Cecilia Nilsson

Incredibly honoured and happy to have been awarded a consolidator grant from the ERC!
This grant will expand my group and fund my research at @biologylu.bsky.social for five years, and focus on different factors that disrupt animal migration at large scales 🦅🦋🌍🧲💡🌡️. Exciting times ahead!

Interested in #RaptorResearch and #MovementEcology? 🧪
The #AnimalEcology Lab at @utu.fi has an open #PhDposition!

We’ll be tagging WTEs with cutting-edge #GPS devices to study their early-life journeys.

Curious to learn more? See the advert: shorturl.at/HMZ84

#PhDOpening #PhDChat #BioLogging

🦉 Ecology of Animal Migration course in Lund 🐦‍⬛
I got the chance to join this inspiring PhD course at @biologylu.bsky.social. It was very well organized with fascinating lectures, a birdful excursion to Falsterbo and fantastic people doing fantastic research! #ecology #animalmigration

YouTube video by Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts Studying bird migration with radar

Much enjoyed learning about how to study bird migration with radar whilst on the roof of Lund University. youtu.be/0sB5On1gLsg?...

A typical Batumi migration scene, illustrating the idea of an ‘aerial niche’. For Steppe Buzzards in our bottleneck, that niche is often somewhere between the clouds: great to watch, tricky to count.

Fascinating paper by @cnilsson.science et al: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social

So proud of this cover that features @barthoekstra.bsky.social amazing photo!

How many #birds are killed by #cats in Canada? Between 19-197 million! This is the main result from my first chapter of my PhD thesis just published in Avian Conservation and Ecology. ace-eco.org/vol20/iss2/a...
@gowelizabeth.bsky.social
@ryannorrissci.bsky.social

1/6

We’re hiring a doctoral researcher in the area of migration ecology.
The work will focus on the question of how and when migratory songbirds learn where their home is using #Motus.
Part of the Cluster of Excellence NaviSense and linked with @sfb1372.bsky.social

uol.de/job788en

#ornithology

Another massive movement of migratory birds underway tonight — nearly 1 Billion Birds! With the full moon, you might be able to see some silhouettes zipping by. You can make your own flow maps here (just hit record): aeroecolab.com/uslights

Looking forward to sharing some of my PhD research on process-guided deep learning for bird migration in the AI for Good webinar series tomorrow! 🐦‍⬛🌍🤖

High above us, the atmosphere is teeming with life. New research from @cnilsson.science at Lund University reveals how the atmosphere is an ecosystem, with complex ecological processes that affect how animals move between different altitude levels of the airspace.
www.biology.lu.se/article/hidd...

Only a few days to go… please share!!!

We are seeking an ornithologist/modeller for a 2-year POST-DOC in Turin. Using archaeological remains, we will reconstruct past avian communities to understand the impacts of climate change and human pressure on birds through time. For details see cutt.ly/irN76QDZ PLEASE RT. #ornithology #AviArch

We're really proud and exited to announce that Staffan Bensch, professor at the Department of Biology, has received an ERC Advanced Grant for his project “Genetics of long-distance migration”. 👏👏👏

Read the full story on our website!
www.biology.lu.se/article/staf...

Animal niches in the airspace For flying animals, including many birds, bats, and insects, the air is a crucial arena for a range of behaviors. Technological advances, such as year-round tracking of flight altitudes and expanded use of radar, increasingly show how flying animals use the aerial habitat. This enables us to answer questions about the environmental patterns and ecological processes that shape aerial niches, including energetics, biotic interactions, and risk due to growing anthropogenic conflicts. In this review, we identify environmental conditions and biological interactions influencing where animals occur in the airspace throughout their life cycles. We outline an ecological framework to advance understanding of how different properties of the airspace shape fundamental aerial habitat niches and how biotic interactions influence the realized niches.

Online now: Animal niches in the airspace

Had so much fun writing this with Emily @emlbcohen.bsky.social, Judy @judyshamounb.bsky.social, Sissel @sisselsjoberg.bsky.social and Dara!

Animal niches in the airspace For flying animals, including many birds, bats, and insects, the air is a crucial arena for a range of behaviors. Technological advances, such as year-round tracking of flight altitudes and expanded u...

Are animals randomly distributed in the air, or is there a structure to where and when we find them? In our new paper we outline factors that shape habitat use in the air, from abiotic structure to biotic interactions. A lot of fun discussions behind this one! 🦅🦋🦇🌬
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Migratory birds aren’t equally efficient at all speeds. A new Lund University study shows thrush nightingales fly most efficiently at 7–8 m/s – the speed they actually use on migration.
@pablomaciastorres.bsky.social & Prof. Anders Hedenström, Animal Flight Lab.

www.biology.lu.se/article/not-...

Join us in the migration ecology group at the University of Oldenburg! 📡🐦🐥

Energy conversion efficiency peaks at intermediate flight speed in a migratory songbird Using in vivo measurements of thrush nightingales flying in a wind tunnel, Macias-Torres et al. show that energy conversion efficiency varies with airspeed following a concave function, with a maximum...

After a lot of time spent in the darkness of the wind tunnel, the results finally see the light.
I'm very excited to share what will become the first chapter of my thesis.
Energy conversion efficiency peaks at intermediate flight speed in a migratory songbird www.cell.com/current-biol...

Post-doctoral fellow in functional genomics and ecophysiology Subject description The goal of the project is to uncover the mechanisms explaining why global warming and heatwaves reduce reproductive success and cause excess mortality in wild and domesticated war

I am looking for a postdoc wanting to use functional genomics to understand why birds 🐦 struggle with climate warming in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Ideal candidate is a molecular evolutionarybiologist. Join us at @biologylu.bsky.social. Details 👇
shorturl.at/wijEq

Would appreciate a re-post!

Vacancy — Postdoc Brent Goose Demographic Analysis in Waakvogels (Sentinel Birds) Project Do you like working with large datasets? Always wanted to develop sophisticated population models? The department of Theoretical and Computational Ecology is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to s...

Do you like working with large datasets? Always wanted to develop sophisticated population models? I am looking for a postdoctoral researcher to study the impact of body weight on the survival and reproduction of dark-bellied brent goose using a long-term dataset.
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Our PhD level course Ecology of Animal Migration at @biologylu.bsky.social is now open for applications! The course will run this November (3-14th) and cover various theoretical and practical aspects of migration ecology.

See: www.biology.lu.se/phd-studies/...

Another birding paper! 🐦Where do the Nearctic landbirds that show up in Europe each autumn come from? We usually assume they come from NE populations, pushed off course by bad weather - but is that the whole story? #ornithology 1/3

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/ We are delighted to have @judyshamounb.bsky.social deliver the Alfred Newton Lecture at #BOU2025 Frontiers in Ornithology

Judy's research focuses on understanding movement ecology in birds 🧵

#ornithology #migrationresearch #movementecology 🪶🧪

Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century Numerous declines have been documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect losses are dire. Butterflies are the most surveyed insect taxa, yet analyses have been limited in ...

Our paper is out, and it is distressing.

Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Biological data derived from European weather radars - Scientific Data Scientific Data - Biological data derived from European weather radars

And the paper can be found here:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

@peterdesmet.com @baptischmi.bsky.social @barthoekstra.bsky.social @stijnvanhoey.be @inbo.be @biologylu.bsky.social @uva.nl @cornellbirds.bsky.social @vogelwarte.bsky.social @wslresearch.bsky.social
@biodiversaplus.bsky.social

European data on animals aloft now publicly available Weather radars detect more than weather, they also continuously register the movements of billions of animals (birds, bats, insects) in the air. Those data are now publicly available for large parts o...

Weather radars continuously register the movements of billions of animals in the air! We have now published datasets covering large parts of Europe, providing an overview of the aerial habitat in a way no other method can.

Data is available on Alofdata.eu , see our blogpost:
go.nature.com/3F0wQ0L