Matthias Tschumi 🦉

Renew your SCB Europe @scbeurope.bsky.social membership NOW to secure a reduced registration fee for the upcoming ECCB26 @eccb26leiden.bsky.social!

Join us here: www.scbeurope.org/membership

ECCB26 abstract submission will open soon - stay tuned 📆📝
eccb26leiden.eu

Falcons reduce pre‐harvest food safety risks and crop damage from wild birds In the absence of American kestrels, there are more birds in orchards. This leads to increased crop damage and more bird faecal contamination.

🍒🪶Excited for our new article to come out in
@jappliedecology.bsky.social

We show that falcons attracted to orchards using nestboxes reduce food safety risks and crop damage from wild birds.

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

A recovering patch of rainforest in Ecuadorian Chocó, picture by Eike Lena Neuschulz

Seed dispersal by 🦜🦇 underpins rainforest recovery. We want to understand more about its timing + traits driving recovery through obs, exp + genomic data. Ready to join the @reassemblynet.bsky.social team working in Ecuadorian Chocó? Pls apply to our 4-yr PhD position @sgn.one: tinyurl.com/2pkryc99

Today's woodpecker performing a metaphor

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

We have a beautiful new website!🎊

Visit scbeurope.org

Join us & share🤩✨️

Hester and myself with her PhD hat.

Happy and proud of the next fledgling of the Flack flock. Dr Hester Brønnvik @hbronnv.bsky.social defended her PhD thesis today. She has done a wonderful job. I could not be happier! @imprs-qbee.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

🚀 Guess who’s back? 🛰️🥳💫
ICARUS, our global wildlife-tracking system, returns to orbit aboard the GENA-OT satellite, which launched from Vandenberg SFB today 🎉
This is step one for ICARUS 2.0: full global coverage, smaller sensors, near-real-time.
Congrats @animaltracking.bsky.social + team ICARUS

The latest result on dispersal in vulturine guineafowl: dispersing females selectively use roads to reduce the cost of transport when making large displacements.

Out now in @royalsocietypublishing.org Proc B: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

An incredible opportunity to work with the @rspb.bsky.social and Storm petrels as part of your Master's degree! 🕊️

#research #seabirds

They grow bacteria on those hairy arms and then lick the bacteria off for a delightful snack, isn't that gross and cool?

Not too late to state interest and contribute!

Of particular interest at this point: studies related to immunosenescence, senescence of flight performance and studies looking at links between metabolome/proteome and senescence.

All details in link below. Questions? Just get in touch!

Can high biodiversity and agricultural productivity be reconciled? A community model of the bird–arthropod food web in African cocoa agroforestry indicates that low-intensity farming practices favour certain bird species and enhance the abundance of potential pollinators. doi.org/10.1002/eap....

A male Anna’s hummingbird at the door. So nosy! 🤣

Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.

This is who it was:

On the train back home, still buzzing from some great days at @vogelwarte.bsky.social where Hans Schmid wrote "Getrennte Wege" - a classic synthesis of Honey Buzzard migration. A quarter century later the species has revealed a few more, but still not all of its migratory "Geheimnisse". #ornithology

Wombat architecture critics. Two wombats see a cube-shaped house and one comments: Well that looks like shit.

For the Aussies, the zoologists and the architects out there.

💩🧊🧪

By @chazhutton.com

Our last paper describes the spring-accelerated loop-migration of the Woodchat Shrike, tracked with light- and multi-sensor geolocators link.springer.com/article/10.1... #ornithology

A fake spider in a web, with text: That’s no spider! It’s a decoy

For the first time, scientists have documented an unusual defense: Some species of arachnids build giant doppelgängers on their webs, creating a frightening deception that scares off would-be killers. https://scim.ag/487Myn0

Basic light pollution diagram showing four different streetlight set ups ranging from more light pollution on the left to less light pollution on the right. The most pollution option, labelled "very bad" is a street lamp with a round uncovered bulb on top, making a sphere of light in the air. The next option, labelled "bad" has a tiny cap on top, that limits the upward pollution a bit. The "better" option is mostly uncovered on top, limiting pollution above the streetlight. The final option, labelled "best" has a full shroud overtop, limiting the light to only below the streetlight, where it is needed for pedestrians and vehicles.

Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"

guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation

Beavers create habitats for bats A study shows that land animals benefit from beaver dam construction – for example, endangered bats.

🦫 #Beavers help bats: Where these industrious builders fell trees and dam streams, there are more #bats. New study by WSL and @eawag.bsky.social: www.wsl.ch/en/news/beav... #NatureConservation #DeadWood #Ponds #EnvironmentalProtection #RedList @vmoser.bsky.social @animalecology.bsky.social

Women in ornithology? Absolutely essential! Unfortunately, they remain underrepresented. Our president @dorit-vlh.bsky.social and second chair Sylke Frahnert went on a mission to uncover and highlight forgotten female contributors to ornithology.

New study on factors influencing collisions of Red Kite Milvus milvus with wind turbines: findings suggest that turbines with rotor diameters <90m and clearances > 60m may pose a lower relative threat to Red Kites. Read more here: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

YouTube video by Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts Fruit, frugivores, and the ecology of seed dispersal

Which bird disperses which plant? What does bird dispersed fruit look like? Why do fruit sizes differ between regions? Why does ivy fruit in winter? How can we identify the disperser and distance carried from droppings? How did this collaboration arise? youtu.be/4vZ0w97ffRM?...

Why bark beetles are good for woodpeckers In a study based on long-term data, WSL researchers show that woodpecker populations grow when there is more deadwood.

A study by the WSL and @vogelwarte.bsky.social using long-term data has shown that bark beetles are good for woodpeckers🪲🐦: woodpeckers use the dead wood produced by bark beetle infestations as shelter and nesting sites🪵. WSL-News: www.wsl.ch/en/news/why-...
#Biodiversity #Woodpecker #DeadWood

NEW JOB in #ornithology and #conservation heading a team that develops habitat measures to benefit priority #bird species in #Switzerland (deadline 8 Dec 2025): buff.ly/Y1bIHr7

NEW JOB in #ornithology and #conservation to track #seabirds from Rathlin Island and analyse data to identify foraging areas (deadline 10 Nov): buff.ly/K0zcdH8

2-years #postdoc #position: #eDNA 🧬🔬for integrated #ecosystem and #biodiversity assessment

apply.refline.ch/673277/1297/...

In the new Eawag/WSL Biodiversity Monitoring Initiative we will strengthen & advance effective and scalable #biodiversity #monitoring methods & implement into practice. 🌐🌳🐟📈

This! 😳

Our team analysed the correlation of N deposition with numbers of territories of 112 Swiss breeding birds species. Insectivous and herbivorous species were more negatively associated with N deposistion, as well as ground-nesting species. Read more here: doi.org/10.1111/cobi...

💨 🦅 Every so often #RedKites die in collisions with #WindTurbines. A study funded by the SNSF shows when and where this happens and what might help.

For more info 👉 https://sohub.io/n7yf