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Will Smith

@willjsmith.bsky.social

820 followers 390 following 41 posts

Evolution at the wild-feral interface ⛰️🏙️ @leverhulme.ac.uk Early Career Fellow https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/life-sciences/people/will.smith https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UW64SScAAAAJ&hl https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Smith-134

www.nottingham.ac.uk

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Mar 10

Studies of domestic pigeons have taught us lots about cognition, navigation, and genetics. If you’d like to learn why their wild cousins are also worthy of scientific attention, I’ve written a Rock Dove @currentbiology.bsky.social ‘quick guide’: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.065

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Michał Jezierski @jezierskimt.bsky.social · 8d

Beginner's luck is a thing, and with a balmy autumn night I was quite excited for my 9th ever moth-trapping night. But Clifden Nonpareil was not on the bingo card! Also, Least Carpet, Pink-barred Sallow and Rosy Rustic. #TeamMoth #leptember #Moths @willjsmith.bsky.social

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 9d

@sjportugal.bsky.social

Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 10d

A very kind interpretation of a baby pigeon! Here are some wild Rock Dove chicks, who may not be winning beauty contests... 🫠

(nests visited for ongoing @uniofnottingham.bsky.social research in the Outer Hebrides, and for @btobirds.bsky.social @btoscotland.bsky.social #NestRecordScheme)

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 15d

Please keep an eye out for colour-ringed Rock Doves! :) we catch them all over Uist

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Jente Ottenburghs | Avian Hybrids @jenteo.bsky.social · 15d

🥳New paper out in the Journal of #ornithology

Assignment of wintering Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) to breeding populations using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A nice collaboration between Wageningen University and NIOO-KNAW. 🤝

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Steve Portugal @sjportugal.bsky.social · 19d

We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below!

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 25d

This is a young feral pigeon (hence the slightly different head shape) with 'red' plumage. I don't know of any examples of woodpigeons + feral pigeons breeding, even in captivity (where odd crosses are more common). Feral pigeons are so diverse thanks to past domestication.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 25d

Idk how much blame we deserve for domestication here, I've seen a lot of pretty awful wild Rock Dove nests 😭 they try their best eh...

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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 27d

#BirdStudy welcomes submissions on all aspects of #ornithology, eg. distribution/abundance patterns; movements/dispersal; habitat effects; census, marking & tracking, behaviour; conservation. Main focus Europe, Atlantic, Afro-Palearctic Flyway, N Africa, but useful papers considered from any region.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 27d

thanks! will look into it

Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 27d

No, capture for measurement, DNA sample, health check - then release back into the wild. Takes about five minutes per pigeon.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 27d

thank you 😀

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Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · 27d

Comparing the feral city pigeon with its wild form, Early Career Fellow @willjsmith.bsky.social endeavors to reveal whether feral species are experiencing reverse-domestication or proceeding down a new evolutionary trajectory.
media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/wsmith @uniofnottingham.bsky.social

Left: A wild rock dove perched in a ruined building, Right: A feral pigeon captured in hand.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 27d

A little write up @leverhulme.ac.uk summarising my research plans @uniofnottingham.bsky.social for the next few years: media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/wsmith. 🧬🐦🤓

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Valentin Kiss @valentinkiss.bsky.social · Sep 2

Perceptions of #pigeons are not trivial. How we see them (either as companions or gross rats with wings) shapes the behaviour and #management policies that structure pigeon populations and the #pathogens they carry.

Mumbai: Pigeon feeding ban sparks debate in India - BBC News

Feeding pigeons is common in Indian cities but is now controversial due to rising numbers and health risks.

www.bbc.com

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Sep 3

my work email is will.smith[at]nottingham.ac.uk :)

Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Sep 3

Wild Rock Doves are protected in the UK - so they should not be shot. Maybe very occasionally they are (and I know that some have been killed in the not-to-recent past...), but generally in Uist they're safe.

Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Sep 3

Very high/almost certain, especially if told where to find colony roost sites on ruined buildings. There's ~3000 across Uist. They're great to see, I do recommend a pilgrimage. Very different behaviour to feral pigeons!

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Sep 3

Don't say that 😅 but low chance it has detectable feral ancestry. This one hasn't been analysed yet though.

Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Sep 2

Was originally caught after sneaking into a chicken coop! 🐔 Really not got the 'wild-type' memo at all...

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Sep 2

If they're in Uist, they could get some of our doves :) We ring, retrap, or resight ~500 per year 🐦

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · Sep 2

It's always exciting to get reports of the wild Rock Doves that @jezierskimt.bsky.social and I study in Uist. 'Green SI' is one of my favourites. It has been re-sighted 53 times since being ringed in 2022. It is a big fan of garden bird-feeders, and sees meadow-based foraging as too much effort.

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Martin Stervander 🏳️‍🌈🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏛️🦉🦤🪶 @stervander.com · Aug 31

A good 6 hours and 6 minutes left to apply! Don't be shy.

Martin Stervander 🏳️‍🌈🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏛️🦉🦤🪶 @stervander.com · Aug 12

Join us as Assistant #Curator of Vertebrates @ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿NMS! Large collections of #birds & #mammals + very active specimen prep = cool place! The ad doesn't say, but I say there's a good chance of prolongation beyond 1y. Hurry up and apply/spread the word: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/748553!

🪶🧪 #museumjobs #job

Yours truly and our mounted Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) specimen

The bird collection store, busy with visiting researchers, mounts, and in the background our volunteers who capture data from the specimen labels. It's not always this packed, but we do have a fair number of volunteers and visitors.

Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) in trays in the cabinets. The collections spaces are pretty new, fresh, and functional, which is not always the case for museum collections...

A tray of African raptor eggs to illustrate the breadth of the bird collection, which holds som 70K skin specimens, 60K egg clutches, and 10K skeletons.

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Hernán E. Morales @hernmoral.bsky.social · Aug 28

Expertly led by @claudiafontsere.bsky.social now published in Molecular Ecology! 🥳
Learn why from a genetic perspective whooping cranes should remain protected due to loss of genetic diversity and accumulation of inbreeding and load
#popgen #consgen
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Malin Klumpp @malinklumpp.bsky.social · Aug 27

How great was #EOU2025 in Bangor, Wales?!
So delighted to have presented my Master’s thesis project on tracing the geographic origins of behavioural variation in Common Reed Warblers using genomic data. Huge thanks to @bou.org.uk and @dornitholges.bsky.social for helping make this possible!

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