Quail egg incubator with an automatic egg-turning feature but with some 3D-printed adapters for zebra finch eggs. Let the developmental study begin!

Email your senators to urge them not to confirm Jim O’Neill as Director of the National Science Foundation. He's not a scientist, has no relevant expertise, promoted vaccine misinformation, helped gut the CDC, and his Silicon Valley ties raise questions about protecting the public interest. (1/2🧵)

More auto feeder action!

Brett Hodinka, PhD@bretthodinka.bsky.social · 7mo ago

The auto feeders are working 🙌🏼

The auto feeders are working 🙌🏼

Let the smart feeder assembly begin!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my talk this morning! #SICB2026 Portland has been incredible so far!

Update: the RFID-based automated bird feeder (a) has passed the leak test in this week’s western Washington atmospheric river and (b) is officially up and running with each box having its own WiFi connection for remote data download! Time to take it to the field!

Do European starling chicks “exercise” prior to fledging and does it impact somatic and physiological development? Though the title gives it away, you can read our most recent paper in @royalsocietypublishing.org #RSOS royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Chicks of cavity-nesting birds do not ‘exercise’ prior to fledging | Royal Society Open Science

Fledging represents a key life-history transition involving a rapid increase in workload associated with a rapid transition from sedentary nestling to volant, active fledgling. Here, we tested the ide...

royalsocietypublishing.org

The RFID-enabled bird feeder is successfully reading and logging PIT tag numbers. Can’t wait to get these out into the field!

Do you love research & writing & all things animal behavior? Well our journal, Animal Behavior, recruiting up to 5 (count em!) new Associate Editors! Editors serve three-year terms beginning January 2026. If you're interested, email Exec Editor Scott Sakaluk (sksakal@ilstu.edu) by Oct 31!

ron burgundy from parks and recreation says " you 'd be a fool not to pick me "

ALT: ron burgundy from parks and recreation says " you 'd be a fool not to pick me "

media.tenor.com

The RFID-enabled automated bird feeders are coming along!

Excited to announce that I just started my first postdoc position at Western Washington University in the Templeton lab! I'll be investigating the effects of traffic noise on avian cognition. Stay tuned for lots of posts as I start data collection in the Fall!

Congratulations to @sfubiosciences.bsky.social Dean's Convocation Medal recipient Brett Hodinka. Thesis Title: Inactivity, adaptive mass regulation, and the physiological basis of costs of reproduction ow.ly/lWqx50W5PNw #MySFUGrad

Dr. Brett Hodinka receives Dean’s Convocation Medal

2025 recipient of the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal from Faculty of Science. Thesis Title: Inactivity, adaptive mass regulation, and the physiological basis of costs of reproduction

ow.ly

Wow this is a game changer. PhD scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships are now open to non-Canadians.

Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦@watershedlab.bsky.social · 2y ago

🚨 HUGE news from Canada's tricouncils who are harmonizing their scholarship & fellowship programs, upping the total number (huzzah!), and critically, allowing foreigners to apply for doctoral and postdoc fellowships. Want to work with me? Get in touch! 🇨🇦🧪⚒️ www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NewsDetail-D...

We are inviting submissions to our upcoming Special Issue: The Integrative Biology of Exercise. 🧵1/3 journals.biologists.com/jeb/pages/ex...

Philadelphia will burn to the ground tonight i fear

Interpretation for the non-scientists: When faculty get NIH grants, the University gets some extra cash to make sure the research is supported. NIH just cut that $$ by a LOT. That means Unis are less likely to support research. Most research in the US is done at Unis, so... it's bad 🧪

Tim Mosca (he/him)@drosophilosophy.bsky.social · 2y ago

Oh. My. God. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Letter from the SSE/SSB/ASN councils on the scientific understanding of sex and gender, pls RT

As a Philadelphian, I approve these messages

Lex McMenamin (they/them)@lexmcmenamin.com · 2y ago

seen in Philadelphia: FUCK ICE FUCK TRUMP + MUSK GO BIRDS

This is how you do it. Thank you @sicbjournals.bsky.social Read their whole email to membership here mailchi.mp/sicb.org/sic...

- 10,000 research grants flagged for review by NSF Program Directors - Reviews due by 5 p.m. today - They flag grants with "broadening participation" language, foreign aid, climate science, domestic energy, and "discriminatory programs including illegal DEI"

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · 2y ago

NEW: We obtained the directions NSF program officers are following to review all grants for compliance with the Trump EOs and the turmoil it has created in an agency mandated to broaden STEM participation. Our story: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: NSF this week began to search through billions of dollars of grants the agency has already awarded for anything touching on topics that President Donald Trump has criticized. And NSF has blocked grantees and trainees from accessing funds while the review is underway. scim.ag/3El0NZh

EXCLUSIVE: NSF starts vetting all grants to comply with Trump’s orders

Grantee accounts remain frozen, while union accuses NSF of ignoring rules governing peer review

scim.ag

Apparently all the PhD researchers holding prestigious NSF-funded research fellowships are having their salaries withheld until some unspecified time when the leadership figures out how to eliminate any grant funding that doesn’t align with the president’s political ideology.

Ben Stone@benstemon.bsky.social · 2y ago

It’s official: all funding requests made on Tuesday by postdocs for their salaries have been unilaterally rejected by NSF.

A gentle reminder that if we miss the 1.5°C target (and we certainly will), the next target is 1.51°C and not 2°C. We need to keep fighting. Every tonne of CO₂ emitted makes the job of future CO₂ removal harder, and every 0.01°C of temperature increase makes the world more chaotic and dangerous.

The price of eggs in the US is spiking, mostly due to #H5N1 bird flu. Solving the problem requires urgent, important communications from the CDC & FDA* and rapid development of research by the NIH** * Currently paused by Executive Order ** Grant reviews now all canceled www.kcur.org/news/2025-01...

Egg prices are soaring again. Here’s why and what to expect

Bird flu has killed millions of hens in recent weeks, shrinking the supply of eggs and hiking up prices at grocery stores.

kcur.org

I'm a journalist looking for new/soon-to-be-published studies on animal ecology and biology to write about. DM me!

The ‘Inside JEB’ article for our most recent paper made it into the 2024 @jexpbiol.bsky.social highlights book! Found at #SICB2025

Over 1000 of birds died due to stress from fireworks during New Year in a Bulgarian town, Green Balkans wildlife rescue center said. The necropsy shows that the death of the mountain finches was caused by stress. Massive haemorrhaging was found in the birds' abdomens/skulls bnr.bg/en/post/1020...

Dead Bird Count in Koprivshtitsa Surpasses 1,000

One thousand seven dead and 31 injured birds is the result of the New Year's Eve fireworks in the town of Koprivshtitsa, Dr Hristina Klisurova of the Green Balkans Wildlife Rescue Centre told BNR. Hal...

bnr.bg

From only 200 piping plover breeding pairs in Massachusetts back in 1986, to nearly 1200 last year! 🌎 phys.org/news/2024-12...

Massachusetts beaches hit record-high for piping plovers: 'A species recovering at an encouraging rate'

Piping plovers are continuing their comeback story.

phys.org