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Colin Beale

@cmbeale.bsky.social

3.3K followers 1.2K following 730 posts

Ecologist, ornithologist & nature lover. Professor of ecology & conservation at the University of York. Author of 101 Curious Tales of East African Birds. Chair of A Rocha UK.

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Reposted by Colin Beale

Spurn Bird Observatory @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social · 10d

We are looking for a short-term residential volunteer to join the team from the 2nd to 19th October (+/-2 days). Tasks include morning bird monitoring (Point Counts / Visible Migration watches) and afternoon maintenance tasks (habitat/estate work)⬇️

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · 20d

Congrats to all those involved in the proposal writing!

Reposted by Colin Beale

Élie Pédarros @eliepedarros.bsky.social · 26d

Excited to share the preprint of our first @cascade-hei.bsky.social paper on “Potential for academic institutions to support international biodiversity commitments” 🌿 🌍.

Potential for academic institutions to support international biodiversity commitments

Reposted by Colin Beale

Will Wilson @2wsphotography.bsky.social · Sep 3

Red-fronted Tinkerbird perched in the sun.

📍Mbuyuni Farm Retreat, Morogoro, Tanzania.

#Birds #NaturePhotography #Tanzania 🪶

Strikingly marked miniature barbet. Adults have a red patch above the bill, but immatures lack this. Found in woodland and savanna, ranging from arid to moderately moist. Most common call is a monotonously repeated “took” call that is sometimes given hundreds of times consecutively. Also gives a higher 2- or 3-part call and a fast trill.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Sep 4

I fear this bird visitor has had an unfortunate incident. She was sitting on our trellace looking dazed with a thread on her face & ruffled primaries this morning. Very cute, but wishing her well. Scarce locally, Goldcrests have already been turning up at the coast, so who knows where she's from?

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Sep 2

This has been my experience too! With my bionic ears these days I can often hear things before the bright young students I hang out with sometimes!

Jared Wilson @wilsonjaredm.bsky.social · Sep 1

I wrote this short note on birding with hearing aids and thought I’d post the link here in case of interest/relevance to some birders out there
#birding #birdingScotland #birdingUK

chatterstanes.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/b...

Birding with Hearing Aids

A startling proportion of the UK population suffers from hearing loss, with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) indicating that one in five adults are deaf, have hearing loss or suffer…

chatterstanes.wordpress.com

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Sep 2

Yes! I'm in the club too & well remember the first outing I took. I'd note that not all hearing aids are equal: I've had support from work to pay for somewhat more expensive ones to hear the birds I need to for research, & a proper outdoor setting & bluetooth ability to up amplification is good.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Aug 22

Some different #birdringing today, as I'm at @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social on the east coast. It's still early autumn here, but a fantastic variety of #birds ringed this morning, with 8 warbler species including a fantastic wood warbler, and fun birds like this Pied Flycatcher and a young Sparrowhawk.

Pief flycatcher held for ringing - a very cure grey and white bird with striking white wing bars and huge black eyes. She's a young female, staring straight at the photographer.

Very angry looking young male sparrowhawk, staring intently at me with a vivid yellow eye as if he wants to tear me to shreds. He'f white with brown bars below, long yellow legs with point claws and brown above. He does, actually, want to eat me.

A beautiful wood warbler held for ringing - it is green on top with yellow edges to the ver long wing and tail, has a lovely yellow throat and eye ring and is beautifuly clean white below.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Aug 21

Thanks to all who have helped out with the season, and here's hoping there are birds aplenty for all! Roll on the autumn... All birds captured under license from @btobirds.bsky.social - find out more about ringing here: www.bto.org/get-involved... 5/5

A juvenile lesser whitethroat looking confused about the world, and very scruffy. It's grey and brownish, and rather cute.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Aug 21

Although I won't miss arriving on campus at 5am, I'm already wondering what season we'll have next year: will there be good over winter survival & a high population to start with? Will we be back to the glory days of 2021?! Monitoring is addictive - & contributes valuable data to national schemes. 4

Here's a baby blue tit being ringing - we do a few in nest boxes and hope to see them in our nets when they fledge. It is poking out between fingers with a cute yeelow face and greyish cap.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Aug 21

have had their best years ever, including tits & blackbird. The number of reed warblers ringed is spectacular: we use only 21m of net in or adjacent to reeds, & we've caught ~90 individual reed warblers over the season! Rumour has it similar results may well be reported across UK.🤞3/5

A baby treecreeper held for ringing. Another spotty bird, this has a cute down turned bill

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Aug 21

After several years of declining numbers we started the year with very few adults & the first few sessions were slow, but productivity has been spectacular. Measuring juveniles per adult gives us a useful index of success that simply can't be done without bird ringing, & several species... 2/5

A baby robin held for ringing - it is a super spotty bird, borwn with big cream spots everywhere.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Aug 21

Today marked the end of our @btobirds.bsky.social Constant Effort Site ringing for 2025. We've run a site on campus for 5 years now. I think I might be the first to have a preliminary analysis of the season ready & great news: it has been a cracking breeding season here! #birds #ornithology 1/5

Two figures, the left showing the cumulative number of unique birds ringed across the season for five years, showing that this year just squeeks in at second place overall and second place for juveniles too. On the right are plots of numbers and productivity (juvenile:adult ratios) for the 10 most common species. Productivity in tits and blackbirds has hit all time highs, with several other species close to the top too. Only Willow Warbler has bombed this year, part of a long term trend.

Reposted by Colin Beale

BOU @bou.org.uk · Jul 28

Check out this Senior Research Ecologist- Bioacoustics vacancy @btobirds.bsky.social

britishtrustforornithology.postingpanda.uk/job/734089

#ornithology 🪶

Reposted by Colin Beale

Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity @anthropocenebio.bsky.social · Jul 23

🎓🎉Huge congratulations to all our graduates!

A fantastic achievement and a lovely day celebrating all your hard work with family and friends.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · May 20

Benefits only occurred in areas where cover was below 30%, a threshold people have suggested before. Although there's a lot of work on connectivity, empirical evidence that it impacts occupancy is rarer. Great work Charles & thanks to coauthors @janehillyork.bsky.social @anthropocenebio.bsky.social

A graph showing how connectivity impacts occupancy of woodland species over three different levels of woodland cover. The lines show positive impacts of connectivity at 10% cover, and largel flat at 30% and 50%.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · May 20

Charles' work takes 800 species of 15 taxonomic groups with presence associated with UK woodland, and evaluates how important connectivity is above and beyond the simple impacts of area (landscapes with better conected woodland typically have more woodland in total too). He finds ~40% benefit. 2/

Good British woodland with strange primates. Early spring - a wild and wavy oak tree.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · May 20

Great to see @charles-cunningham.bsky.social's paper out on the impacts of woodland connectivity on the presence of woodland species in the UK. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Although ecologists talk about connectivity being important to maintain, the evidence that this is true is weak. 1/

A figure showing how different invertebrate species show impacts in relation to woodland covr. Overall the connectivity effect is small, but all groups show it.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · May 9

Many congratulations to @helephantmylne.bsky.social on completing a fatastic PhD. It's been a privilidge to have had a part in her work and I know she's going to be continuing on with great things! Looking forward to seeing the papers out soon - standby for all things 🐘 & 🧪!

Helen Mylne @helephantmylne.bsky.social · May 8

Massive thanks to @shoalgroup.bsky.social and Julia Ferrari for making my viva a very pleasant experience, and to my super supervisors Dan Franks, @cmbeale.bsky.social, Kate Evans and Jakob Bro-Jorgensen for all your help over the past 4 years 🐘

Andrew King @shoalgroup.bsky.social · May 8

Was a delight to be external examiner for @helephantmylne.bsky.social's PhD Viva yesterday at @yorkuniversity.bsky.social. A very enjoyable discussion! Congratulations Dr Mylne!

Reposted by Colin Beale

Elva Robinson @elvarobinson.bsky.social · May 7

Did you know about these tiny shiny ants (red arrow) living with wood ants (blue arrow)? They are Shining Guest Ants (Formicoxenus) and we have recently discovered that a wood ant nest can be home to several genetically distinct colonies of these 'guests'! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author... 1/5

A large wood ant, with a dull black gaster and head, and dull brown thorax, is on a pale stone background, and indicated by a blue arrow. Next to it a much smaller ant with a shiny back gaster and shiny brown head and thorax is indicated by a red arrow. The blue arrow at is the wood ant Formica lugubris and the red arrow at is the shining guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · May 7

Another Cardinal that I hope is high up the Vatican's list today is this fine Cardinal Woodpecker. He would stand up for the underrepresented of African woodlands and promote serious headbanging.

Alas, he is also unlikely to become Pope, as he is a #bird. 🌿

A woodpecker with a red back of the hear, greenish grey back and tail covered in white and yellowish spots, and offwhite with black streaks on the breast is sitting showing it's cool 2 toes forward, 2 backward desin on a thick branch.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · May 6

With the Vatican's conclave happening imminently, I would like to bring the attention of the world to this beautiful Cardinal Beetle that was working hard on its nomination in Nottingham at the weekend.

Sadly, I fear his chances are limited, because he is a beetle. 🌿

A beautiful organce coloured beetle with black legs and antenae photographed terribly by yours truly. It is sitting on a green leaf and there are, probably, one or two bits of it that are in focus. Almost.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Apr 22

Today is #Environment Day & in the UK it is also the start of the "Big Green Give", when UK environmental charities have match funding to double donations. A Rocha UK is raising funds to work with landowners to improve biodiversity. You can support them too donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...!

Protecting vulnerable species across the UK – Big Give

The UK is rich in biodiversity, home to species and habitats rare or not found elsewhere. A Rocha UK is …

donate.biggive.org

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Apr 21

It is apparently World Curlew day, so here's a fine individual from our last coastal trip on Lindisfarne. Not quite the longest beak / body ratio of any #bird but not far off!

A curlew on a muddy shore with some seaweed. It is a fine specimen, brown streaky with a downcurved beak c. 3x the length of its head.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · Apr 19

Looks like African #fire is likely to be on the agenda again. I wrote something a few years ago that explains why this isn't an ecological catastrophe at all - indeed, savannahs need fire: theconversation.com/african-gras...