In the early 1980’s, we began preparing separate spread wings to help illustrate features of birds that had never been accurately drawn. Today our collection of spread wings is the largest in the world, preserving more than 40,000 specimens.

1. post! What a nice start here with a celebration - our work is now published! 😊 In short: The annual survival of the collared pratincole, a migratory bird species that breeds around the Mediterranean, depends on flooding conditions in the Sahel. Sincere thank you to all contributors! Read more!👇

British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU)@bou.org.uk · 3w ago

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Effects of non-breeding conditions on the survival of the Collared Pratincole, an Afro-Palearctic migrant | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Sandra Hodić, Pablo Vera, Pedro Marin Prado, Wouter M.G. Vansteelant, Leo Zwarts, Jocelyn Champagnon | #ornithology 🪶

Meet our trainees! Toka from Egypt, Arda from Türkiye, and Redha from Lebanon will join us as the 2026 cohort of the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship. We set up this traineeship program with OSME last year. Read more about the program and trainees: www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2026/8/...

How does personality affect spring migration timing in Red Knots? We combined experimental food manipulations, measures of exploration speed, and individual tracking to find that fast-exploring birds delayed departure, but only after restricted food access. Read more in our paper👇

British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU)@bou.org.uk · 2mo ago

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Exploration speed in Red Knots affects spring migration timing, but only after experimentally constrained fuelling conditions | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Tohar Tal, Allert I. Bijleveld, Karein van Bijssum, Hidde Kressin, Thomas K. Lameris | #ornithology

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Exploration speed in Red Knots affects spring migration timing, but only after experimentally constrained fuelling conditions | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Tohar Tal, Allert I. Bijleveld, Karein van Bijssum, Hidde Kressin, Thomas K. Lameris | #ornithology

🐦🌙 Happy to see this big collaborative paper out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We address a seemingly simple question using geolocator data collected across many species and individuals: how much of bird migration actually happens at night? www.cell.com/current-biol... A short🧵

🔈 APPLICATIONS OPEN... ...for BOU Small Research Grants & Career Development Bursaries Application deadline: 30 Oct 2026 Full details via links ⬇️ Grants: bou.org.uk/funding/s... Bursaries: bou.org.uk/funding/c... #ornithology 🪶

🔈 NOMINATIONS OPEN Know someone in #ornithology deserving of recognition? Nominate them for a BOU award now! 🪶 🥇 Godman Salvin Prize 🥇 Alfred Newton Lecture 🥇 Janet Kear Union Medal 🥇 Early Professional Award Deadline: 15 September 2026 Nominate: bou.org.uk/about-the... 🪶

📢 New IMR study on movement patterns of #BaskingSharks shows that sharks tagged above the #ArcticCircle in #Norway perform repeated large-scale movements to subtropical waters and actively use the water column across habitats.🧵 1/5 👉 doi.org/10.3354/meps... @whoi.edu @thembauk.bsky.social

Marine Ecology Progress Series@meps-ir.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🦤🌐🧪 Year-long satellite tracking of basking sharks revealed ~14,000 km migrations spanning 30° latitude. This includes a transatlantic journey from Norway to the Caribbean highlighting the need for pan-latitudinal research. #FeatureArticle bit.ly/meps15153 @cakloecker.bsky.social

NEW on #theBOUblog from Alejandro Corregidor‐Castro When conservation tools turn context dependent bou.org.uk/blog-corr...‐castro-when-conservation-tools-turn-context-dependent Based on this IBIS paper doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... #ornithology 🪶

Small migratory birds cross deserts and seas as part of their annual migration. But how? Our new study shows how thrush nightingales do it: by flying night after night and stopping during the day, when they remain innactive🐦➡️(1/3) doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... @royalsocietypublishing.org #BirdMigration

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Low breeding propensity in a declining Arctic-breeding swan revealed by telemetry data | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Tohar Tal, Bart A. Nolet, Tom S.L. Versluijs, Judy Z. Shamoun-Baranes, Götz Eichhorn, Sabine Urban, Hans Linssen | #ornithology 🪶

Why are Bewick’s Swans declining? Here, we set out to answer this question by breaking down the reproductive cycle of the rapidly declining Western Palearctic population, using both GPS/ACC and citizen-science data. Click the link below to read the full story! @hanslinssen.bsky.social

British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU)@bou.org.uk · 5mo ago

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Low breeding propensity in a declining Arctic-breeding swan revealed by telemetry data | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Tohar Tal, Bart A. Nolet, Tom S.L. Versluijs, Judy Z. Shamoun-Baranes, Götz Eichhorn, Sabine Urban, Hans Linssen | #ornithology 🪶

⏳ Just 7 days to apply for the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship Spend a month at Batumi Raptor Count, learning hands-on migration monitoring in one of the world’s largest raptor flyways. Fully funded travel + acco. Open to conservationists in OSME region. www.batumiraptorcount.org/flyway-monit... 🪶🦅

BRC Flyway Monitoring Traineeship — Batumi Raptor Count

We are raising \u20AC30,000 to continue our monitoring, conservation and education work in 2026.

batumiraptorcount.org

Call for Counters! Join BRC in Autumn 2026 to witness the magnificent migration of >1 million raptors, improve your ID skills, and contribute to population monitoring! Fees: €10-24/day with discounts available! Read more & apply here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/volunteer-as-raptor-migration-counter

Our 2026 Flyway Monitoring Traineeship is open for applications from raptor enthusiasts living in the OSME region. Learn all about raptor migration, identification and what it takes to run a count like the BRC, and receive up to €1300 to cover costs. www.batumiraptorcount.org/flyway-monit... 🪶

Want a year at one of the UK’s top bird observatories? We’re offering a 12-month Conservation Internship at Spurn — a unique chance to gain real experience in monitoring, conservation and migration. Apply now 👇 spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/news/conserv...

Pleased to share the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Action Plan (2025–2035) -- a major collaborative effort, bringing together science, conservation priorities, evidence and inputs from across the flyway. Scan the QR code or follow the link [below] to access the full document tinyurl.com/326r23d7

Heading into conference abstract / presentation season, I 100% recommend Kathryn Langin's (@kangin.bsky.social) "Tell me a story! A plea for more compelling conference presentations". It's short, sweet, and not just for ornithologists. I can get behind every word! 🔒 academic.oup.com/condor/artic...

Hij houdt vast aan het internationaal recht, zegt nee tegen de oorlog met Iran en vaart een eigen, mildere migratiekoers. De Spaanse premier Pedro Sánchez is uitgegroeid tot de Europese anti-Trump. Raakt hij daardoor in een internationaal isolement?

De Spaanse premier Sánchez is een van de weinigen die zich uitspreekt tegen Trump – met het risico op internationaal isolement

Hij houdt vast aan het internationaal recht, zegt nee tegen de oorlog met Iran en vaart een eigen, mildere migratiekoers. De Spaanse premier Pedro Sánchez is uitgegroeid tot de Europese anti-Trump.…

buff.ly

NEW PUBLICATION! Long time coming — now out: the results of our pilot spring raptor counts in Batumi! Read about seasonal contrasts in raptor migration, the eastern Black Sea coast as a principal spring flyway, and much more. 🦅 Paper: doi.org/10.5253/arde... #ornithology @batumiraptorcount.org

NEW on #theBOUblog from Heather Fortune World Book Day 2026! Recommendations from BOU Council and Committee members bou.org.uk/blog-fort... #ornithology 🪶

Waders in a changing climate? New WaderTales blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/m... To coincide with paper published on Saturday: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #Iceland #ConservationScience🌍

Social learning in Black-tailed Godwits - where to find food? Summary of new paper in @asab.org journal by Josh Nightingale is summarised in this blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/l... Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #ConservationScience🌍

Redshank - is this a cry for help? Icelandic waders are under pressure - roads, summer houses, power lines, forestry are all having effects: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/i... Paper by Aldis Pálsdóttir and colleagues summarised in WaderTales blog 20 Feb 2025 🎂 #ornithology

Using our bee-tracking drone, we discovered that honey bees 🐝 have highly precise and individual routes. Now published at @currentbiology.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Andrew Straw@andrewstraw.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too! preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵 Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/9

Recommended read: our 2025 Autumn Report is out! As part of our tradition and commitment, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the season’s highlights and phenological peculiarities — complemented by many beautiful photos of both birds and people! 👉 batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-report-2025

📉 Our new paper shows Bewick’s Swan numbers in NW/NE Europe have fallen to ~12,900 birds - a 56.7% decline since 1995, with further losses predicted by 2026 unless survival or breeding success improves. Flyway-wide conservation is urgent. 🦢 Download paper > tidsskrift.dk/Wildfowl/art... #Ornithology

Take three minutes to look at pretty birds, explore radar data, and see how we connect the structure of skies to MacArthur's ideas of niche partitioning. 📡🐦☁️🎧

Structuring the skies: Diel dynamics of migratory animalmovement in the lower atmosphere

YouTube video by Kyle Horton

youtu.be

Kyle Horton@kyle-horton.bsky.social · 10mo ago

We churned through over 100 million radar samples to quantify the structure of migration through the airspaces across the United States: Just out in Ecology esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

A typical Batumi migration scene, illustrating the idea of an ‘aerial niche’. For Steppe Buzzards in our bottleneck, that niche is often somewhere between the clouds: great to watch, tricky to count. Fascinating paper by @cnilsson.science et al: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... 📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social

Trends in Ecology & Evolution@cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social · 10mo ago

November issue out online now www.cell.com/ecology-evol... We hope you enjoy it! The cover article is by Cecilia Nilsson and colleagues, photo by Bart Hoekstra The penultimate interviews in our Disability series feature John Dennehy and Tara Cronin