Alice Edney

Why are Procellariiform seabirds most diverse in the Southern Hemisphere?

Our study found that wind patterns and time since evolutionary origin best explain the extratropical peak in breeding species richness of these remarkable seabirds. 🐦💨

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Donate to Secure the Rothbury Estate | The Wildlife Trusts Stretching over 3,800 hectares, the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland is abundant with opportunity. It’s the largest continuous area of land to appear on the market in 50 years. Its sale creates a uni...

The UK is among the most nature depleted counties in the world. A horrendous fact. Can you help reverse this by donating some cash to help the Wildlife Trusts buy the enormous Rothbury Estate so they can bring back wildlife? www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals/roth...

Do you like using social media? 🗣️ Are you a bit of a TikTok Queen (or King)? 🤳 Do you want to help support #seabirds? 🕊️

We are still looking for someone to run our Social Media! You will have creative content control + an assistant to help 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 A great role for your CV & future jobs in conservation 💚

Little penguin. Photo: JJ Harrison, Wkimedia commons.

Fig. 2 from the article: Mean ± 95% CI hourly temperature recorded inside little penguin nests on Penguin Island and the corresponding mean ambient air temperature (± 95% CI), shown for days grouped by daily maximum temperature: (a) 20–24.9°C; (b) 25–29.9°C; (c) 30–34.9°C; and (d) ≥ 35°C.

Fig. 6 from the article: (a) Full and conditional model averaged coefficient estimates for effect of nest attributes and local climatic conditions on hours of exposure to temperatures ≥ 35°C in natural nests. (b) Predictions from linear mixed models of the effect of bush wall depth on hours of exposure to temperatures ≥ 35°C

NEW PAPER: Artificial nest boxes trap more heat than natural burrows, pushing little penguins beyond safe thermal limits. As temperatures increase, nest box design improvements are critical to prevent population declines.

➡️ vist.ly/4bz8w

#ornithology #birds #climate 🪶

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

Egg abandonment leads to biased estimates of hatching failure in birds | Bird Conservation International | Cambridge Core Egg abandonment leads to biased estimates of hatching failure in birds - Volume 35

Egg abandonment leads to biased estimates of hatching failure in birds | doi.org/10.1017/S095... | Bird Conservation International | #ornithology 🪶

Schematic diagram of the influence of seabirds on temperate and tropical near-shore marine systems. Temperatre systems: - Nutrient enrichment and predation on herbivorous invertebrates can lead to increased algal production - Phytoplankton communities change, featuring more large-celled species - Intertidal organisms incorporate seabird-enriched material by grazing on detritus and biofilm in tidepools - Macroalgae biodiversity and primary production are boosted Tropical systems: - Mangrove leaf nutritional quality increases - Corals recover faster after bleaching events - Fish biomass increases across different trophic groups - Pelagic and benthic consumers' foraging behaviour shifts - Parrotfish grazing and bioerosion rates increase - Fish grow larger

New in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com: our review of the influence of #seabirds, via their nutrient transfer, on islands & adjacent marine ecosystems 🐦🏝️🪸

We highlight knowledge gaps & future directions ✨

"The circular seabird economy is critical for oceans, islands and people": doi.org/10.1038/s443...

One week left on this! Good opportunity for someone interested in #behaviour, #genomics and #migration to come work will some fun seabirds and some fun people 🧬🐣🛰️

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Who gets the spotlight? Disparities in seabird research attention at scientific conferences Seabirds are among the most threatened bird groups globally, yet research effort is unevenly distributed among species, with some taxa receiving exten…

Have you ever wondered about the disparities in #seabirds species at conferences? Are we talking about all the species?
Wonder no more. We (@thelabandfield.bsky.social @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social @ingridpollet.bsky.social) have the answer!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A behavioural approach to key area identification in seabirds for threat mitigation and spatial management - Animal Biotelemetry Background Identifying key areas of animal distribution using individual movement data is fundamental for conservation planning, threat mitigation, and spatial management. Methodologies which define t...

On the importance of incorporating
behavioural-state differentiation when identifying key
spatial areas for seabirds.
#seabirds

animalbiotelemetry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are reshaping them.

Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised

The first paper from our #kittiwake/ oil platform work has been published! 🕊️🗼

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

2387 AONs were recorded on 14 (28%) assets. Could equate to 16,382 across pictured assets 🔺 or 7% of UK/ Ireland population, but not currently incl. in #seabird census!

Diverging population trends in Brünnich’s guillemots on Svalbard linked to wintering strategies Long-term monitoring has documented sustained declines in Brünnich’s guillemot colonies in western and southern Svalbard, consistent with patterns seen across much of the Atlantic sector of the Arctic...

Going west or going east? Wintering strategies impact population trends in Brünnich’s guillemots from Svalbard - work by the Norwegian Polar Institute #seabirds seapop.no/en/2025/10/d...

a 14 day old great tit nestling, ringed for individual identification

Figure from the paper showing that extreme climatic events interact with ambient climatic conditions and breeding timing within a season, in a developmental stage-specific manner, to influence nestling growth in great tits

New preprint! 🪶

We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️

With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A Chough sits on a rocky cliff edge at South Stack Nature Reserve, North Wales.

Job vacancy 🧪
Principal Conservation Scientist, RSPB Cymru

Can you provide the evidence needed to save and restore the iconic species and landscapes of Wales?

Deadline: 3rd Nov
Location: Flexible within Wales
Duration: Permanent

Apply here: app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...

📷Jake Stephen

Large citizen science datasets are powerful tools for biodiversity science, but they may have biases. Nice new paper from @louisbackstrom.bsky.social et al. showing that for eBird and Birdtrack lists there is a tendency for rare species to be over-represented
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

By now issue #60 of our newsletter should've hit your inbox! 📩

This time is a hefty one, inclu. round ups from many #seabird breeding colonies around the UK! 🐣

We've got herons predating kittiwakes, brood patches in stormies & we spotlight Lindsay Young - VP. Research for Pristine Seas (NatGeo) ⭐

Hooray! I hope folk find this useful, my last #seabird PhD-linked paper 🐧

A nice thread highlighting key findings from our new paper estimating parameters of #HPAI in subsequent outbreaks in common terns. We developed a Bayesian inference approach to infer parameters from just carcass counts. #seabirds #statisticalecology #diseaseecology

doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Out @animalecology.bsky.social today - a paper with David Ewing in which we explore the #HPAI outbreak in the terns. We find bird-to-bird transmission to be the main driver of infection and estimate the probability of mortality to drop from 0.26 to 0.14 from 2022 to 2023: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Violin plot (half of a continuous histogram) and boxplot of the days of arrival of Red Phalaropes Phalaropus fulicarius in non-breeding plumage at Mejillones Bay for each sex.

New paper: Females Red phalaropes arrive at wintering ground before males. By Yerko Vilina et al.
#seabirds #OpenAccess

www.marineornithology.org/PDF/53_2/53_...

Excited to be helping with this! Always love working with ringing data, and great to do so working on such an interesting question ☺️

This collar-ringed European White-fronted Goose (T7Z) was ringed in Netherlands in Nov 2024 and had previously been reported at 2 other sites in Netherlands before turning up on #SKilda today. Reported to cr-birding.org. Incredible what we can learn about birds' movements from ringing projects!

We have vacancies available on our committee! 🕊️👨‍👨‍👧👩‍👩‍👦

We are recruiting for 5 roles:

Secretary 👩‍🏫
Assistant Journal Editor 📉
Social Media Lead 🤳
Assistant Newsletter/ Social Media Support 🤝
Website Officer 🧑‍💻

Feel free to DM for details & email secretary@seabirdgroup.org.uk to apply (deadline 31 Oct) 📥

Temporal Variation in Early-Life Conditions Impacts on Later-Life Levels of Infection in Sex Specific Ways | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🪶

Important date for your diaries ‼️

Our AGM is Wed 12 Nov - 12 midday (online) 📔👩‍💻

ALL our members are welcome & we'd love you to join us if you can. A number of roles have also come up within the committee - details on how to apply to follow.

Not yet signed up? www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/membership

Side by side photos of a person looking at a picture of lichen on an app and comparing it to lichen on a tree trunk

Many lichen species are sensitive to nitrogen pollution, making them natural indicators of air quality.

📱LicheN is a new app enabling people to help monitor air quality using lichens. Data gathered will improve understanding of N pollution and its impacts on ecosystems.

buff.ly/AmWAOQB

🧪 1/

Exciting news!! The World Seabird Union @worldseabirdunion.bsky.social 4th World #Seabird Conference is now open for registration! 🕊️🌏

🏢Hobart, Tasmania. 📅7-11 Sept 2026

Click the link for all the info 🤓
worldseabirdunion.org/world-seabir... #WSC4

🚨 Master’s project!
Curious how birds find their way? 🧭🐦
Analyze decades of ringing data to study abnormal migratory routes and uncover what these deviations can reveal about the mechanisms guiding birds on their journeys. Drop me an email for details! #ornithology

www.vogelwarte.ch/de/wir/mitar...

spmapper A spatial planning tool to indicate the foraging value of marine areas to breeding seabirds.

Just launched, spmapper is a new marine spatial planning tool from UKCEH! By estimating where and how much seabirds eat, spmapper can help with siting new offshore windfarms and protection areas. nerc-ceh.github.io/spmapper-pkg...