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Paul Dufour

@pauldufour80.bsky.social

630 followers 470 following 32 posts

Birder | Research Associate at Swiss Ornithological Institute @vogelwarte.bsky.social 🇨🇭 Interested in the evolution of bird movements and how they can influence evolutionary processes https://pauldufour80.wordpress.com/

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Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · Dec 11

For my first post here, I’m happy to share our new paper just published in @ibisjournal.bsky.social Thanks to a great team effort, we made a small step forward in the study of Siberian vagrants in Europe and clarified the status of two (pseudo) vagrants: the YBW & the Sib Chiffchaff. Some results 🧵

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Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 53m

Thanks Liam! We’re mostly staying around Fajã Grande on the west coast, but making some random stops in the forests sometimes pays off too. We’ve picked up a few warblers that way, though they’re a nightmare to find again..

Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 1d

Two great first days of birding on Flores (Azores) with the french/swiss team: Dickcissel, Ovenbird, YB Cuckoo, 5 RE Vireos and Subalpine Warbler(!). Plenty more to find, as good numbers seem to have arrived quite a while ago. The island is huge (and beautiful), and we have it all to ourselves.

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 5d

A really intriguing vagrant Blackpoll Warbler resighting from California; parallels to be made with eastward reorientation in a few Yellow-browed Warblers in Western Europe too movementecologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... @pauldufour80.bsky.social #Ornithology

Recovery sites (orange) of 22 Yellow-browed Warblers (Phylloscopus inornatus), which were ringed in Europe during a same autumn season (blue; EURING data). The red triangle indicates the interannual and winter ringing recovery from Spain near Tarifa [26]

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Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 5d

With @vogelwarte.bsky.social @joewynnbirds.bsky.social @migecol.bsky.social

Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 5d

🚨 Master’s project!
Curious how birds find their way? 🧭🐦
Analyze decades of ringing data to study abnormal migratory routes and uncover what these deviations can reveal about the mechanisms guiding birds on their journeys. Drop me an email for details! #ornithology

www.vogelwarte.ch/de/wir/mitar...

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Per Alström @peralstrom.bsky.social · 7d

Just published: Conservation genomics of two
endangered buntings reveal genetic diversity
before and after severe population declines. doi.org/10.1186/s129... Despite severe population declines, both species retained high genetic diversity but experienced increased inbreeding. #ornithology #birds

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Joe Wynn @joewynnbirds.bsky.social · 10d

Been great fun visiting @flamboroughbird.bsky.social last week, and am super excited to be back in a few days! Awesome start to the project with 4 birds sampled in the last 4 days, we're hoping to use #genomic data derived from feather samples to see where these enigmatic birds come from ☺️

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Angus Croudace @anguscroudace.bsky.social · 9d

Grey-Cheeked Thrush trapped and ringed @lundybirds.bsky.social this morning. @birdguides.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social

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Migration Ecology Group @migecol.bsky.social · 12d

1. Yellow-browed Warbler tagged in 2025! 🤩

On September 24, @annikapeter.bsky.social tagged the first Yellow-browed warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) on Helgoland in 2025 to study its migratory behaviour. Stay tuned for fascinating bird tracks!

#Motus #Tracking #Birdmigration

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Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 13d

Nice 🧵

Matt Rockman @wormsrock.bsky.social · 14d

C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 27d

A second record of Common Grackle from the Netherlands - other WP recs from Denmark and Spain. First NL record is the only one accepted as a Category A equivalent, but almost certainly ship-assisted (if not an escape) 1/4 🪶
www.dutchbirdalerts.nl/alerts/19691...

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Cecilia Nilsson @cnilsson.science · 16d

Are animals randomly distributed in the air, or is there a structure to where and when we find them? In our new paper we outline factors that shape habitat use in the air, from abiotic structure to biotic interactions. A lot of fun discussions behind this one! 🦅🦋🦇🌬
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Animal niches in the airspace

For flying animals, including many birds, bats, and insects, the air is a crucial arena for a range of behaviors. Technological advances, such as year-round tracking of flight altitudes and expanded u...

www.cell.com

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Nicholas Per Huffeldt @nphuffeldt.bsky.social · 16d

I definitely wasn’t early to the Listers party, but I’m glad I made it.

Can recommend to all birder adjacent and bird curious folks 🪶

m.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...

LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching

YouTube video by owen reiser

m.youtube.com

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 18d

Just back from a pelagic trip out to the Whittard Canyon area on the continental shelf edge with @scillypelagics.bsky.social @scottinscilly.bsky.social @nomadbirder.bsky.social Madeiran Storm Petrel reclassified from MEGA!!! to scarce summer visitor in one evening with 84 counted last night! 😂

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Bruce Taylor @barrabirder.bsky.social · 18d

Swainson's Thrush at Cuithir this morning, a well deserved find by Stuart Beeby, incredibly the 4th Barra record, making it our second most frequent North American vagrant passerine. #BirdingScotland #RareBirdsUK

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Joe Wynn @joewynnbirds.bsky.social · 22d

🚨 PhD alert 🚨 We are looking for a highly motivated student to use 🧬 genomics 🧬 and 🛰️ bio-logging 🛰️ approaches to disentangle cultural and genetic contributions to seabird migration 🐣 Think this is you, or someone you know? Then come to our Q&A session at on 29/09 and check out the ad below!

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Alexandra Delbot @alexandradelbot.bsky.social · 22d

🐜 Une nouvelle étude révèle un phénomène inédit dans le règne animal : certaines reines donnent naissance à des mâles d’une autre espèce. Ce mécanisme appelé « xénoparité » permet à leurs colonies de survivre.

Explications avec des GIF de fourmis ⬇️

Chez les fourmis moissoneuses, des reines enfantent des mâles d’une autre espèce

Une nouvelle étude révèle un phénomène inédit dans le règne animal : certaines reines donnent naissance à des mâles d’une autre espèce. Ce mécanisme appelé « xénoparité » permet à leurs colonies de su...

www.radiofrance.fr

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Camille Roux @crouxevo.bsky.social · 26d

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

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Josef Uyeda @pseudacris.bsky.social · May 21

Unsolicited listicle: My list of the most criminally underused/underappreciated phylogenetic comparative methods. Note, I am not involved in ANY of these methods; but I see them as things people are often asking of comparative data but have been surprised at how infrequently they have been cited.

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Santiago Claramunt @sclaramunt.bsky.social · 28d

Excited to share our new paper on flight morphology and migration in North American wood warblers. Surprisingly, ground-dwelling warblers may be better adapted for migration than aerial ones!!!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Morphological adaptations for migration in North American wood-warblers (Aves: Parulidae) - Journal of Ornithology

Migration exerts a selective pressure for increased flight efficiency and reduced energy expenditure in long-distance migratory birds. In North America, eastern migratory flyways are longer and requir...

link.springer.com

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Andre Moncrieff @andremoncrieff.bsky.social · Aug 25

🐦🔬 Recruiting PhD students! 🌎🧬
I’m looking for 1–2 PhD students to join our team starting Fall 2026 at the Sam Noble Museum & University of Oklahoma.

Our research: 🐦 birds • 🌍 biogeography • 🌴 Neotropics • 🧬 population genomics • 🌱 speciation

👉 Learn more: www.moncriefflab.org

Please share!

Moncrieff Lab | Bird Evolution

The Moncrieff Lab is a research lab based at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. Research in the lab involves museum specimens, fieldwork, and...

www.moncriefflab.org

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Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 29d

Under #climate change, extreme weather events are liable to become more frequent and intense.

@simonbaeckens.bsky.social & Colin Donihue review the evidence for impacts on #evolution such events can have and how we can study them in the future.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Evolutionary consequences of extreme climate events

Simon Baeckens and Colin Donihue review case studies of rapid evolutionary change in response to extreme climate events and sketch a framework for future studies in the rapidly changing climate of the...

www.cell.com

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Darren Irwin (he / him) @darrenirwin.bsky.social · Sep 8

Like woodpeckers? Or population genomics? Or three-species hybridization? Or selective sweeps?

Then this is for you!

The typeset version of "Evidence for ancient selective sweeps followed by differentiation among three species of Sphyrapicus sapsuckers" is published today:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

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Department of Biology, Lund University @biologylu.bsky.social · Sep 5

Migratory birds aren’t equally efficient at all speeds. A new Lund University study shows thrush nightingales fly most efficiently at 7–8 m/s – the speed they actually use on migration.
@pablomaciastorres.bsky.social & Prof. Anders Hedenström, Animal Flight Lab.

www.biology.lu.se/article/not-...

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Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · Sep 4

What a cool paper!

Jente Ottenburghs | Avian Hybrids @jenteo.bsky.social · Sep 4

Crazy discovery in ants 🤯🐜

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants | Nature
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Males from the same mother exhibit distinct genomes and morphologies, as they belong to species that diverged over 5 million years ago."

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...