Kees van Oers
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keesvanoers.bsky.social
Kees van Oers
@keesvanoers.bsky.social
500 followers 470 following 24 posts
Senior Scientist Evolutionary Behavioural Ecology | @NIOO-KNAW | Forum Editor Behavioral Ecology | Executive Vice-President ESEB
Professor Animal Personality @WUR | Behavioural Ecology Group
Ecological Epigenetics | Animal Cognition | Animal Personality
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Kees van Oers
sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Examples of some recent papers from graduate students in my group - a full list of recent papers and preprints can be found here (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=pTdxVdIAAAAJ) and profile of the group here: https://egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/members The annual Wytham Field Team Photo! Celebrating a successful field season with great food & good company - May 2025 Front view of the Life & Mind Building, which opened in Oct 2025: The new home of Biology at Oxford
October 20, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
jgmussoi.bsky.social
This paper shows the importance of collaborations! Who knew a bunch of "leftover" fecal samples could turn out into such a cool paper.

We found that lack of sleep and increased stress decrease diversity in the gut microbiotas of common mynas.

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
October 28, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
cognitiveecol.bsky.social
I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions
If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).
POSITIONS
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chickadeecognition.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:49 PM
keesvanoers.bsky.social
This was an amazing project led by the @themanybirds.bsky.social
A similar Behavioural test was done across over 130 bird species! Species with a more specialist diet and migratory species were more afraid of novelty near there familiar food source.
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niooknaw.bsky.social NL Institute of Ecology NIOO-KNAW @niooknaw.bsky.social · 27d
New publication: A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of #neophobia, by @utkurhan.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social and others. #ManyBirdsProject #birds #animalmigration
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Figure 6: Examples of objects used.
October 29, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
hannahdugdale.bsky.social
Come & work with us - fully funded 4 year PhD on Social Ageing: Social environment effects on senescence, using an epigenetic clock www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor... @rug.nl @david-s-richardson.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social photo: @charlisdavies.bsky.social
September 19, 2025 at 7:44 AM
keesvanoers.bsky.social
Thanks @tonigabaldon.bsky.social and all others that contributed, for a wonderful #eseb2025
It was amazing!
eseb2025.bsky.social ESEB 2025 Congress @eseb2025.bsky.social · Aug 23
Thank you all for an inspiring week and a memorable farewell dinner! #ESEB2025 🌍✨
August 23, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
eseb2025.bsky.social
✨Thank you all for an unforgettable #ESEB2025! The farewell dinner was the perfect ending: full of joy, good company, and some impressive dance moves. 🌍💫
August 23, 2025 at 11:40 AM
keesvanoers.bsky.social
So cool to see how my picture was used in all kinds of giveaways at the #ESEB stand at #ESEB2025
judithmank.bsky.social Judith Mank @judithmank.bsky.social · Jun 19
Check out our cover article in @evolletters.bsky.social, Size in the city: morphological differences between city and forest great tits have a genetic basis. By @babimt.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @mevisser.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
August 23, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
judithmank.bsky.social
Check out our cover article in @evolletters.bsky.social, Size in the city: morphological differences between city and forest great tits have a genetic basis. By @babimt.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @mevisser.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
June 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
niooknaw.bsky.social
New publication: Parental control: ecology drives #plasticity in parental response to #offspring signals, by @tjommem.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social and others. #feedingbehaviour #foodavailability
doi.org/10.1093/behe...
Figure 1 in Caro et al. (2025): "Experimental design. (A) On hatching day, nests were randomly assigned to be in a good environment (supplemented, green, Nest A), or a poor environment (unsupplemented, orange, Nest B). Supplemented nests received a daily mix of meal worms and wax worms (approximating 20% of the brood’s nutritional needs) for the week after hatching. Unsupplemented nests were visited daily to control for human disturbance. (B) After 1 week, we removed supplemented food and ranked chicks by size (weight) within natal nests. We created foster broods with chicks 1, 3, 5 and 7 from natal nest A, and chicks 2, 4, 6 from natal nest B. This accounted for potential differences in chick behavior based on their previous size rank; standardized size differences within broods; and standardized foster brood size to 7 or 6 chicks. We re-ranked chicks by size within foster nests (Nest C and Nest D). We handfed half of each foster brood to satiation in an alternating pattern by size rank; a mix of unsupplemented and supplemented chicks were fed in order to disentangle short-term and long-term need. This standardized brood-level begging intensity at the beginning of filming; ensured begging is variable enough across chicks to be a useable signal; and ensured begging intensity varied across size ranks. (C) We filmed adults feeding their fostered broods for 4.5 h, excluding first 0.5 h to ensure behavior had normalized (see Supplementary Movie 2 for an example). Fostered broods contained only unrelated chicks to ensure adult behavior was not influenced by familiarity to their own chicks. Photos by S. Caro."
July 28, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
niooknaw.bsky.social
New publication: Predicted deleterious mutations reveal the genetic architecture of male reproductive success in a #lekking bird, by @keesvanoers.bsky.social and others. #evolution #genetics #biodiversity
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Figure 4 in Chen et al. (2025): "On the left are shown the posterior distributions of the standardized β estimates of the total GERP load on three sexually selected behavioural traits (top) and three sexually selected ornamental traits (bottom). On the right are shown the posterior distributions of the β estimates of the six sexual traits on AMS. The white circles represent the median posterior estimates, the thick black lines the 80% CIs and the thin black lines the 95% CIs. The significant indirect pathway of the total GERP load on AMS mediated by lek attendance is highlighted in yellow."
August 15, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
suviruuskanen.bsky.social
Stijn Kouwenberg doing great presenting his first PhD poster at #EOU2025 collaboration @cyanistesnord.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social Cool work on #microbiome #heritability #physiology coming up
August 20, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
judithmank.bsky.social
I'll be at #Evol2025, and would love to talk if you have submission ideas for the journal!!
judithmank.bsky.social Judith Mank @judithmank.bsky.social · Jun 19
Check out our cover article in @evolletters.bsky.social, Size in the city: morphological differences between city and forest great tits have a genetic basis. By @babimt.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @mevisser.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
June 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
keesvanoers.bsky.social
I can only be proud of one of the best students I ever had! Ayke Haller did his 4-month internship with us, without knowledge on bioinformatics. Nog only did we write the first draft for this paper within the four months, Ayke also knew every paper and method out there. Working with ERCs is the best
June 20, 2025 at 9:28 PM
keesvanoers.bsky.social
Apart from the great joy on working together with @babimt.bsky.social and @mevisser.bsky.social, I am honored to be able to provide the cover image for this marvelous society journal!
judithmank.bsky.social Judith Mank @judithmank.bsky.social · Jun 19
Check out our cover article in @evolletters.bsky.social, Size in the city: morphological differences between city and forest great tits have a genetic basis. By @babimt.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @mevisser.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
June 20, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
akirschel.bsky.social
PhD opportunity in genomics and behaviour at University of Cyprus! Join our team investigating the genomics of bird song and feather colour in Africa! More details at: www.tinkerbirds.com/join-us
Application deadline Friday(!!) 16th May 2025. Apply here:
applications.ucy.ac.cy/post.../MNG_...
Join Us | tinkerbirds.com
www.tinkerbirds.com
May 14, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
jacanamama.bsky.social
Now published!!!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
April 28, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
evolappjournal.bsky.social
📢 Reminder to send abstracts to the Evolutionary Genomics symposium co-organized by EvolApp and MolEcol at #ESEB2025 in Barcelona!

🎤 Featuring outstanding guest speakers:
Cameron Ghalambor and Santi González-Martinez

📅Deadline: 25 Apr 2025

w/ @cam-g.bsky.social @evoltree.bsky.social
April 1, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
eseb2025.bsky.social
🐦 Calling all Early Birds! ​(and t-shirt enthusiasts!)
​
Have you ever wanted to spread the love for #Evolution through your attire? At #ESEB2025 you can! Don’t miss the chance to buy our amazing t-shirt with your registration! 🌟​
​
🎟️ Secure your spot  👉🏻 https://eseb2025.com/registration/
April 11, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
clairemerot.bsky.social
Looking forward to this symposium, lots to learn and discuss about genome structure and evolution #SVs #ESEB2025 ( and thanks for the invitation)
ruimmfaria.bsky.social SEAGEN - Rui Faria @ruimmfaria.bsky.social · Apr 10
Organized by @aruizherrera.bsky.social and Thea Rogers with the wonderful speakers @clairemerot.bsky.social and Harris Lewin
ruimmfaria.bsky.social SEAGEN - Rui Faria @ruimmfaria.bsky.social · Apr 10
NEW FRONTIERS IN GENOME DIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION: if you have work on 3D organization and function of genomes submit your abstract to our symposium!
April 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
eseb2025.bsky.social
🌍  Evolve at #ESEB2025 in #Barcelona! 🧬
This August, don’t miss the chance for one of the largest gatherings in  #EvolutionaryBiology in the vibrant city of #BCN! Enjoy discussions in the amazing backdrop of the mediterranean coast!
🎟️ Secure your spot 👉🏻 https://eseb2025.com/registration/
Persona Que Practica Surf Con Fondo De Edificio De Gran Altura
April 14, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
sortee.bsky.social
💡 Join us in Barcelona for a discussion on open research, scientific integrity, and inclusivity! Stay tuned for talk details, abstract submissions & more!

#ESEB2025 #SORTEE #OpenScience #EcoEvoTransparency
April 18, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
tomospotter.bsky.social
Looking forward to this session - submit your talks!
erikpostma.bsky.social Erik Postma @erikpostma.bsky.social · Apr 11
What do you think, can we forecast evolution❓

@sevans.bsky.social and I would love to hear your thoughts, so if you are going to #ESEB2025, submit a talk to our symposium (S24: Forecasting evolution in natural populations) and join @colingarroway.bsky.social and Patrik Nosil!

Deadline April 25.
April 22, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
ankarn.bsky.social
🚨 Just under two weeks left to submit your abstract for ESEB2025 - don’t miss the chance to be part of the Symposium on the Evolution of Symbiosis and Interactions in Microbial Eukaryotes 🦠🔬

📅 Abstract deadline: April 25, 2025
🔗 More: eseb2025.com/list-of-symposia
#ESEB25 #Symbiosis #ProtistOnSky
April 14, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Kees van Oers
animalecol-nioo.bsky.social
Temperatures are rising in the Netherlands and despite the very cold nights the first birds are laying eggs! 🥚🥚 First Great tit egg in the long term study this year was 30th of march which is a week later then the record first egg we had last year #breedingseason25
April 8, 2025 at 12:06 PM