Fantastic to see research led by @tirthvaishnav.bsky.social published! Countless hours watching kākā eating beautifully distilled into fascinating seasonal patterns. For birds in our city it turns out native invertebrates and non native pine cones are important year round food resources!🧪🦜

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

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Seasonality and plasticity in the use of native and introduced plant resources by a large forest parrot | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Tirth Vaishnav, Kevin Chase Burns, Rachael C. Shaw | #ornithology 🪶

theconversation.com/beyond-the-b...

Beyond the beaches, Wellington’s catastrophic sewage spill could be bad news for coastal ecosystems

Sewage spills are often seen as short-term public health crises. But the ecological impacts can be lasting, especially if combined with marine heatwaves and storms.

theconversation.com

My wife and I were on a beach in the Wellington area and found this at a car park, in the grass. It is approximately the size of a person's hand,made of bone, and intricately carved. I've masked the lower half,as only the legitimate owner will be able to fully describe it. Please share this...(1)

Glad to be featured in @nzgeo.bsky.social, highlighting the importance of planting native species such as tree fuchsia, a major food resource for native birds. Based on a recent publication of bird-plant interactions in @zealandia.bsky.social @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social www.nzgeo.com/stories/want...

Want native birds? This fuchsia is by far your best bet

Scientists who spent nine years birdwatching in Wellington ecosanctuary Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne report that birds visit the flowers of kōtukutuku, our native tree fuchsia, 16.4 times an hour. That pu...

nzgeo.com

Super proud of Dr Tirth Vaishnav who is graduating this week! He started his thesis remotely and during a global pandemic, and after overcoming a host of challenges (not just limited to kākā being tricksy) he smashed it out of the park. Congratulations Tirth!

Tirth Vaishnav@tirthvaishnav.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Incredibly honoured for my research to have been spotlighted by @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social Faculty of Science and Engineering in the lead-up to graduation week!🎓🎉🦜 Special shout-out to @wild-minds.bsky.social for being the most amazing supervisor through this journey. www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2025/12...

If you are interested in animal cognition and birds, a reminder to apply for this PhD opportunity in our lab! Applications close December 10th

Rachael Shaw@wild-minds.bsky.social · 9mo ago

PhD scholarship alert! Are you interested in cognitive evolution? Do you want to know how development influences cognitive traits? Do you love hanging out with birds in the forest? If the answer to these questions is yes, please apply to work with us! 1/2 🧪 www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...

PhD scholarship alert! Are you interested in cognitive evolution? Do you want to know how development influences cognitive traits? Do you love hanging out with birds in the forest? If the answer to these questions is yes, please apply to work with us! 1/2 🧪 www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...

In our new paper (rdcu.be/eNoiJ) we tested wild toutouwai with a well established cognitive judgement bias paradigm. Much like humans and a host of other species, it turns out that wild toutouwai judge ambiguous cues favourably 🧪🐦

I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).

POSITIONS

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chickadeecognition.com

People urged to watch for exhausted birds and blown away nestlings in wild weather

People urged to watch for exhausted birds and blown away nestlings in wild weather

People are being urged to watch for exhausted seabirds and tiny nestlings blown from their nests in the wild weather.

rnz.co.nz

Yesterday I had my first catch up of the season with my favourite tuatara. For the 12 years that I’ve been keeping tabs on the toutouwai at Zealandia he has been chilling in this exact spot on warm days. A great reminder to slow down and enjoy the rare sunny spring weather!

PSA! have you dropped in your council voting papers? Do it today or tomorrow latest. And don't forget to vote YES to Māori wards.

A juvenile kekeno exploring the Te Whanagnui-a-Tara waterfront and soaking in the rays this morning. Guess it got the memo that you can’t beat Wellington on a good day…

Super privileged to have Spike the tuatara at our school seminar today to demonstrate his amazing outreach powers. Spike, Hazel, Pheobe and Shorty, the tuatara cared for at VUW in partnership with iwi, have made huge contributions to our knowledge of their species (handled under permit by carer)

I am in awe of anyone who has an up-to-date website and news feed for their research. It has taken me four years to finally write one paragraph and post it....

Time flies when you’re researching birds…

I never was one to keep a diary as a kid, and it turns out that I’m not much better at it as an adult! For the past few years this site has been sorely neglected while I’ve been navigat…

thinkingbehaviour.org

Not to be a cliche, but you really can’t beat Wellington (dog walks) on a still and clear winter day. I can even hear kākā yelling from the pines way in the distance. A great reminder that we live in a city where biodiversity is making a comeback.

So cool to find out that a population of this small but mighty kiwi has been hanging on in the South Island!

Nic Rawlence@nicrawlencenz.bsky.social · last yr.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

My super talented friend Des Rusk has launched his own clothing label. Ethical merino clothes that are classics that are designed to last a lifetime. Check out his online store here: longform.co #foreverfashion seems like something that a lot of folk on here might love!

Longform

Longform pieces are designed for a lifetime, not a season. Using the finest merino for all-season comfort, these are refined staples that will never see the back of your wardrobe.

longform.co

Listening to and participating in the worldwide critical media commentary about the dire wolf 'de-extinction', one thing struck me. Indigenous voices, which have a vital role in this debate, were largely silent, leading me to co-write this theconversation.com/return-of-th...

Return of the huia? Why Māori worldviews must be part of the ‘de-extinction’ debate

There is nothing to stop de-extinction companies using specimens from museum collections, despite little Māori support for reviving lost native species.

theconversation.com

Individual variation in spatial reference memory influences cache site choice in a wild bird #ProcB #OpenAccess royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

New toutouwai paper out today, led by Dr Tas Vámos! Individual toutouwai have specific preferences for where they cache prey - turns out birds that prefer spreading their caches widely also have more accurate spatial memory performance! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

RIP NZ CRIs. May your legacy be of a wholesome community that values scientific excellence, the natural environment and the people of Aotearoa.

The illustrated ‘Just So’ series in @nzgeo.bsky.social is a total delight! The very talented @rebekahwhite.bsky.social and Giselle Clarke have outdone themselves with their piece on memory in the December issue It even features my favourite old (toutouwai) guy Spark! www.nzgeo.com/stories/forg...

Forget me not

If our memories make us who we are, what’s it like to have a different type of memory entirely? What can animals remember? Do goldfish have a memory longer than three seconds? And can plants remember ...

nzgeo.com

🧪 #Conservation,#translocations & #Indigenous knowledge, and a wonderful emerging researcher leading this paper from #Aotearoa on #kākā.

Cilla Wehi@cillaw.bsky.social · 2y ago

Historical ecology has awesome tools to explore past relationships. In this case, we used place names and written historical sources to examine kākā distribution & ecology, to contribute to conversations about bio-cultural translocation. Ngā mihi e Fin mō tāu mahi ataahua. 9/9 tinyurl.com/53vse3hv

Storm watching and listening to thunder, while also sitting in the shade to avoid a sunburn…

Very cool to see the first PhD paper from former VUW Honours student Daisy! So lovely to see students fledge the nest to go and do new and exciting things!

Ben Sheldon@sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 2y ago

Birds have complex social lives; they pair-up, divorce and repair, but we know very little about when and how these relationships form. New work from Daisy Abraham & Josh Firth on Wytham Woods Great Tits shows that divorce happens early - probably soon after breeding www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cilla breaks down our new paper, lead by the amazing Fin Johnson! We took a deep dive into archival and map sources of mātauranga to reveals places where kākā were once abundant. We suggest these spots should be a priority for future translocations, to help restore biocultural relationships

Cilla Wehi@cillaw.bsky.social · 2y ago

Need a little fun as we near Christmas? Here's something for you! We had a heap of fun writing about place names and kākā - cheeky #NZ parrots - and it's out. The work evolved over 2 summers, led by (then) undergraduate student Fin Johnson (on the right). 1/n (Kaka photo copyright Oscar Thomas).

Advertising for an MSc student to work on a feral cat management project - stipend + domestic fees for research year. @aucklanduni.bsky.social Working with different iwi & community partners. More details here: stanleylab.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/opportunities/

The Royal Society Te Apārangi has sent an open letter to the Prime Minister about the importance of social sciences and humanities, following changes to the Marsden Fund terms that explicitly exclude research areas in the social sciences and humanities: www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/open-le...

Open letter on importance of research in the social sciences and humanities

Open letter on importance of research in the social sciences and humanities   Tēnā koe Prime Minister, The role of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, as set out in the Royal Society of New Zealand Act,...

royalsociety.org.nz

Just so we're clear, aside from the social sciences and humanities, this description excludes: - agricultural, vetinary, and food sciences - earth sciences - environmental sciences - information and computing sciences - ALL non-biomedical biological sciences

Ben Dickson@drbenomycin.bsky.social · 2y ago

It turns out that JC's definition of science is even narrower than it appears. Biological sciences have been reduced to biomedical applications only. Presumably this is rushed by people who have no idea what they're talking about (i.e. JC didn't pay enough attention on school) Incompetence reigns!