Ben Vernasco

Bird nests support a diverse, dynamic and distinctive macroarthropod community on the forest floor Nests built by vertebrates, such as birds and mammals, constitute diverse microhabitats that are inhabited by many arthropod taxa and represent important hubs of local biodiversity. Compared to leaf...

New paper! Bird nests (Wood Warblers) are hubs of invertebrate biodiversity on forest floor, hosting more species/individuals than leaf litter. Probably due to heat & food detritus. Losing Wood Warblers = ecological networks lost. #ornithology
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

HEY‼️ Come work with my team this summer! We're hiring 2 crew leads and at least 4 crew members to work on ecological research projects across OR, WA, and CA. Postings below 👇

"Understanding how organisms respond to environmental challenges is a fundamental #biological question that is dependent on integrative studies bridging different levels of biological organization..."
@verntasco.bsky.social et al

doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

#birds #avian #ecology

USAJobs Guide for Biologists and Ecologists Authors: Shawn Taylor, Jessica Burnett This guide accompanies this post highlighting careers in the US Government. The US federal jobs site, USAJobs, is notoriously difficult to use. This guide aim…

I have previously shared the following link to people applying through USAjobs. It sounds like the system has changed quite a bit, does anyone know of an updated resource?

jabberwocky.weecology.org/2021/06/14/u...

IOB, Now in issue!

State-Dependent and Social Modulation of Circulating #Glucocorticoids in a Nomadic #Songbird, the Red #Crossbill (Loxia Curvirostra)

(cover photo) Neil Paprocki
Vernasco et al

doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

#birds #biology #hormones #ecology #endocrine

Birds are vanishing from tropical forests. Is another ‘silent spring’ coming? As mysterious bird declines crop up in the Amazon and beyond, scientists suspect climate change may be to blame

"Intact tropical forests are seeing mysterious bird declines. Is another “silent spring” brewing?"

www.science.org/content/arti...?

Congratulations Josef, very well deserved!

Field job in the beautiful mountains of NE Oregon doing passive acoustic monitoring and woodpecker demography just went live. Please share!

jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id...

Please repost! We are looking for two field technicians to work on our deer mouse project in the Colorado Rockies this spring-fall. Learn about physiology, ecology, and evolution, all in one project! Not to mention that you get to be in the ⛰️. Reach out if you have any questions.

A climate-mediated ecological cascade leads to salmonellosis outbreaks in the United States. Temperature differences in successive summers are associated with differences in tree cone production in high-elevation and high-latitude forests (Top row), such that a warm summer followed by a cold summer is associated with a drop in cone production the following year (Top Right panel). Cone production is negatively associated with facultative bird migrations (irruptions) of eight seed-eating species (Middle row), such that when cone numbers are low, birds are more likely to irrupt in large numbers (Middle row, Right panel). When irruptions of pine siskins (S. pinus) occur, more songbirds are often found infected with, or dead from, salmonellosis (Bottom Right panel).

New paper links Salmonellosis disease dynamics to avian irruptions mediated by transmission at bird feeders - with subsequent spillover to humans causing severe illness and death 🪶🌎 #ornithology #UKBirding
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #BirdFeeding #Rethink @mwtingley.bsky.social

Got Beef With Cowbirds? This Researcher Wants to Change Your Mind The nest parasites get a bad rap for making other birds raise their young, but study by study, Mark Hauber and his “Cowbird Lab” have revealed a species worthy of respect.

Update on some of our decades long cowbird research in @audubon.org magazine: www.audubon.org/magazine/got...

Job Opportunities | .

The Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. is hiring two Black Rosy-Finch technicians to conduct alpine surveys in Wyoming's high elevation mountains during June 1st to Aug 31st 2026: www.governmentjobs.com/careers/wyom.... Spread the word!

Fed agency looking for wildlife refuges that 'no longer align with the mission' The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it's looking for ways to make hundreds of wildlife refuges and dozens of fish hatcheries more efficient.

www.cpr.org/2026/01/11/u...

Update: the mini bus package that includes USDA passed the House.

Please repost: 🚨Field assistant position 🐧

We offer a 14-months field assistant position through the French Polar Institute to work on king penguin ecophysiology and behavioral ecology.

Requirements: EU citizen < 30yo having experience with harsh fieldwork & wild bird/mammal handling/sampling.

Hello! Would appreciate the add, heres my google scholar profile:

scholar.google.com/citations?us...

Journal of Field Ornithology: Bye-bye bycatch: a remotely closing trap for targeted songbird capture Capturing and marking animals is often an essential component of studying wild populations, but the process of capturing and marking can have detrimental effects on captured birds. For instance, resea...

New ornithological method just dropped: capture only the birds needed for your study with the click of a button.
Pub from me & @verntasco.bsky.social
Bye-bye bycatch: a remotely closing trap for targeted songbird capture. Journal of Field Ornithology. journal.afonet.org/vol96/iss4/a...

Journal of Field Ornithology: Bye-bye bycatch: a remotely closing trap for targeted songbird capture Capturing and marking animals is often an essential component of studying wild populations, but the process of capturing and marking can have detrimental effects on captured birds. For instance, resea...

Do you trap songbirds at a bird feeder, with a focus on particular species or individuals? Consider trying out our new design which uses a key FOB to remotely close the trap!

journal.afonet.org/vol96/iss4/a...

A colorful legacy of hybridization in wood-warblers includes frequent sharing of carotenoid genes among species and genera Introgression between species can shape evolutionary trajectories in important ways. This study of the entire family of the colorful wood-warblers (Parulidae) uses whole-genome sequencing to reveal fr...

New paper out. If you like colorful birds, hybridization, and phylogenetics, read on! 🧵https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003501

State-dependent and social modulation of circulating glucocorticoids in a nomadic songbird, the Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) Abstract. Glucocorticoids facilitate the integration of environmental information and coordination of organismal responses to perturbations. Circulating gl

New research in @sicbjournals.bsky.social on individual variation in glucocorticoid physiology. We examine intrinsic and extrinsic sources using a captive population of Red Crossbills. One cool result - we find adult telomere length predicts glucocorticoid concentrations

doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

Opportunities ***PhD and MSc openings – Movement ecology and conservation*** I will periodically support graduate students, postdocs, and other staff through the Biology Department at the University of New…

I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉

gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

Also DNA PEOPLE!! We need your help!! Our cool friends collected the white witch caterpillar's poop but need to process it to find what kinds of plants it eats!

Does your lab do some kind of poop plant analysis? Please let us know!! We have special poop!

Climatic Variability Threatens Population Growth and Persistence of a Declining Grassland Songbird Determining the factors responsible for population change in threatened populations and the degree to which changing climates might put those populations at risk is one of the most pressing roles of ...

New OA paper today! This one is very important to me as is the culmination of over a decade of incredibly intensive field work in KS prairies. I will walk you through the take-homes...
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#Tallgrass #GRSP #LTER #Konza #PopulationEcology #Rain
dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

@fieldornith.bsky.social new position search!

We're hiring! Florida State University’s Department of Biological Science is seeking a tenure-track Evolutionary Geneticist. Our E&E group is outstanding - join us! Please share with anyone who might be interested! #Evolution #Genetics #EvoDevo #FacultyJob
jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/675930/a...

Anyone looking for an undergrad research assistant this coming summer? I have a truly phenomenal undergrad with expertise in genetic mapping, long read sequencing & bioinformatics who wants experience in another lab before grad school. She has been in our lab for 3 years & writing her first paper!

Looking for an adjunct to teach Indigenous Psychology in the spring. Could be asynchronous or via Zoom in the evening (Pacific). Very open to whatever approach/content you'd like to cover. Pay is $3,300 for the semester. We're a Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institution, as well as an HSI!

Bezos grant to fund AI innovations to monitor and protect wildlife | Cornell Chronicle A $1.8 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund will help the Cornell Lab of Ornithology develop acoustic sensors and artificial intelligence analytics to identify real-time threats to forests from ill...

news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

The perfect paper, the perfect grant proposal, the perfect fellowship application…

Adult Gray Treefrog. A treefrog is sitting in brown, dead cattail fronds. The treefrog has a mottled pattern of light and dark green patterns on its back.

Figure showing the amount of daylength in the three treatments from the start of the experiment (Day 0) to the end of the experiment (around day 90). The early treatment simulates breeding starting in april, and the daylength is about 12.5 hours per day, and goes up to about 15 hours per day. The average treatment simulates breeding in july, and simulates breeding starting in July and at 15 hours of light per day, and going down to around 12 hours of light per day. The late treatment simulates breeding in mid-august. Late treatment starts with about 14 hours of light per day, and goes down to about 10 hours of light per day.

Plot of total glycogen in liver. The values are low (between 0 and 20) for frogs from the early and average photoperiod, but are much higher (40) for frogs from the late treatment.

Figure showing size-corrected growth rate (grams per day) from the three photoperiod treatments. The late photoperiod treatment has the lowest growth rate, significantly lower than the average photoperiod, and lower (but not significantly different from) the early photoperiod.

New from CWRU alumn Troy Neptune, with Diana Koester (CLE Metroparks Zoo) in @animalecology.bsky.social. Gray treefrogs use daylength as a seasonal cue to prepare for winter. Autumn daylength triggers frogs to accumulate 14-fold more liver glycogen than summer photoperiod.
doi.org/10.1111/1365...