New research from #BiologyLetters: Why do birds construct nest tails? A test of disruptive camouflage in the blue manakin royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... | #Behaviour #Evolution
03.02.2026 18:00 — 👍 21 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
New research from #BiologyLetters: Why do birds construct nest tails? A test of disruptive camouflage in the blue manakin royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... | #Behaviour #Evolution
03.02.2026 18:00 — 👍 21 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
Accepted! "Experimental study of social signaling through delayed plumage maturation in a colony-nesting seabird." A playback-and-model experiment coming to Animal Behaviour. Led by Molly Hill & @liamtaylor.bsky.social w/ Lily Fanburg @sdobney.bsky.social & me.
Now that's what I call #GullOfTheDay!
In the foreground, a young American Herring Gull with a drab, worn, brown, "predefinitive" plumage. This bird is probably ~12 months old. Behind, an older, breeding adult in a "definitive" gray and white plumage, which is probably 4 or more years old. We have little information about the ecology and evolution of delayed plumage maturation in seabirds.
A breeding gull attacks a plastic model as part of behavioral experiments at the breeding colony on Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada.
Coco and Tracey Faber start painting raw plastic models for stimulus experiments, using photo references and museum specimens at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Excited that our paper is headed for publication at Animal Behaviour! - "Experimental study of social signaling through delayed plumage maturation in a colony-nesting seabird."
Our experiments show how the unusual, brown plumages of young seabirds can help reduce aggression at the breeding colony.
A white beluga surfacing in greenish-brown waters. Overlaid is the title of a new review published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology: Beluga Societies: the social and cultural lives of an enigmatic odontocete.
Our new review of beluga sociality and culture just dropped at Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology! Some of our key conclusions summarized 🧵
doi.org/10.1007/s002...
@marine-valeria.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social @raincoast.org
"Bioacoustic Monitoring Reveals Patterns of Landscape Use by Migrating Birds at a Great Lakes Barrier Crossing." Using acoustic recorders along Lake Superior’s south shore, we recorded nearly 3 million songbird flight calls, uncovering a major migratory pathway. doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
#ornithology
Do birds have feelings? 🦉🦚🦅🦜
I'm a guest on The Warblers today, the podcast of Birds Canada. I answer a question about chickadee song. Nelsy Niño @nelsyninor.bsky.social answers a question about mimicry. Thanks for having us @birdscanada.bsky.social!
Listen here: www.birdscanada.org/warblerspodc...
Inter-brood interval affects offspring survival and fitness, and reflects timing of breeding and female quality. Our new paper on inter-brood interval appears in the new issue of Ibis, led by Hayley Spina and our collaborative Savannah Sparrow research team. @bou.org.uk @ryannorrissci.bsky.social
12.12.2025 13:33 — 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Looking for some inspiration? Stu Mackenzie is celebrating 20 yrs at Birds Canada. Truly one of a kind. Absolute legend @birdscanada.bsky.social #birds 🌿
12.12.2025 15:28 — 👍 74 🔁 14 💬 5 📌 0
"Grad student takes flight to map invasive plant." Sarika Sharma, an alum of our lab, is profiled in our campus newspaper for her research to map Phragmites in the Healthy Headwaters Lab. Congratulations Sarika!
www.uwindsor.ca/news/2025-11...
@ecofebria.bsky.social @ibiouwindsor.bsky.social
BIRDS & BEERS V is one week from tonight, Thurs Nov 20, in Windsor! 🐦🍺🐦🍺 An evening of fun with UWindsor researchers including bird trivia, ornithology talks, student posters, and a short film screening. All are welcome! @ibiouwindsor.bsky.social
Tickets: tinyurl.com/BirdsBeers5
I launched our latest Motus Audio recorder just outside Algonquin Park, with a generous assist from Motus collaborator @ryannorrissci.bsky.social. Let's see how many sparrows and thrushes are still on-the-move in mid-October.
15.10.2025 13:18 — 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 0
Double brooding improves lifetime fitness. Our paper "Multigenerational fitness outcomes of double-brooding: a 30-year study of a migratory songbird" appears in the latest Behavioral Ecology: tinyurl.com/3hsyd42m. By @hayleyspina.bsky.social @ryannorrissci.bsky.social and our collaborative team.
14.10.2025 10:54 — 👍 20 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
A small all yellow-green slings to an Oak tree branch
Tomorrow is #OctoberBigDay! The simple act of volunteer scientists birding and submitting their lists to eBird all at the same time, produces a powerful dataset that helps us learn about bird migration timing and more! Here's a late migrating Oct #NorthernYellowWarbler that is heading to C. America.
10.10.2025 23:25 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Dr. Natalie Sánchez at a bird banding station in Costa Rica, holding a migratory thrush.
Dr. Natalie Sánchez has just been appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in our Department of Integrative Biology at University of Windsor. Congratulations @natingui.bsky.social! I am so excited about the collaborations and research projects that lie ahead. @ibiouwindsor.bsky.social
09.10.2025 12:57 — 👍 23 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1
Motus Audio recorders are now set up at Birds Canada headquarters in Port Rowan and at Old Cut Research Station at Longpoint Bird Observatory. Which bird species will we record flying southwards this fall? @birdscanada.bsky.social @ibiouwindsor.bsky.social [📷 N. Emerick & M. Bygrove]
03.10.2025 15:19 — 👍 18 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
It's "Birds and Reptiles Week" in the International Master's of Bioacoustics program. This week we're on campus at Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne. Today we had great lectures and workshops from Profs. Nicolas Mathevon, Ole Larsen, and Magnus Wahlberg. @nicolasmathevon.bsky.social
22.09.2025 14:58 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Our week of field-based learning has finished with a beautiful sunset, a campfire lecture, and a starry night. And a shockingly hard acoustic quiz. Can you differentiate a screaming deer, a creaking door, and a shrieking Nazgul? Next week: bird & reptile week on campus. @nicolasmathevon.bsky.social
20.09.2025 05:21 — 👍 11 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Please share!🙏
🚨 PhD Oportunity in Avian Behavioural Ecology in Spain
The BirdBond Project (MNCN & IREC) studies how pair bonds form, change & affect reproduction/survival in the spotless starling 🐦
Sarah Dobney presented her doctoral studies at the International Bioacoustics Congress #ibac2025 in Kerteminde, Denmark. Way to go @sdobney.bsky.social!
15.09.2025 09:45 — 👍 40 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
We've launched a Motus Audio Recorder on Pelee Island! Natalie, Madison, and Nelsy launched our 10th recorder, which will survey migratory birds passing over Pelee Island this fall.
@ibiouwindsor.bsky.social @birdscanada.bsky.social @peleeislandbird.bsky.social
Thank you so much!
11.09.2025 13:44 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I've been loving the talks and posters being presented at #IBAC2025! Come see my poster today to learn about the "Songs of the studs" 🎤🐦🪺 @dmennill.bsky.social
11.09.2025 06:36 — 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
Yay bioacousticians all around! <3 Come see me at the #IBAC session tomorrow - or anytime for coffee/bikes!
08.09.2025 20:03 — 👍 23 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
"UWindsor students co-author scientific paper after immersive Paris field course." Today's campus newsletter has a write-up about our new paper, arising from our field course on Bird Song and Anthropogenic Noise. 🇫🇷🎶🐦 Check it out: www.uwindsor.ca/news/2025-07...
30.07.2025 18:41 — 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
A landscape photo of a boreal forest. Overlay text reads "The challenge: We don’t know how birds are doing in much of the boreal forest because it’s too hard to survey in these remote regions."
A Blackpoll Warbler perches on a branch. Overlay text reads "A new window: Because monitoring programs rarely reach the far north, boreal bird migration in the spring and fall offers a way to track their populations using migration data from bird observatory counts."
A Blackpoll Warbler sings from a tree. Overlay text reads "An innovative method: Using the Blackpoll Warbler as a case study, researchers combined migration counts with feather isotopes. The feather chemistry helped reveal the origins of the birds, while migration counts provided insights into the changes in their populations."
A landscape shot of the Blackpoll Warbler's habitat. Overlay text reads: "The big picture: This approach will help us protect more species by identifying where conservation is most urgently needed."
The latest issue of Avian Conservation and Ecology (ACE) is out now!
Volume 20, Issue 1 features a variety of captivating bird research papers, including a new study co-authored by Danielle Ethier, Senior Scientist at Birds Canada.
Dive into this study and more at avianconservationecology.org
Photograph of a group of University of Windsor students on a Study Abroad field course in Paris, France. We're giving the "thumbs up" next to a Song Meter we used to record birds in urban parks. Superimposed over the photo: the title of our new paper in the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology: "Avian biodiversity in the urban green spaces of Paris: higher bird species richness in larger parks and park centers."
Our new paper is out: "Avian biodiversity in the urban green spaces of Paris: higher bird species richness in larger parks and park centers". Co-authored with 14 UWindsor students from a Study Abroad field course. In Avian Conservation & Ecology: ace-eco.org/vol20/iss2/a...
Here's our story...
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Savannah Sparrow song and Ovenbird song is the focus from our team today at #CSEE2025:
At 8:45 "Song of the Studs" by Sarah Dobney in Behav Ecol 1.
At 11:30 "Clamorous and Amorous" by Connor Acorn in Behav Ecol 2.
@csee-scee.bsky.social @csee-sceemtgs.bsky.social @sdobney.bsky.social
What's all the buzz about? Today at 10:30 in the Avian Ecology session of #CSEE2025, our newest team member, Natalie Emerick, will present her research on bat and aerial insectivore acoustics (coauthors Hannah ter Hofstede and Liam O'Leary).
@csee-scee.bsky.social @csee-sceemtgs.bsky.social
It's a big day for our team at #CSEE2025:
At 14:00 join @jaclynaubin.bsky.social in room Sherbrooke C for her talk on St. Lawrence Beluga bioacoustics.
At 16:30 join me in room Lac Memphrémagog for my talk on a global horizon scan of bioacoustics.
@csee-scee.bsky.social @csee-sceemtgs.bsky.social
