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 ⬇️

Thread ⬇️ @joewoodman.bsky.social explains key results of these analyses in much more detail. Last of four papers from Joe's DPhil thesis:
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
bsky.app/profile/joew...

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/...

A superb seminar from Kristen Ruegg on the Bird Genoscape Project and the insights into annual cycles, local
adaptation and climate change.

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

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 🎃

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

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

We love the occasional field trip - a favourite place is @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social where we spent a few days in March recharging batteries pre field season. Excellent food & company, cliff-top birding walks, a few early migrants like this Ring Ouzel & a bit of ringing training (here a Firecrest!)

The first eggs have been laid in this, the 79th year of data collection in the Wytham Tit Project! First Blue Tit egg laid 2 April, first Great Tit 3 April. Looks like an early spring, with first oak leaves out, though the observed first egg dates fit the long-term pattern well
wythamtits.com#intro

The woods are full of Great Tit song. A very appropriate time to read our recent paper on the demographic drivers of cultural evolution in Great Tit song work led by @nilomr.bsky.social with help from @andreaestandia.bsky.social, Ella Cole & Sara Keen
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...