Marie Hébert
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mariehebert.bsky.social
Marie Hébert
@mariehebert.bsky.social
Research Fellow @University of St Andrews -Neuroethologist/behavioural neuroendocrinologist.
Birds🦜🐥🦆, Brain 🧠,Hormones, Nest building 🪺, Courtship, and more!

drmariehebert.wordpress.com
Pinned
🚨Our new paper ‘Nest building and circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata’ is out!🚨

With @simonemeddle.bsky.social and @cogwild.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Nest building and circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata
Despite its fundamental importance for avian reproduction, the hormonal mechanisms supporting nest building remain poorly understood. While nest build…
www.sciencedirect.com
Reposted by Marie Hébert
My first official post to say see you at #SfN2025! I'm presenting some new ephys work with @healeylab.bsky.social looking at auditory responses to chick calls in zebra finch parents! 🐦🧠🔊🐣 Tuesday @ 2pm (PSTR346, Vocal/Social Communication). ALSO ~ my lab is opening soon and we're HIRING!! (see ⬇️)
November 14, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
#PhD position!

Comparing #foraging and #cognition in #hummingbirds and #bumblebees

Fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies, lab experiments at @newcastleuni.bsky.social, and ecological modelling at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

Details (including my email) here: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
From preferences to pollination: do hummingbirds and bees differ in how they choose flowers?
iapetus.ac.uk
November 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
92%: the percentage of funding for Nigel Farage's far-right political party Reform UK that comes from fossil fuel interests.

Across the world, anyone blaming immigrants, etc, it's all just a smokescreen to allow the rich to keep on getting richer by killing our planet.
share.google/W2gwfc0XVpUy...
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
share.google
November 3, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
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
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake

go.nature.com/47zrzYZ
From MRI to Ozempic: breakthroughs that show why fundamental research must be protected
In these financially straitened times, funders must recognize that great discoveries often arise from work that was looking for something completely different.
go.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology
October 10, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Please share!🙏
🚨 PhD Oportunity in Avian Behavioural Ecology in Spain
The BirdBond Project (MNCN & IREC) studies how pair bonds form, change & affect reproduction/survival in the spotless starling 🐦
September 19, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Nikkei found academics had written "give a positive review only" and "do not highlight any negatives" in white text or tiny font on 17 preprints to combat AI peer reviews.

asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tec...
'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers
Instructions in preprints from 14 universities highlight controversy on AI in peer review
asia.nikkei.com
July 3, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Anthropocentric bias may explain research disparities between animal tool use and nest building www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Anthropocentric bias may explain research disparities between animal tool use and nest building
Scientists are not immune from bias. Studying nonhuman species objectively is inherently challenging, especially for ‘charismatic’ and ostensibly huma…
www.sciencedirect.com
June 29, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Enigmacursor darted around North America in the Late Jurassic 145-150 million years ago and its skeleton now be on display in London’s Natural History Museum
Small and speedy dinosaur recognised as a new species
Enigmacursor darted around North America in the Late Jurassic 145-150 million years ago and its skeleton now be on display in London’s Natural History Museum
www.newscientist.com
June 28, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
In what may be one of Earth’s craziest forms of mimicry, researchers in 2023 reported a species of rove beetle that grows a termite puppet on its back to fool real termites into feeding it.

Learn more during #InsectWeek: scim.ag/40mj1S8
Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food
Puppet helps insect trick real termites into feeding it
scim.ag
June 25, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
NEW PAPER: Dartford warblers use nest materials based on local habitat, but material type doesn't affect insulation or breeding success—suggesting flexible, functional nest-building across environments.

➡️ vist.ly/3n7q4gd

#ornithology #birds #reproduction #nestef="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pn5tanp4wif5vme6cpnp3fra" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky-mention">#nest <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pn5tanp4wif5vme6cpnp3fra" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky-mention">@shokosugasawa.bsky.social

June 24, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
"Yes, it is heartbreaking for what this says about the world we humans have made. But I still find wonder in the stories these nests tell about the lives and circumstances of their architects and the deliberate choices they made." Dr. Vanya Rohwer's #naturewriting. #birds #birding #nature
Opinion | I Love Finding Birds’ Nests, but What’s in Them Troubles Me
www.nytimes.com
June 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
After years of seeing the faded plastic band on this puffin and being unable to re-sight it, we finally re-captured it and replaced its bands. This bird was first banded as chick in 1996 making it 29 years old (!) and among the oldest in our records. 🦑🪶🧪
June 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Timeline cleanse, the best kind: Egg-laying mammal thought to be extinct rediscovered - ABC News
Egg-laying mammal thought to be extinct rediscovered — ABC News
The long-beaked echidna had not been documented since the 1960s.
apple.news
June 13, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
ICYMI: Jay Odenbaugh in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou on
"The Ethics of De-Extinction"
Is it scientifically possible, is it conceptually possible, and is it ethically permissible to bring back a species whose environment is gone?
#Philosophy #philsci #moralphil
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh9j...
"The Ethics of De-Extinction": Jay Odenbaugh in conversation with Alexis Papazoglou
YouTube video by The Philosopher
www.youtube.com
May 31, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Artificial feeders have allowed the Anna’s hummingbird to expand their range out of Southern California up to the state’s northern end.

They have also driven a transformation of the birds themselves.
Bird feeders have caused a dramatic evolution of California hummingbirds
Beaks have grown longer and larger, and ranges have expanded to follow the feeders
scim.ag
May 31, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
🚨 Registration Deadline Extended! 🚨
Only a few weeks left! The #CogEvo2025 registration deadline has been extended to June 16!
Spots are still filling quickly — don’t miss your chance to join us.
Secure your place now: event.unitn.it/cogevo/
@cimecunitrento.bsky.social @orsolars.bsky.social
CogEvo 25 - Workshop on Cognition and Evolution
CogEvo 25 Workshop on Cognition and Evolution will be held in Rovereto from 17 to 18 July 2025
event.unitn.it
May 30, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Exceptional new fossils from northern Alaska reveal birds lived and nested alongside non-avian dinosaurs in Arctic Alaska long before the radiation of modern birds after the end-Cretaceous extinction.

Learn more this week in Science: scim.ag/3Ss2yrw
May 29, 2025 at 6:05 PM
🚨Our new paper ‘Nest building and circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata’ is out!🚨

With @simonemeddle.bsky.social and @cogwild.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1/3
Nest building and circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata
Despite its fundamental importance for avian reproduction, the hormonal mechanisms supporting nest building remain poorly understood. While nest build…
www.sciencedirect.com
May 31, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Found a baby songbird? Here's a newly updated chart!
May 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
Our May issue is now live! www.nature.com/natecolevol/...

Featuring research on:

🦠 Primordial metabolism
🦋 Butterfly diversity
🪸 Reef restoration

Cover shows a prothonotary warbler at the entrance of a nest cavity. From Lipshutz et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
May 12, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Marie Hébert
This image depicts blood vessels in a pigeon’s head. It was captured by the veterinarian Scott Echols as part of an ongoing endeavour known as the Grey Parrot Anatomy Project, which aims to develop ways to aid diagnosis and treatment for a host of animals, from birds to humans.
May 8, 2025 at 3:05 PM