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Edward Grey Institute

@egioxford.bsky.social

Research Institute in Dept of Biology at University of Oxford studying all aspects of Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Birds in natural environments. Follow us for updates on science, seminars, jobs & field projects: https://egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/

96 Posts458 Follower62 Folgt
Irene Martinez-Baquero@imbaquero.bsky.social · 2mo ago

First paper, first post 🥳 Many congrats to Liliana Silva and everyone involved! Every behavioural ecologist who’s stared at hours of video footage should check this out 👀 Very proud that the Wytham Tits are part of this!! 🐥🐣 @egioxford.bsky.social

Sociable Weaver Project@sociableweaver.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Very proud to share the cool methodological development led by Liliana Silva that greatly facilitates video-based behaviour analyses! 🙌 Tested on sociable weavers, blue and great tits! Great performance and 8x faster than manual analyses! 🤩 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · 2mo ago

One question about the 2026 Wytham Tit field season is whether the exceptional late May 2026 heatwave will have any effects on growth or survival of nestlings that were in the nest at the time: some thermologger data collected & analysed by @davididiaquez.bsky.social shows how unusual this was

David López-Idiáquez@davididiaquez.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This week has been one of the warmest on record in Oxford. This heatwave has also been recorded by the thermologgers we have in @wythamwoods.bsky.social. The period between 23rd and 28th May has been ~8°C (+2.6 SDs) warmer in 2026 than the same period between 2023 and 2025.

Temperature anomalies in May in Wytham Woods between 2023 and 2026. Each line represents the temperature departure from the 4-year mean each hour. In orange, we can see 2026 temperatures which between the 23rd and 28th of May were 8.11º C higher on average than the mean of the 2023-2025 period (representing a difference of 2.6 standard deviations). Data comes from 8 thermologgers. Thick lines represent the average of these 8 loggers and thin lines temperature from each individual logger.
Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here's some hard quantitative data on how many km travelled, steps taken, metres climbed and hours spent in the woods fron one of the Wytham tit season team in this, our 80th year of data collection. What a work out!

Celestine Adelmant@celestineadelmant.bsky.social · 2mo ago

That's a wrap on the 2026 Wytham breeding season - the earliest on record! Here are some summary stats from my fieldwork this year 📈🪺🐛🐣 @egioxford.bsky.social

Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here is a lovely thing: a long interview with Chris Perrins by EGI DPhil student @jorgensoraker.bsky.social reflecting on his 70 years at the forefront of avian ecology here at Oxford

Jørgen Søraker@jorgensoraker.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🎦 I’ve had the pleasure of working with Chris Perrins lately. He has been a monumental figure within avian ecology for nearly 70 years. He is also a very nice and pleasant person. So, I sat down and chatted to him about his life in science. Here is the result. ⬇️ m.youtube.com/watch?v=W-7F...

Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Some new work from us, led by @davididiaquez.bsky.social (see thread ⬇️). We ask what happens if instead of measuring on calendar dates, we measure bird responses to climate defined by the temperature at which annual events happen. It turns out they keep stable T˚! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Phenological plasticity enables thermal homeostasis in a wild bird population

Changes in phenology buffer against climate change by ensuring breeding at temperatures that maximize reproductive success.

science.org

David López-Idiáquez@davididiaquez.bsky.social · 3mo ago

In our new paper, published yesterday, we use the long-term data set of Wytham Woods to show that great tits have maintained stable temperature at breeding despite the almost 2ºC increase in Spring temperature. w. E. Cole, C. Regan & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social Link -> www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · 3mo ago

From new preprint by @devisatarkar.bsky.social et al (ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...) - widespread variation in method used to achieve heating/cooling, reported effect sizes, and how these are measured

Methodological challenges in avian nestbox temperature manipulation experiments: a review with recommendations

ecoevorxiv.org

Devi Satarkar@devisatarkar.bsky.social · 3mo ago

One thing the review makes clear is just how much methods vary across studies: heating/cooling devices, box setups, temperature measurements, and reporting practices all differ, making comparisons difficult and leaving researchers with a confusing range of options when designing experiments 🤷‍♀️

Overview of nestbox temperature manipulation studies in wild birds. (A) Global distribution of the 46 nestbox warming/cooling studies (including our pilot experiment), showing strong clustering in temperate Europe and North America. Colours indicate mean annual temperature (°C) and the size of each point represents the number of studies per location; (B) Proportion of studies conducted at different reproductive stages, from nest building through incubation to the nestling period; (C) Proportion of studies using different types of experimental apparatus for warming (red) and cooling (blue); (D) Taxonomic distribution of studies across 16 cavity nesting bird species, with 30 out of 46 studies focusing on tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus); (E) Reported temperature differences between experimental and control nestboxes (Δ°C) for heating (red) and cooling (blue) treatments, illustrating the wide range of achieved temperature manipulations; (F) Reported positions within the nestbox where temperature was measured (with number of studies in parentheses), highlighting heterogeneity in measurement location among studies
Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Many studies have set out to manipulate nest temperature in birds, particularly in cavity-breeding species in nestboxes. A new review by @devisatarkar.bsky.social et al. discusses methodological challenges with these and recommends some more standardised reporting and protocols.

Devi Satarkar@devisatarkar.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Planning a nestbox temperature manipulation experiment in birds? We’ve just published a preprint that may be useful! 🪺🪶 We review 46 studies and also share our own blue tit pilot experiment from Wytham Woods, highlighting some very real practical challenges doi.org/10.32942/X25387

a blue tit peeking into a wooden nestbox
Phenoweb project@phenoweb.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Spring is gaining momentum across Scotland. 🌱 Cumulative budburst across the transect has now passed 40%, driven by a surge of activity at our northern sites in recent days. While the North is waking up, the South continues to lead the way in terms of first leaf emergence. #Phenology #Spring2026

Plot showing the cumulative percentage of trees in first budburst and first leaf across the Phenoweb Transect since 1 April 2026. Orange line shows southern sites, while the blue line shows northern sites. The black line represents the transect-wide trend.Oak budburst.Sycamore budburst.Beech budburst.
Denise Wawman@denisewawman.bsky.social · 4mo ago

NEW PAPER: We obtained a COXI sequence from a specimen of the parasitic louse/flat fly Pseudolynchia garzettae (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) collected in the UK & provide a full morphological description of the specimen to aid future researchers in case of future taxonomic issues.

A Molecular Phylogeny of the Nightjar Louse Fly Pseudolynchia garzettae (Rondani, 1979) (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) with a Diagnostic Morphological Description of a Sequenced Specimen

rdcu.be

Maria Filippou@mariafilippou.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Really excited to have presented work from my Master’s on the fitness benefits of polyandry at the #ASABSpring2026 Conference in Bristol - and proud to have won best student speaker! ✨ It was a great few days meeting other researchers and listening to all the exciting work happening in the field! 🦋

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Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🚨🚨 Breaking news from Wytham Woods: The 80th year of data collection of the long-term tit study officially started today with this nest with 3 Blue Tit eggs (pic: @mcmahok.bsky.social). First egg inferred 23 March which is our earliest EVER nest - beating the previous record of 26 March by 3 days!🚨🚨

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