Happy to share this 'capstone' project from my time as a postdoc @umich.edu, where we show that hierarchically nested bursts of body-shape evolution may underlie much of perching-bird diversification over ~50 million years. Free access link here: rdcu.be/fuxB1

Rates of passerine body plan evolution in time and space

Nature Ecology & Evolution - A reconstruction of the evolutionary history of passerine body plans over the past ~50 Myr shows rare bursts of phenotypic innovation near the origin of major...

rdcu.be

I'm joining Rutgers DEENR in a tenure-track faculty position this fall! I'll be recruiting a quantitative postdoc in climate change wildlife ecology (start fall 26 or jan 27) and PhD student doing bioacoustics to study avian responses to extreme weather (start fall 27). More- www.gcmelab.com/join-us

Second dissertation chapter just dropped at Ecology Letters! doi.org/10.1111/ele.70441 Across theory, stochastic models, and protist microcosms, we show how rising temporal autocorrelation drives predictable increases in extinction risk under warming (ft. coauthor @mtkummel.bsky.social!)

Temporal Autocorrelation Increases Temperature‐Driven Extinction Risk by Clustering Stressful Conditions

Extinction risk forecasting typically relies on comparing thermal tolerance data to predicted shifts in thermal distributions. However, changing temporal sequencing of temperatures may exacerbate the....

doi.org

I am recruiting a PhD student interested in the disease ecology of cavity nesting birds to start Fall 2027! Interested applicants can contact me by filling out the linked form. I will also be at ESA 2026 and am happy to meet! More info on my website: sauerlab.com Please share!

I guess I'm Dr. Cody Limber now!

I'm defending my PhD this week! If you're interested in coming and hearing about the latest and greatest in feather research, send me a message and I can send you a zoom link!

#Evol2026 I’m launching a new research group at UNC Charlotte in January 2027. Prospective students, postdocs, and collaborators are welcome to get in touch: jacob.berv@charlotte.edu More at jakeberv.com, lab website coming soon.

#NewPaperAlert! This one has a massive author list and has been a LONG time in coming, but is SO COOL! First, check out the first figure to get you interested! Manakins! Fruit! Sexual-selection in action (displays and Z:A chromosomal diversity)! Read on for the back story & link 1/n

Big milestone completed last week! Happy to share that my PhD dissertation has been successfully defended (ft. my fanciest PowerPoint yet and the longest LaTeX document I have ever had the (dis)pleasure of compiling)

One of my favorite parts of writing is reading old texts. Tiedemann 1810 wrote that feathers are of a vegetable nature since they are basically skin plants that sprout, grow, wither, and fall out each year. I'm pretty much convinced he was onto something

Some excellent (brown) naturalist finds recently! Never thought I'd see Eastern Hognose in CT but managed to find 2 while looking for butterflies

Hard to beat good looks at a Blackburnian Warbler

Lifer Swainson's Warbler this morning in Connecticut! First state record and I'm super glad it stuck around for a second day so that I could get to see it!

Interested in a PhD working on sexual selection in tropical shorebirds? I'm recruiting a student for Fall 2027! I'm happy to support an applicant writing a Simons Graduate Fellowship in Ecology & Evolution: www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution

The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...

simonsfoundation.org

Sunbirds don’t drink nectar like hummingbirds. They use intralingual suction: the tongue acts like a straw, moving nectar via pressure differences rather than capillarity. A clear case of biomechanical divergence despite ecological convergence. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... @CurrentBiology #ornithology

Second author on this paper is the incredible former Prum Lab undergrad Molly Hill!!!! Amazing stuff

Carl Zimmer@carlzimmer.com · 4mo ago

Bruce is a New Zealand parrot missing his top beak. It’s a serious disability, but he has managed to become the alpha of his group, through creativity. Here’s my story about Bruce and the mostly mysterious natural history of disability. Gift link: nyti.ms/4cwVGT5

I made a little android app to better explore what species are around! It's called Manakin (play on the Merlin app) and it lets you download and explore iNat data. It can also help you plan out trips and remind you when your target species is active.

This is a pretty fun read

Study Report: Can astrologers truly gain insights about people from entire astrological charts?

Astrology is very popular — both Gallup and YouGov report that about 25% of Americans believe that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives, with an additional 20% of people rep...

clearerthinking.org

Obsessed with the photos coming from Artemis II but haven't seen this one shared too widely yet, it might be my favorite! (Tons of other cool pics here: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna...)

Not only is this language disgusting, but so are their actions. I'm really not enjoying answering every question from friends and family about my future with "hopefully I'll have more job prospects during the next administration..."

Leslie Rissler@ljrissler.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I am shocked to see this language from the NSF. “The U.S. National Science Foundation's Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment while eliminating woke and weaponized grant programs that previously funded radical DEI projects.”

This is one of the most unhinged things I've ever read but also invents the field of gravitational ornithology so net positive I guess? arxiv.org/pdf/2603.29064

Excited to share a new paper doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... We suggest that tradeoffs between infection costs and the benefits of sociality are dynamic, context-dependent, and likely asymmetric within dyads. We then propose hypotheses about how these tradeoffs might shape social responses to parasites...

My new favorite paper: doi.org/10.1901/jaba...

THE UNSUCCESSFUL SELF‐TREATMENT OF A CASE OF “WRITER'S BLOCK”1

Click on the article title to read more.

doi.org

I only have two science notes for the Project Hail Mary movie. 1) he doesn't balance the centrifuge and 2) the Hail Mary doesn't need solar panels, it's got astrophage for energy and is mostly flying in interstellar space. Other than that, it's a perfect film

For the past few years, I've been playing with the idea of creating a "naturalist calendar" which reminds you when its the best time of year to look for certain animals. I made a little test using iNat data today; codylimber.github.io/ct-butterfli...

Sometimes you just get that shot. Anna's hummingbird with a little friend, in my yard. Davis, CA. #birds #ants

Now with pages @systbiol.bsky.social ! "Social Environment and the Evolution of Delayed Reproduction in Birds" with @pseudacris.bsky.social and Rick Prum Some comparative support for the hypothesis that the evolution of complex social contexts restructure life histories doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

Social Environment and the Evolution of Delayed Reproduction in Birds

Abstract. One puzzling feature of avian life histories is that individuals in many different lineages delay reproduction for several years after they finis

doi.org

Anyone know a way to search my eBird photos for passeriformes? I know I could sort taxonomically and scroll all the way down but there has to be a better way right?

Warm weather and rain produced a pretty epic night of salamanders and frogs last night! Highlights were several huge Spotted Salamanders, 10 Four-toed Salamanders, and a single A. unisexual hybrid!

Submitted my 4000th complete checklist to eBird today! ebird.org/checklist/S3... Pretty wild to think of all the birds I've seen in that time. The birds today were nothing too remarkable, plenty of singing cardinals, some flyover geese, and the invasive trio!

eBird Checklist - 11 Mar 2026 - East Rock Walk - 16 species

Submitted by Cody Limber.

ebird.org