Ben Sheldon
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sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon
@sheldonbirds.bsky.social
3.6K followers 460 following 4.3K posts

Ornithologist and Evolutionary Ecologist at the University of Oxford - natural history, science, cycling

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Ben C. Sheldon is the Luc Hoffmann Chair in Field Ornithology and Director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology of the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology. He was Head of the Department of Zoology between 2016 and 2021. .. more

Biology 32%
Environmental science 30%
Posts Replies Media Videos

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 11h
A reminder about @jon-slate.bsky.social seminar in 58 minutes this afternoon... Will be live-streamed - see poster ⬇️ for details of how to get link.
egioxford.bsky.social Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 4d
This week's EGI seminar will be given by Prof Jon Slate @jon-slate.bsky.social of @sheffielduni.bsky.social at 3.30 on Fri 30 Jan in LT1 in LaMB @biology.ox.ac.uk. OK, it's not quite birds, but our colleagues' work on @soaysheep.bsky.social has much in common with what we do. All welcome: details ⬇️

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 1d
I think I'm somehow failing to understand the significance of this finding. Remove extrinsic mortality, and the heritability of lifespan increases. But isn't that what we expect for any trait and system where we systematically remove sources of V(E) and V(R)?

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Heritability of intrinsic human life span is about 50% when confounding factors are addressed
How heritable is human life span? If genetic heritability is high, longevity genes can reveal aging mechanisms and inform medicine and public health. However, current estimates of heritability are low...
www.science.org

Reposted by Ben C. Sheldon, Orlando Schwery

eliotmiller.bsky.social
Eliot Miller @eliotmiller.bsky.social · 1d
Taxonomy and phylogeny are two sides of the same coin, but that doesn't mean they are always in agreement. I wrote a blog post on why the new Phylogeny Explorer in @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social is such a big deal in that regard, and what's in store next for us.

eliotmiller.weebly.com/blog/birds-o...
Birds of World's new Phylogeny Explorer
It’s been an exciting week. Five years in the making, we’re very excited to release this new, updated, dynamic phylogeny of the world’s birds. By harnessing Open Tree of Life ’s existing...
eliotmiller.weebly.com

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 1d
Yes, and some of them migrate at least twice as far, heading north to the UK, as their neighbours that migrate south to more traditional sites!

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 1d
It's an interesting question, made more complicated by the fact that I think lots of our wintering birds start something that's not full song. By the way, not all UK wintering Blackcaps come from E Europe - some come from France & Spain!

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 1d
Academic power games in the early 18th century. Plus ca change...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrono...

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 2d
And Le Guin’s writing is stratospherically better than Rowling’s

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 2d
Wow!

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 2d
And a couple of White-winged Scoter!

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 2d
Very cool... how many species should we be able to find there?

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3d
This thread showing increasing AI breakdown from reality with map generation as scale gets larger is simultaneously amusing and horrifying. Quite why my University rushed into offering ChatGPT to all staff and students is a bit of a mystery to me.
tautology.uk Tautology @tautology.uk · 3d
I'm trying a new "see how well AI image gen is" test. This time I'm going to ask it to draw a map of the world, and then zoom in to Europe, the UK, Yorkshire and York to see when things start to get hazy.

All of these are with the free models using the smart/thinking variants. 1/n

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3d
..winter after hard weather with a small group of BG. They were rubbished, in my view possibly unfairly!

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3d
...it is pretty obvious from the map that there is an orientation and then withdrawal of records along the NE axis along which the Barnacles migrate (apart from some plastic UK birds..). Hence, I think dutch BG is a good potential carrier species for RBG. We had two RBG that appeared in Oxon one 2/n

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3d
When I lived in Sweden in the 90s we would quite regularly see a few Red-breasted Geese (up to 4) with the large staging flocks of Barnacles in the Baltic. These were Dutch wintering BG heading for Arctic Russia, pretty close to RBG breeding area. Maps show Mar-June records from eBird, I think 1/n
Ebird records of Red-breasted Goose in NW Europe in March Ebird records of Red-breasted Goose in NW Europe in April Ebird records of Red-breasted Goose in NW Europe in May Ebird records of Red-breasted Goose in NW Europe in June

Reposted by Ben C. Sheldon, Katrina Navickas

tautology.uk
Tautology @tautology.uk · 3d
I'm trying a new "see how well AI image gen is" test. This time I'm going to ask it to draw a map of the world, and then zoom in to Europe, the UK, Yorkshire and York to see when things start to get hazy.

All of these are with the free models using the smart/thinking variants. 1/n

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 4d
Remarkable photo illustrating (American) Woodcock visual field

macaulaylibrary.org/asset/616675...
ML616675248 - American Woodcock - Macaulay Library
Macaulay Library ML616675248; © Karim Bouzidi; Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
macaulaylibrary.org

Reposted by Ben C. Sheldon

egioxford.bsky.social
Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 4d
This week's EGI seminar will be given by Prof Jon Slate @jon-slate.bsky.social of @sheffielduni.bsky.social at 3.30 on Fri 30 Jan in LT1 in LaMB @biology.ox.ac.uk. OK, it's not quite birds, but our colleagues' work on @soaysheep.bsky.social has much in common with what we do. All welcome: details ⬇️

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 4d
It’s such a brilliant combination of looks and name

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
This was pretty good:
bsky.app/profile/jone...
joneshowdareyou.bsky.social Jenny Frecklington-Jones #IStandWithPalestine🍉🍉 @joneshowdareyou.bsky.social · 6d
Great response to the White House's "embrace the penguin" tweet, from Orla Joelsen.

Greenland does have these. 🐻‍❄️😂

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Cleansing image

macaulaylibrary.org/asset/517971...
ML517971801 - White-browed Purpletuft - Macaulay Library
Macaulay Library ML517971801; © Jesus Alferez; Madre de Dios, Peru
macaulaylibrary.org

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Apparently from the 2007 Herzog documentary from which the meme of a nihilistic penguin has come: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encount...
Encounters at the End of the World - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Apparently from the 2007 Herzog documentary
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encount...
Encounters at the End of the World - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Was it March of the Penguins?

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
And sadly, sewers in the UK are not best-known for their integrity...

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Feels a bit long-term for the current times? Or does it all trace back to the March of the Penguins film, which I remember became a political football over some issues?

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Genuine question: why Penguins? Where did they come from?

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Presumably it is somehow referencing an AI-generated image of Trump walking hand-in-hand with a Penguin (in Greenland?) that was put out by the White House a few days ago - see below. But even that was bizarre... This is bizarre squared.

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Baffling on all fronts. And what the hell have penguins done to deserve being recruited as a symbol for fascist propaganda?! #FreeThePenguin

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
Yes, but also I guess that only a tiny % of people in the UK will get the link to Trump. Still, I guess AI-generated junk like this is very cheap and quick to produce

sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d
This is so bizarre… what on earth is it supposed to mean? Unless you’ve been paying close attention to White House propaganda on social media it must be totally baffling. Penguins? Mountains? London in Antarctica? Magical lack of footprints left in snow?