A three-decade study reveals that Australia’s once-common superb fairywren is rapidly declining in Canberra and could disappear within decades. Restoring bushy habitat and conserving insect populations are key to saving the woodland bird. @cooperwilliams.bsky.social reports for #Mongabay.

Superb fairywrens disappearing in Australia’s capital: Conserving insects could help save them

If you sit in an Australian park or garden for long enough, chances are you might catch a flash of brilliant feathers out of the corner of your eye: the superb fairywren. With its bright blue and…

mongabay.cc

The case of the disappearing fairywrens. Article just out focusing on our @fairywrensanu.bsky.social @scienceanu.bsky.social @anupress.bsky.social long term study and the recent declines we've detected. Nice to see our call for long term studies is highlighted. news.mongabay.com/2026/08/supe...

Superb fairywrens disappearing in Australia’s capital: Conserving insects could help save them

If you sit in an Australian park or garden for long enough, chances are you might catch a flash of brilliant feathers out of the corner of your eye: the superb fairywren. With its bright blue and soft...

news.mongabay.com

this was the inspiration for doi.org/10.1098/rstb... with @damienfarine.bsky.social. the take-home is that explicitly accounting for movement removes a lot of the between-rule variation in transmission dynamics. the time it takes individuals to move into contact dominates the dynamics.

The contribution of movement to social network structure and spreading dynamics under simple and complex transmission

Abstract. The structure of social networks fundamentally influences spreading dynamics. In general, the more contact between individuals, the more opportun

doi.org

(4) Proceeds go back to a society to support early career researchers (e.g. travel grants, small research grants, etc.)

Paul Smaldino@psmaldino.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Academics: What's a journal in your field that's great? I feel like they are a dwindling breed. Criteria: (1) No APC. Supports green or diamond OA. (2) High-quality and relatively fast peer review. (3) Editors who provide real curational value and exercise purposeful agency in the decision process.

Sorry for #ISBE2026 attendees who couldn't get into my talk. See our preprint below to find out more about our recent analyses, + my recent book chapter (drive.google.com/file/d/1g0eO...) Reach out if you're interested in our awesome BLE tags (besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....).

Low‐cost animal tracking using Bluetooth low energy beacons on a crowd‐sourced network

Animal tracking has opened the door to address many fundamental questions in ecology and conservation. Whilst historically animals have been tracked as a means to understand their large-scale move...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Samuele Ramellini@sramellini.bsky.social · 2mo ago

@isbe2026.bsky.social, our new preprint is out! If you're interested in seasonal biases in ecology, check it out! Or, come and talk to us! @damienfarine.bsky.social will present this tomorrow morning at 11.30 (room Rome)! doi.org/10.32942/X2K...

@isbe2026.bsky.social, our new preprint is out! If you're interested in seasonal biases in ecology, check it out! Or, come and talk to us! @damienfarine.bsky.social will present this tomorrow morning at 11.30 (room Rome)! doi.org/10.32942/X2K...

Hey @isbe2026.bsky.social - I’ll be in Turin from tomorrow, and looking to recruit PhD student and postdoc to my lab in Stockholm soon… anyone interested in parasites, sexual selection, transgen effects, fish (guppy) tracking - let’s meet up!

Do social bird species have more stable demographic histories? We do not find this to be the case in our new preprint doi.org/10.32942/X2N... Together with @ryangermain.bsky.social and many others

We have funding for SWARM-E, a long-term group at @zif-bielefeld.bsky.social! I'll be leading with co-leads @marinapapa.bsky.social @joefresna.bsky.social to better understand collective behaviour across biological and artificial systems. First workshop 2027... www.shoalgroup.org/swarm More soon!

How do animals cooperate when they aren't even the same species? Our recent review paper dug deep into the literature... 1/ Read the full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

Awesome *postdoc* opportunity with Megan Head at @biologyanu.bsky.social on thermal ecology of beetles. Great place to work, great project, amazing supervisor and really good pay. Don't miss out! jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/postdoc...

If you have (or will soon) complete your PhD & would like to join a thriving cultural evolution research group in NEW ZEALAND, drop me a line. UoA offers a handful of funded research fellowships. Applications must be made by a faculty member. Deadline August. Pls share with your students

I'm looking for a postdoc to work on an Australian Research Council Laureate Project on climate change responses, applying a Julia implementation of the NicheMapR package. The work could go in control theory, DEB theory or population process directions unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/UoM_External...

Very fun to chat with BBC World Service about Bluetooth and how it's powering our bird tracking projects. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w... @scienceanu.bsky.social @biologyanu.bsky.social

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, How does Bluetooth work?

Bluetooth lets us share files and listen to music without wires. But how does it work?

bbc.co.uk

Our latest episode of Transmissions is out! This one features Prof. Dr. Lucy Aplin, a leading cognitive ecologist from the University of Zurich and Australian National University. This marks our very first episode dedicated entirely to understanding animal culture! youtu.be/M7qCTKRNVuA?...

Transmissions Episode 6 with Dr Lucy Aplin

YouTube video by Cultural Evolution Society

youtu.be

We have a full time permanent technician position open, specialising in fish. Based at the John Krebs Field Station out at Wytham (University of Oxford). @biology.ox.ac.uk my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Craziest bird during field work, a Wilson's storm-petrel far from its natural habitat. At first I thought "weird how that swallow is behaving like a storm-petrel!" 🤯

Many lifers have been gotten from my seat behind the sonar computer. Here's today's one! (Binoscoped quickly while collecting data)

Damien Farine@damienfarine.bsky.social · 4mo ago

First day in the field, sampling a new dolphin fisher interaction site in southern Brazil. Exciting to see what we'll discover!

First day in the field, sampling a new dolphin fisher interaction site in southern Brazil. Exciting to see what we'll discover!

Animals can learn by copying others, which helps them find food and survive. The Great tit, a small passerine is good at social learning. This #RSOS paper tested whether two common parasites affect how quickly the #birds could learn a new feeding task by watching others: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

🚨New PhD opportunity🚨 Understanding sheep foraging decisions under heat stress conditions Location: Adelaide University Contact: stephan.leu@adelaide.edu.au Details: stephanleu-ecology.com/phd-opportun... Application deadline: 17 May 2026

Interested in collaborating with our lab? Why not visit? Visitors have published chapters, got new ideas and made new collaborations. At @scienceanu.bsky.social we have much to offer, including joining for cool field work and seeing great wildlife. Details here: sites.google.com/site/drfarin...

Home - Visit the lab

We welcome visiting PhD students and postdocs in the lab Since 2016, I have hosted dozens of visiting students. Together, we have completed many chapters and published many papers. These visits have ...

sites.google.com

⭐Great news⭐ We have now extended the due date for the ASSAB Student Research Grants to 7th May 2026. You can find the full details and the application form to download at the ASSAB website: www.assab.org/grants-2026

🚨ABSTRACT SUBMISSION REMINDER🚨 Submissions for the 2026 ASSAB conference are still open until the 13th of March. Submit now to take part in a friendly, warm and welcoming conference for behavioural ecologists

It turns out there is order in the apparent cockie chaos! In a new paper from the Clever Cockie Research Group; @julia-penndorf.bsky.social and co-authors show how roost of wild SC-cockies exhibit linear dominance hierarchies that are stable over 3+ years. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Long-term stability of dominance hierarchies in a wild parrot with fission–fusion dynamics

Dominance hierarchies are a common feature of stable groups, allowing animals to limit the costs of fighting over access to resources. However, althou…

sciencedirect.com

A trio of tawny frogmouths. This pair (here with this year‘s fledgie) have slept in our (their) garden as long as we’ve been here, and I love them to bits ❤️

What a lovely start to the year! Paddled from ANU campus to an island on the lake, had a BBQ in glorious weather, found a dusky woodswallow colony and a washed up ironbark offcut, which @damienfarine.bsky.social has made into a cheeseboard (🧀 for scale).

Counting down our most popular papers of the year.. in at no. 6 is a #BiologyLetters study showing sulphur-crested #cockatoos in Sydney learned to operate public drinking fountains, using their beaks and feet to turn taps and access water: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

With this festive combination of bands we wish everyone a joyful holiday season! Let's all rest up for a refreshed start to 2026! Happy Holidays 🎁

The breeding season is in full swing! After some troubles with currawong predation, most of the groups are on their second or third nest, and all the parents are busy provisioning their young 🦗🐦 30 chicks banded so far! #superbfairywren #SFW_ANU #birds #ecology