Our (with @plewin.bsky.social) @currentbiology.bsky.social Dispatches is out today (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...). Covering two recent papers about bird eye movements during flight, using homing pigeons as model species.

1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:

Big congrats to @morfjoe.bsky.social on this exciting new paper in Science Advances! We provide evidence that larger flocks of migratory birds navigate more accurately toward their target direction than smaller ones

Joe Morford@morfjoe.bsky.social · last mo.

The WISDOM OF CROWDS emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds! Excited to share our work published by @aaas.org in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia...

The University of Exeter have announced a programme of academic staff cuts, including all of www.exeter.ac.uk/research/gro... Sign the open letter of support at docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... @crab-exeter.bsky.social

Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour (CRAB) | Research Groups | University of Exeter

exeter.ac.uk

Really pleased to see this paper out! We show that collective intelligence emerges in wild birds, using radar traces from flocks of migratory hirundines. Many wild social animals might benefit from similar processes, but we could also see Allee effects as migratory populations decline.

Joe Morford@morfjoe.bsky.social · last mo.

The WISDOM OF CROWDS emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds! Excited to share our work published by @aaas.org in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia...

The WISDOM OF CROWDS emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds! Excited to share our work published by @aaas.org in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia...

The wisdom of crowds emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds

Larger flocks of migrating songbirds orient more accurately toward their population’s migratory direction than smaller flocks.

doi.org

Professor Tim Coulson FRS is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is a biologist working at the interface of ecology and evolution, developing theory to explore how ecological change influences evolution, and vice versa. #RSFellows https://royalsociety.org/people/timothy-coulson-9070/

Congratulations to Sophus zu Ermgassen, who's been listed on the ENDS Power List 2026! Sophus is listed in the Academics category, with his work mentioned as being highly influential in shaping environmental policy not just domestically, but also globally 👇

Sophus zu Ermgassen recognised in ENDS Power List 2026

bit.ly

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/...

🥳 New paper alert 🥳 The first of the data chapters from my DPhil, and the works from my first few field seasons on Skomer, is out! "Shearwaters make efficient navigational decisions, even at very fine scales" - doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... A huge thank you to everyone involved 🩵

Shearwaters make efficient navigational decisions, even at very fine scales

Summary: A fine-scale displacement of Manx shearwaters, a wide-ranging pelagic seabird, reveals that they preferentially adopt shorter homing routes following release at proximal sites, demonstrating ...

doi.org

I'm a data scientist @ourworldindata.org and I need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan! 🌸 We present one of the world’s longest climate records: 1,200 years of peak cherry blossom dates in Kyoto. The researcher who maintained it, Prof. Yasuyuki Aono, sadly passed away last year.

1/25 New paper out in PNAS! We show that the fitness costs of reproductive specialization, where somatic cells give up reproduction, scale inversely with organism size. Larger organisms can afford far more soma, removing a key barrier to multicellular complexity.

Join me & @olliepadget.bsky.social at @livuninews.bsky.social! #postdoc #seabird movement & navigation in response to environmental cues @ukri.org. Developing new loggers w/ micro-engineers & computer scientists @yorkuniversity.bsky.social. Job tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5 Press release tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5

Migrated to Bluesky as I'm excited to share our new paper on collective route memories in homing pigeons: rdcu.be/e73Qk We found flocks remembered old routes better than pigeons flying alone, likely because different birds remembered different parts of the route!

Does being in a collective buffer against individual forgetting, when it comes to navigation? New paper by Joe Morford: we find that collectives of homing pigeons remember their routes better than individuals @dorabiro.bsky.social @richardpmann.bsky.social Thanks to @templetonworld.bsky.social !

Richard Mann@richardpmann.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Collective wisdom emerges in pigeons through forgetting randomly-different information over time doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Collective wisdom emerges in pigeons through forgetting randomly-different information over time doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Collective route memories emerge through differential forgetting of navigational information in homing pigeons - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Collective route memories emerge through differential forgetting of navigational information in homing pigeons

doi.org

You’ve probably heard of collective intelligence but what about collective memory? 🧠🐘 New paper in press, led by Joe Morford! We investigated whether collective decision making in pigeons can rescue long-term memory of learned homing routes 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Collective route memories emerge through differential forgetting of navigational information in homing pigeons - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Collective route memories emerge through differential forgetting of navigational information in homing pigeons

nature.com

Fantastic @egioxford.bsky.social seminar from @pauldufour80.bsky.social on the latest work on avian vagrancy

📑📊We have just uploaded a new pre-print where we decompose spatial, temporal and spatial-temporal variation in natural selection on reproductive traits for great tits and blue tits. With Yimen Araya-Ajoy, @ellafcole.bsky.social and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📄New paper out in Behaviour doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-bja10356 🐦 Ambush behaviour is rarely reported among #seabirds. We observed that #MediterraneanShag might employ this strategy to seize fish schools. Our knowledge on seabird #foragingbehaviour is still lacking! #ornithology

12th RIN Conference on Animal Navigation - one of my favourites 🧭🦉🐟🦇🐝🐜 - this time we tried a new format, inviting topical sessions to make sure we represent the wonderfully broad range of research in #animal #orientation and #navigation and are super excited about the lineup s.gwdg.de/EBROf7

@joewynnbirds.bsky.social did an excellent job on keeping all ducks in a row for the programme juggling and will surely live up to full potential in the legendary pub quiz and other evening highlights - stay tuned!

We have published a new pre-print showing a decline in great tit adult and nestling mass of around 1 gram in 47 y. [rate of approx. -0.040 Hadanes] With @ellafcole.bsky.social, @devisatarkar.bsky.social, Sam. Crofts, @mcmahok.bsky.social & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I wrote an article for The Conversation about birds' often overlooked sense of smell. From vultures that detect gas leaks to citrus-scented seabirds - read more below:

The brilliant and bizarre ways birds use their sense of smell – from natural cologne to pest control

Humans and birds both have an underappreciated sense of smell.

theconversation.com

My first book, Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life, will be published by Yale University Press on 11 August (UK) and 8 September (US). Please help spread the word! 🙏 UK: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... @yalebooks.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈📚🐵 US: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social 🏳️‍⚧️ 🗃️🦋

In theory, nature markets allow governments to attract more private investment and diversify funds that help restore nature. The reality is much more complicated. New from Sophus zu Ermgassen @iccs.bsky.social in @uk.theconversation.com 👇 theconversation.com/how-to-make-...

How to make sure the nature credits you buy are real – new research

Four essentials are crucial for establishing scientifically credible nature markets.

theconversation.com

Super honoured to have contributed to this paper, led by the brilliant Sophus zu Ermgassen! We use our experience evaluating nature markets from around the world and derive 5 'golden' rules for the design and implementation of markets that deliver scientifically-credible outcomes. 🌱 rdcu.be/eYFx8

Five rules for scientifically credible nature markets

Nature Ecology & Evolution - This Perspective synthesizes insights from the past use of nature markets to identify design factors that are necessary if such markets are to achieve their...

rdcu.be

🚨 PhD offer (please share) Fascinated by bird migration and movement ecology? 🦜🌍 Join us at @vogelwarte.bsky.social to study annual cycle energetics with multi-sensor loggers in multiple species Deadline: 20 Feb 2026 Starting: June 2026 Supervision: Martins Briedis & me Info: tinyurl.com/2dbv9nzh

Had a fab time this week at Pop Group @popgroup2026.bsky.social and stoked to have won a prize for my poster on hybridisation in island birds! 🧬🐦‍⬛🏝️ #pgg59

Happy to share our new paper published in @cp-iscience.bsky.social We deployed 300+ multi-sensor loggers across 17 species to investigate how different species adapt their flight strategies when crossing deserts and marine areas during migration. tinyurl.com/2c8y8xvf #ornithology #birds