Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela
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birdmapper.bsky.social
Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela
@birdmapper.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Conservation Ecology @ucsc. #biodiversity #birds #WomeninSTEM #cienciacriolla 🇨🇴. Fulbrighter. Mum. www.nocampopenuela.com

Environmental science 80%
Geography 20%
Pinned
It’s not easy to be a (present) mum and an (effective) academic, but we can manage both if we have supportive teams, welcome flexibility, and lead with kindness.
Here is an editorial I wrote for @nature.com Human Behavior about my experience with this balancing act 🤹🏻‍♀️

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The balancing act of being an academic and a mother - Nature Human Behaviour
Academia is not a welcoming place for women who want both a family and a career. Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela draws on her own experience to explain how this must change.
www.nature.com
In the wake of Jane Goodall’s passing last week, many of our researchers here at UC Santa Cruz shared fond memories of Goodall and appreciation for her role as a champion of the natural world. Hear from a few faculty members who have been and will continue to be inspired by her legacy ⬇️
Following on from our avitourism paper in @peopleandnature.bsky.social, you can hear @birdmapper.bsky.social and @rswamper.bsky.social discuss the paper on the @amornith.bsky.social podcast. Have a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/2J1J...
09-33: Why Birders Go Where They Go with Natalia Ocamp-Peñuela & Scott Winton
open.spotify.com
🐦‍⬛New Research: Human development, societal stability and bird capital predict global tourist eBirding activity➡️ buff.ly/n7EUFbY

"Birdwatchers choose to visit countries that are safe, well-developed, and full of unique birds"
@birdmapper.bsky.social
@mhcneateclegg.bsky.social
@rsawmper.bsky.social

We highlight that birdwatching tourism, as any other type of development, needs to be led by and benefit local communities, ensuring that birds and their habitats are protected, and that its development is equitable and inclusive 💫

We mapped birdwatching tourism activity in relation to concentration of relative small-range richness. Some countries have high bird capital and tourism (blue and purple), others have high bird capital and not a lot of tourism (pink), while others have high tourism despite low bird capital (blue).

When looking at the drivers of birdwatching tourism, we find that birders seek places with high species richness 🦜, high numbers of small-range birds 🪶, high human development 🙌, and low safety concerns 🕊️

Visitor to different tropical regions come mostly from the US and Canada, the UK, and Australia. Some countries have low tourism rates despite high bird capital (e.g. Bolivia, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea, DRC)

Using data from @teamebird.bsky.social for 155 countries, we show a growth in birding activity for some countries (e.g. Colombia and India), and growth of birdwatching tourism for others (e.g. Colombia and South Africa). Note a pandemic dip in tourism but not local birding 🐦

Reposted by Andrea Santangeli

New paper 🚨
We studied drivers of birdwatching tourism globally using @teamebird.bsky.social data, bird distributions, and socioeconomic data. Published in @peopleandnature.bsky.social with @mhcneateclegg.bsky.social, @rswamper.bsky.social. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Human development, societal stability and bird capital predict global tourist eBirding activity
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
New paper 🚨 with @birdmapper.bsky.social! We mapped various diversity metrics for the colossal avifauna of Colombia! Species and functional richness are tightly linked but range-restricted endemics do not capture functional diversity well conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Range‐restricted species are poor proxies for functional diversity in the world's largest avifauna
We assessed the relationship between avian taxonomic richness (four metrics) and functional diversity (three metrics) across Colombia, the country with the most bird species. We found total species r....
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Glad to share this new publication on the role of scientific diasporas in facilitating global biodiversity research and conservation goals rdcu.be/elSmJ. The result of the Colombian diaspora organizing during COP16 2024 in Cali, Colombia. @juliprieto.bsky.social @birdmapper.bsky.social
New Job Alert! 📢 Join BTO as a Database Developer. Apply online ➡️ www.bto.org/jobs

📝 Salary: £34,578
📅 Full time role, part-time will be considered
🏠 Hybrid working policy

Not to miss!
#AOSMembers: Join us for our next #AOS_SRGS seminar, “'The canary in the gold mine': Assessing the impacts of artisanal & small-scale gold mining on bird communities in the Peruvian Amazon" on 3/17 at Noon ET, w/ Chris Sayers, UCLA Ph.D. Candidate
INFO/REG: americanornithology.org/professional...
#AOSMembers: Join us for our next #AOS_SRGS seminar, “'The canary in the gold mine': Assessing the impacts of artisanal & small-scale gold mining on bird communities in the Peruvian Amazon" on 3/17 at Noon ET, w/ Chris Sayers, UCLA Ph.D. Candidate
INFO/REG: americanornithology.org/professional...

Si eres guía de Aviturismo en Colombia 🇨🇴, te invitamos a llenar esta encuesta sobre los impactos económicos y sociales del aviturismo para un estudio. Sólo toma 10 mins. Por favor compartir!
tinyurl.com/encuestaaviturismo
I work in amazing place: UNC-Chapel Hill Biology. Our faculty of ~50 includes folks engaged in both basic science & pedagogical research. We have an opening for a new Teaching Assistant or Associate Professor to join us in July 2025-happy to answer questions RT
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/297...
Teaching Asst or Teaching Associate Professor
The position calls for teaching three classes per semester, which may include fundamental classes for biology majors such as cell biology and genetics, and biodiversity (ecology, evolution, and organi...
unc.peopleadmin.com

Thank you! And thanks for sharing your writing also 🙌🏽
El Consejo Norteamericano de Anillamiento (NABC) abre la convocatoria a pequeñas becas para apoyar el desarrollo y certificación de anilladores de aves de América Latina y el Caribe.

Aplica aquí: https://shorturl.at/camzZ

#AFOGrantsandAwards #anilladodeaves #NABC

That’s why we are the bird paradise 🫶🏽🇨🇴🦜
A glimpse of bird diversity from northwestern South America's complex corner, where the Andes bisect the Amazon-Orinoco basins from the Chocó, across a mosaic of sierras, valleys, deserts, and wetlands - a biodiversity hotspot.
#ornithology #birding #biodiversity #colombia pop
A glimpse of bird diversity from northwestern South America's complex corner, where the Andes bisect the Amazon-Orinoco basins from the Chocó, across a mosaic of sierras, valleys, deserts, and wetlands - a biodiversity hotspot.
#ornithology #birding #biodiversity #colombia pop
We have a cool new job that just opened up at the museum.
Head of Conservation ($50-$88K)

Be the champion for the conservation activities and the related messaging for the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.

www.governmentjobs.com/careers/%7B0...
Job Bulletin
www.governmentjobs.com

A great place!

A nice story about Palomarin Field Station, where I and many others were trained in bird banding. Great times there more than a decade ago now!
Long-term monitoring is so valuable for ecology and conservation 🙌🏽 🪶

localnewsmatters.org/2025/02/19/m...
Modern day 'bird seers' track environmental health at longest running avian field station - Local News Matters
IN ANCIENT ROME “bird seers” were priests, or augurs, who delivered prophecies based on their observations of birds. The right combination of bird
localnewsmatters.org

😂🤣 you need a trip to the tropics as a reward!
Come work with us! We're hiring a Senior Manager, Quantitative Science on National Audubon Society's Science Team (1/2)

audubon.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Audubo...
Senior Manager, Quantitative Science
Position Summary: The Senior Manager, Quantitative Science will be responsible for leading and executing analyses that measure the biological impacts of Audubon's initiatives. This will include develo...
audubon.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com

Hi friends! I have finally decided to make the jump from the other platform to this one. Excited to get back in touch with the #birds and #science communities 🙌🏽