Jeff White
@jeffwwhite.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Researcher at Cornell and with the Tawaki Trust. Seabird foraging ecology. Stable isotopes. Diving physiology. Population dynamics. he/him 🏳️🌈 #firstgen
Huge News from the Western Amazon: it's the year 2025 and we are still describing entirely new, strikingly-distinctive large-bodied bird species! Behold Tinamus resonans sp. nov. the Slaty-masked Tinamou mapress.com/zt/article/v... #Ornithology @tetzoo.bsky.social 🪶
A couple of weeks ago I had a great chat with Mary from the All About Penguins podcast about crested penguins, conservation, and field work. The episode is now available! Check out her website at www.lifeguin.com open.spotify.com/episode/1pOr... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
The #PSG2026 Scientific Program Committee is accepting proposals for workshops, symposia & round-tables! 🗓️ Deadline: Sept 1, 2025 📅 Virtual meeting: Feb 23–27, 2026 📧 programchair@pacificseabirdgroup.org 🔗 Submit: bit.ly/4oYWq93 #Seabirds #Ornithology
New open access paper out! We evaluated the population structure and conservation needs for 3 crested penguin species in NZ. Read it here: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Excited for the first day of presentations at #AOS2025. Looking forward to hearing about all the great science that's happening!
A Tawaki Project double-whammy! 🎉 After Myrene’s paper came out last week, we’ve now got a follow-up study highlighting just how adaptable tawaki are finding food at sea - a huge advantage in our rapidly changing world. As always, Open Access and free to read: peerj.com/articles/196...
After three years of hard work, @myrene_ventures has published her first scientific paper! 🎉 It suggests Tawaki might handle our changing world better than many other penguins. It’s Open Access - go have a read! doi.org/10.7717/peer...
NEW PAPER: Same-sex partnerships in birds: a review of the current literature and a call for more data. ➡️ vist.ly/3n99bk6 #ornithology #birds #same-sexbehaviour #review #partnerships @tashgillies.bsky.social @katrina-siddiqi.bsky.social Illustration: @bertillemohring.bsky.social
Steeple Jason Island. Home to the largest Black-browed Albatross colony in the world. I spent a week in March sampling albatrosses, penguins, giant petrels, shags, and more as part of our work to understand the dynamics of HPAI in the Falklands seabird community
Penguin counts, elephant seal harems, Canada goose sightings, and more! Check out the report from the 2024 Bounty-Antipodes Expedition to see what all we were up to this season.
The Tawaki Project@tawaki-project.org · last yr.The big Bounty-Antipodes Expedition 2024 report is finally out! It's jam packed with the info about the work we've been doing on the sub-antarctic Bounty and Antipodes Island including penguins (obviously), albatross, elephant seals - and more archaeological discoveries! -> bit.ly/bounty-antip...
After over 5 months in the field I'm back in Ithaca and ready to begin processing samples for #stableisotopes and other dietary analyses. Stay tuned for field recaps from the Falklands/Malvinas and updates from the lab!
Another day and another tagged seabird… this time a Brown Skua at Saunders Island, Falkland. Ring ABU and with a geolocator (?). Anyone know anything about it? Also great to see it with a recently fledged chick. Survivors of the HPAI wave across the isles. @scottishseabird.bsky.social? #Seabirds
In the Falklands/Malvinas my focus is understanding food web dynamics for native predators/scavengers and their interactions with both native seabirds and introduced mammals through tracking, stable isotopes, and fecal DNA. Looking forward to a great season over the next few months.
Spent some time sampling and admiring the penguins of Saunders Island last week.
Of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't also post about all the fantastic penguins and shags I'm seeing (and also sampling) including a Northern Rockhopper that seems to have made a friend with one of the local Southern Rockhoppers. All this from just one island.
Last week I arrived in the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas for field campaign #2 of the season. This time I'm focused on the foraging ecology of scavengers on islands +/- introduced mammals. Lots of GLS to deploy on skuas and of course lots of stable isotopes to come!
Just a week ago we were packing and prepping for pick up from Antipodes Island. 2.5 months of exhausting field work flew by with this amazing team. Couldn’t ask for better people to study penguins with. Thanks for another great season @tawaki-project.org
Somehow 2.5 months on Antipodes has come to an end. We said goodbye to that stunning island and the incredible birds that call it home, and sailed back to the South Island. Hopefully expanding the work to other islands next season. 🐧🇳🇿#seabirds
Ever wonder what a penguin colony sounds like at night? This is from our southern study colony on Antipodes. Our camp is located about 50 ft away so we get to hear (and smell) them all night long.
Crèching is imminent for the erect-crested penguin chicks. But being too big to fit under dad means that they are now exposed to the sun. On bright sunny days the colonies can get very warm, so the chicks resort to rather dramatic panting to stay cool. I’m sure they are relieved when night comes.
This big erect-crested penguin chick has figured out how to game the system. That’s not its dad beside it. This chick belongs to a neighbor. Over several days we watched it get fed by its mom and then waddle over to the neighbor and successfully get fed a second time by another chick’s mom.
It’s been a very rainy few weeks here on Antipodes. Many of the erect-crested penguin chicks are now too big to hide from the rain under their parents. They don’t seem thrilled by this new development.
In other skua news, the skua nest beside our main study colony has a very cute chick currently
We often stop for a break in this gully when crossing the central plateau of Antipodes Island. Thjs time we had the privilege of being visited by a very curious pair of skuas. They were busy testing our boots and packs for at least 20 minutes before we had to continue our walk.
Eastern Rockhoppers face a bleak future. Since the 1940s they have declined by 90% or more across their New Zealand range. Entire colonies have disappeared. Seeing the first chicks of the season really reminds me that they aren’t gone yet so we should keep fighting to protect them and their habitat
