travel by migratory seabirds

🚨NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER🚨details how we delineated six #MarineFlyways using #seabird #tracking data & novel analytical methods

➡️ doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004

🧪 #ornithology #migration #BLScience
@birdlifeglobal.bsky.social

We are grateful to GOBI @iki-germany.bsky.social for funding the project

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