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/
Welcome to this week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk when Prof Craig White @craig-white.bsky.social from @monashbiol.bsky.social will talk on The Evolution of Metabolic Rate and Life History: 3.30pm Fri 14 Nov in Lecture Theatre 2 in the Life & Mind Building. Also live-streamed: instructions ⬇️
November 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Welcome to this week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk when Prof Craig White @craig-white.bsky.social from @monashbiol.bsky.social will talk on The Evolution of Metabolic Rate and Life History: 3.30pm Fri 14 Nov in Lecture Theatre 2 in the Life & Mind Building. Also live-streamed: instructions ⬇️
Reposted by Edward Grey Institute
The date is set for the next EOU Fledglings Meeting 🐥 in Gdansk, Poland! Share the news with your peers! 🦆
November 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
The date is set for the next EOU Fledglings Meeting 🐥 in Gdansk, Poland! Share the news with your peers! 🦆
New paper from @joewoodman.bsky.social et al in @asn-amnat.bsky.social uses the long-term study of Great Tits in Wytham Woods to ask how differently aged birds are distributed in space & what consequences this has for spatial variation in reproductive output
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
November 9, 2025 at 7:23 PM
New paper from @joewoodman.bsky.social et al in @asn-amnat.bsky.social uses the long-term study of Great Tits in Wytham Woods to ask how differently aged birds are distributed in space & what consequences this has for spatial variation in reproductive output
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
A superb seminar from Kristen Ruegg on the Bird Genoscape Project and the insights into annual cycles, local
adaptation and climate change.
adaptation and climate change.
November 7, 2025 at 4:37 PM
A superb seminar from Kristen Ruegg on the Bird Genoscape Project and the insights into annual cycles, local
adaptation and climate change.
adaptation and climate change.
Reminder of today’s seminar at 3.30pm - welcome in person or email for joining details online ⬇️
We're all looking forward to this week's seminar, being given by Kristen Ruegg from Colorado State University on the power of avian landscape genomics in the Genoscape Project. Seminar at 3.30pm on Friday 7 Nov in Lecture Theatre 1 in LaMB. Welcome in person or to join online - details ⬇️
November 7, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reminder of today’s seminar at 3.30pm - welcome in person or email for joining details online ⬇️
We're all looking forward to this week's seminar, being given by Kristen Ruegg from Colorado State University on the power of avian landscape genomics in the Genoscape Project. Seminar at 3.30pm on Friday 7 Nov in Lecture Theatre 1 in LaMB. Welcome in person or to join online - details ⬇️
November 3, 2025 at 10:37 AM
We're all looking forward to this week's seminar, being given by Kristen Ruegg from Colorado State University on the power of avian landscape genomics in the Genoscape Project. Seminar at 3.30pm on Friday 7 Nov in Lecture Theatre 1 in LaMB. Welcome in person or to join online - details ⬇️
An excellent turn out for @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social seminar this afternoon - dealing with the question of feedbacks between social life and cognition
October 31, 2025 at 3:35 PM
An excellent turn out for @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social seminar this afternoon - dealing with the question of feedbacks between social life and cognition
Reminder of today’s seminar at 1530 - actually will be in Lecture Theatre 1 - come along!!
Now that we're properly moved in & set up in the new Life & Mind Building, we're pleased to restart our tradition of Friday afternoon seminar speakers, kicking off with Alex Thornton of @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social at 3.30pm on 31 Oct. Also live streamed: see below for details. Corvid-themed for 🎃
October 31, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reminder of today’s seminar at 1530 - actually will be in Lecture Theatre 1 - come along!!
Reposted by Edward Grey Institute
Nice to welcome my new DPhil students with an evening at St Hugh’s College. Welcome Gayatri Kumar, @smthmpsn.bsky.social and @ghtrabin.bsky.social. The White Stork was not part of the formal evening, but I was pleased to see it and grab a photo earlier in the week.
October 30, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Nice to welcome my new DPhil students with an evening at St Hugh’s College. Welcome Gayatri Kumar, @smthmpsn.bsky.social and @ghtrabin.bsky.social. The White Stork was not part of the formal evening, but I was pleased to see it and grab a photo earlier in the week.
Reposted by Edward Grey Institute
New paper today in Proc B @royalsociety.org. We explored nest architecture in 3,685 species of birds, modelling the multivariate nature of nests, i.e. how shape, location or attachment co-occur. Then we explored how the environment affected nest architecture evolution. Spoilers in the title! 🪺🐦🌍
A wide range of abiotic and biotic variables leaves most variation in bird nest architecture unexplained | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Nests are the locations or containers for offspring, and mediate interactions between
offspring and the environment. However, understanding how environmental factors shape
the evolution of nest archit...
royalsocietypublishing.org
October 29, 2025 at 10:53 AM
New paper today in Proc B @royalsociety.org. We explored nest architecture in 3,685 species of birds, modelling the multivariate nature of nests, i.e. how shape, location or attachment co-occur. Then we explored how the environment affected nest architecture evolution. Spoilers in the title! 🪺🐦🌍
Now that we're properly moved in & set up in the new Life & Mind Building, we're pleased to restart our tradition of Friday afternoon seminar speakers, kicking off with Alex Thornton of @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social at 3.30pm on 31 Oct. Also live streamed: see below for details. Corvid-themed for 🎃
October 27, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Now that we're properly moved in & set up in the new Life & Mind Building, we're pleased to restart our tradition of Friday afternoon seminar speakers, kicking off with Alex Thornton of @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social at 3.30pm on 31 Oct. Also live streamed: see below for details. Corvid-themed for 🎃
Where do immigrant great tits come from, and what consequences does immigration and dispersal have for genetic structure at fine scale? Read this thread from @andreaestandia.bsky.social describing new preprint on this topic
New preprint: Using pedigree data + genomics from 2,684 great tits in Wytham Woods, we explore spatial genetic structure and the role of dispersal, population turnover and immigration 🐦 With @sheldonbirds.bsky.social @nilomr.bsky.social @jon-slate.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
July 2, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Where do immigrant great tits come from, and what consequences does immigration and dispersal have for genetic structure at fine scale? Read this thread from @andreaestandia.bsky.social describing new preprint on this topic
Nice video explaining some of the Wytham tit fieldwork from @joewoodman.bsky.social. Anyone who has the good fortune to be taught by Joe will be lucky - he has a great gift for explanation
Really enjoying my new job teaching Biology in London, but the sunny weather has me missing the early Wytham mornings during the field season 🌳
An old video I made of the '23 field season working for @egioxford.bsky.social & @biology.ox.ac.uk takes me back: www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-rm...
An old video I made of the '23 field season working for @egioxford.bsky.social & @biology.ox.ac.uk takes me back: www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-rm...
Wytham Woods: A Season in 3 Boxes
YouTube video by Joe Woodman
www.youtube.com
July 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Nice video explaining some of the Wytham tit fieldwork from @joewoodman.bsky.social. Anyone who has the good fortune to be taught by Joe will be lucky - he has a great gift for explanation
Reposted by Edward Grey Institute
Happy to share our last work just published in @animalecology.bsky.social. With @claire-doutrelant.bsky.social and Peter Pearman. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @cnrs.fr @biology.ox.ac.uk
Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
Variation in colour complexity in the Paridae is linked to climate, climate variability and several biotic factors. The strength of the associations is patch specific. Variables related to resource c...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 12, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Happy to share our last work just published in @animalecology.bsky.social. With @claire-doutrelant.bsky.social and Peter Pearman. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @cnrs.fr @biology.ox.ac.uk
After the usual Field Season hiatus, we will be having a few seminars this term, beginning with Dale Clayton from University of Utah talking about Ecology, Evolution and Endocrinology of Grooming in Birds. 4 pm today in the Board Room in Mansfield Road at @biology.ox.ac.uk
June 5, 2025 at 8:14 AM
After the usual Field Season hiatus, we will be having a few seminars this term, beginning with Dale Clayton from University of Utah talking about Ecology, Evolution and Endocrinology of Grooming in Birds. 4 pm today in the Board Room in Mansfield Road at @biology.ox.ac.uk
Congratulations Denise on a great DPhil journey!
I passed my DPhil viva on Monday with minor corrections. Thank you to my examiners @jennycdunn.bsky.social and Sonya Clegg of @egioxford.bsky.social , and my supervisors @sheldonbirds.bsky.social and Adrian Smith of @biology.ox.ac.uk, and everyone else who has contributed...1/5
June 4, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Congratulations Denise on a great DPhil journey!
Reposted by Edward Grey Institute
Researchers in @biology.ox.ac.uk and Wild Bioscience Ltd are to receive backing of a £6.7 million grant from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to pioneer a new synthetic biology approach which promises to improve yields in potato and wheat.
Read more ⬇️ #OxfordClimate
Read more ⬇️ #OxfordClimate
New ARIA award will aim to deliver a revolution in sustainable
Researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology and Wild Bioscience Ltd are to receive backing of a £6.7 million grant from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to
www.ox.ac.uk
June 2, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Researchers in @biology.ox.ac.uk and Wild Bioscience Ltd are to receive backing of a £6.7 million grant from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to pioneer a new synthetic biology approach which promises to improve yields in potato and wheat.
Read more ⬇️ #OxfordClimate
Read more ⬇️ #OxfordClimate
Reposted by Edward Grey Institute
Getting towards the end of the 2025 field season in Wytham, and will share some quantitative data on reproductive success etc, but one striking pattern is the current dominance of Blue Tits with a ratio of ~2:1, when as recently as 2005 the ratio was ~1:2
June 2, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Getting towards the end of the 2025 field season in Wytham, and will share some quantitative data on reproductive success etc, but one striking pattern is the current dominance of Blue Tits with a ratio of ~2:1, when as recently as 2005 the ratio was ~1:2
Getting towards the end of the 2025 field season in Wytham, and will share some quantitative data on reproductive success etc, but one striking pattern is the current dominance of Blue Tits with a ratio of ~2:1, when as recently as 2005 the ratio was ~1:2
June 2, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Getting towards the end of the 2025 field season in Wytham, and will share some quantitative data on reproductive success etc, but one striking pattern is the current dominance of Blue Tits with a ratio of ~2:1, when as recently as 2005 the ratio was ~1:2
As the Wytham tit (and drone, tree and winter moth) field season winds down (the end, like the start, gets earlier each year!) we posed for the traditional field team photo followed by an excellent lunch. A great team again. Some quantitative updates to follow next week... #suspense
May 29, 2025 at 5:48 PM
As the Wytham tit (and drone, tree and winter moth) field season winds down (the end, like the start, gets earlier each year!) we posed for the traditional field team photo followed by an excellent lunch. A great team again. Some quantitative updates to follow next week... #suspense
Very useful stats from @davididiaquez.bsky.social, tracking ground covered checking nestboxes during a field season using Strava. If the estimates of 2.14km/box/season and 45.3 m elevation/box/season generalise, suggests that since 1960 fieldworkers have walked ~144,000 km, and climbed >3 million m
Now that the field season is coming to an end (first day off since late April, I decided to compile some stats of what I have done during the last month.
To check the 208 (reduced a bit in mid-May), I have walked a total of 446km with an accumulated elevation gain of 9431m!
To check the 208 (reduced a bit in mid-May), I have walked a total of 446km with an accumulated elevation gain of 9431m!
May 26, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Very useful stats from @davididiaquez.bsky.social, tracking ground covered checking nestboxes during a field season using Strava. If the estimates of 2.14km/box/season and 45.3 m elevation/box/season generalise, suggests that since 1960 fieldworkers have walked ~144,000 km, and climbed >3 million m
I think we've all had days when we've felt like this...
One of our breeding females. She's lost practically every feather on her head. Not uncommon in our breeding birds. Could be due to a range of things; stresses and strains of raising a brood, feather mites could be involved too. She'll begin her annual moult soon and these feathers will be replaced
May 26, 2025 at 11:27 AM
I think we've all had days when we've felt like this...
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A rogues gallery of great tits captured today for crimes against research. The offence: breeding without proper ID. They've all been ringed (banded) and tagged (RFID ankle bracelets). They'll now be monitored as part of Wytham tit project. All released under caution. @egioxford.bsky.social #ukbirds
May 18, 2025 at 10:39 AM
A rogues gallery of great tits captured today for crimes against research. The offence: breeding without proper ID. They've all been ringed (banded) and tagged (RFID ankle bracelets). They'll now be monitored as part of Wytham tit project. All released under caution. @egioxford.bsky.social #ukbirds
Congratulations Carys!! 🎉🥳
Always one of the highlights of this job when a DPhil student passes their viva: Congratulations to Carys Jones (some of her work linked below, and here modeling an amazing @egioxford.bsky.social piñata) for a really special achievement!
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
May 9, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Congratulations Carys!! 🎉🥳
Reposted by Edward Grey Institute
We’re pleased to announce the title of the plenary talk by Marta Maziarz @martamaziarz.bsky.social:
“Why do we need studies of hole-nesting birds from a primeval forest?”
We’re looking forward to finding out if the answer involves predation risk, cavity space, or something else! #ornithology
“Why do we need studies of hole-nesting birds from a primeval forest?”
We’re looking forward to finding out if the answer involves predation risk, cavity space, or something else! #ornithology
April 15, 2025 at 8:45 AM
We’re pleased to announce the title of the plenary talk by Marta Maziarz @martamaziarz.bsky.social:
“Why do we need studies of hole-nesting birds from a primeval forest?”
We’re looking forward to finding out if the answer involves predation risk, cavity space, or something else! #ornithology
“Why do we need studies of hole-nesting birds from a primeval forest?”
We’re looking forward to finding out if the answer involves predation risk, cavity space, or something else! #ornithology