Seychelles warbler project
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seychelleswarbler.bsky.social
Seychelles warbler project
@seychelleswarbler.bsky.social
Long-term study of the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler https://seychelles-warbler.sites.sheffield.ac.uk @unigroningen.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social, supported by @naturesey.bsky.social
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
Broken families can have huge effects on children, even later in life. But is that the case in species other than humans?

Read my latest article in the ‪@aunz.theconversation.com‬ on mate switching effects in offspring of the ‪@seychelleswarbler.bsky.social‬ 👇
theconversation.com/the-chicks-a...
The chicks are alright: what songbirds can teach us about divorce and moving on
Parental separation in humans can deeply affect children. But in another monogamous pair-bonding species, it has no such effect.
theconversation.com
June 4, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
We're recruiting - funded PhD "Adaptive social flexibility – a powerful mechanism to cope with a rapidly changing world" @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social @unigroningen.bsky.social @david-s-richardson.bsky.social @terryburke.bsky.social Deadline 20th April
www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...
March 28, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
Our new paper, using shotgun metagenomics on the gut microbiome, shows small but interesting longitudinal changes with age in a natural population.

🧵1/5

academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...
Metagenomic analyses of gut microbiome composition and function with age in a wild bird; little change, except increased transposase gene abundance
Abstract. Studies on wild animals, mostly undertaken using 16S metabarcoding, have yielded ambiguous evidence regarding changes in the gut microbiome (GM)
academic.oup.com
February 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
This work is co-authored by @hannahdugdale.bsky.social, David Richardson, Jan Komdeur, and Terry Burke
January 6, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
Then, we studied divorcing using long-term data of @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social addressing all these shortcomings, and found that divorce is related to male age, pair-bond tenure, and reproductive success, but that there are no strong fitness consequences to divorce
January 6, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
We addressed 5 shortcomings: (1) divorcees and widows and (2) initiators and victims of divorce are not disentangled, (3) consequences of divorce and widowhood are not studied together (4) long-term consequences and (5) age-dependency of divorce are not addressed
January 6, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
New paper: causes and short & long-term consequences of divorcing 💔. This papers highlights the shortcomings of studying divorce to date and provides methods to address them. Plus some new insights on divorcing in birds! See 👇 doi.org/10.1111/ele....
Causes and consequences of divorce in a long‐lived socially monogamous bird
In socially monogamous species, sexual selection involves both initial mate choice and mate switching. We found that divorce in Seychelles warblers occurs most among young and old males, and in pairs...
doi.org
January 6, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
A lovely feature in iflscience on the causes of divorce 💔 in Seychelles warblers! 👇👇👇
www.iflscience.com/why-these-li...
Why These Little Birds Divorce Despite The Risks
Ditching your partner doesn’t seem to work all that well for Seychelles warblers, even if they keep the house, which may be why not many do it.
www.iflscience.com
January 13, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Listen to Frigg Speelman speaking on ABC radio national drive about the love life of the Seychelles warblers: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Extreme weather driving songbirds to 'divorce' - ABC listen
The early bird gets the worm, the bird in a heavy rainstorm gets divorced.
www.abc.net.au
November 27, 2024 at 7:54 AM
The Seychelles warbler is a small passerine endemic to the Seychelles islands. The original remnant population of this rare bird has been studied on Cousin Island since 1981, with intensive monitoring since 1985.
November 25, 2024 at 9:00 AM
We will post about research on the Seychelles warbler here. Research is conducted @unigroningen.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social in collaboration with Nature Seychelles
November 25, 2024 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
Want to know how divorce in birds is associated with rainfall? 💔🌧️ Frigg Speelman wrote a piece (in non-scientific jargon!) theconversation.com/divorce-in-s... about our recent paper doi.org/10.1111/1365...
‘Divorce’ in songbirds: extreme weather pushes couples past breaking point
New research examines the link between extreme weather and divorce in a small monogamous tropical songbird, the Seychelles warbler. Concerningly, extreme rain and dry spells increased divorce rates.
theconversation.com
November 25, 2024 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Seychelles warbler project
Congratulations Agus Bentlage on first-author paper from your MSc thesis 🎉
- rainfall is associated with divorce in the socially monogamous Seychelles warbler besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Rainfall is associated with divorce in the socially monogamous Seychelles warbler
To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to show that extreme rainfall increases the prevalence of divorce in a socially monogamous population. Our findings add to the growing literature ...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 12, 2024 at 8:38 PM