Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 5h

Latest articles from the WJO: Demographic trends for the Boreal Owl, Aegolius funereus, using standardized migration monitoring data in eastern North America. #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

photo of a boreal owl, a small brown-streaked owl with a round face and yellow eyes, perched on a branch by the trunk of an evergreen tree

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Marine Ornithology @marineorno.bsky.social · 19h

New paper alert: Behavioral response of Atlantic Puffins Fratercula arctica to marine heatwaves in the Gulf of Maine, USA: A webcam study. By Julie Wallace et al.
#seabirds #OpenAccess #HeatWaves

www.marineornithology.org/PDF/53_2/53_...

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Dr. Catie Ivy @catieivy.bsky.social · May 6

Do you like songbirds? Are you concerned about how wildfire smoke may impact their physiology?

I'm searching for graduate students who are interested in looking at the effect of wildfire smoke on songbird physiology! Come join my lab @usaskartsci.bsky.social!

research-groups.usask.ca/ivy-lab/

The Ivy Lab! - Welcome to the Ivy Lab!

research-groups.usask.ca

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 13h

"I hope that this article will get more people thinking about learning and mimicry in calls and call variation in general. Clearly there is a lot to be learned on this topic, even in one of the most thoroughly studied North American bird species." #ornithology

Guest Post – Lessons From Yard Listing: What I Learned From a Few Bilingual White-throated Sparrows

I have always loved listening to birds, and I am especially fascinated by birds that mimic other species.

wilsonsociety.org

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 1d

WOS members, your periodic reminder: Bookmark wilson.wildapricot.org (our member portal) for quick, free online access to The Wilson Journal of #Ornithology! Just log in, click on "Publications," and follow the links there.

Wilson Ornithological Society - Home

wilson.wildapricot.org

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BOU @bou.org.uk · 1d

Connectivity and evolution between forest macrorefugia: a niche and morphological study of South American birds | doi.org/10.1093/biol... | Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | #ornithology 🪶

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Evolutionary Ecology Group, Cambridge @eegcam.bsky.social · 3d

#newpaper out in @natecoevo.nature.com on Learned use of an innate sound-meaning association in birds, co-led by @jameskennerley.bsky.social when he was a PhD student at @eegcam.bsky.social . Nice summary on the @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/birds-all-ov...

Birds all over the world use the same sound to warn of threats

The findings of a new study about communication between birds also offer key insights into the origins of language.

theconversation.com

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 1d

Latest articles from the WJO: Call rate and types of calls produced vary with flock movements in wild Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus). #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

Call rate during Pine Siskin flock movements (arrival, circling, departure) was significantly greater than during baseline minutes.

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 2d

Latest articles from the WJO: A confirmed case of social polygyny in Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus). #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

Home ranges (minimum convex polygons) of three Eastern Whip-poor-wills in relation to known nest sites (stars) in the northern section of Chaumont Barrens Nature reserve, Jefferson County, NY, USA (44.110972°N, 76.091528°) during the 2024 breeding season. Male A attended nests of both females concurrently, confirming polygynous social behavior.

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Elham Nourani @enourani.bsky.social · 2d

🦅PhD position 🦅 in my new group at @fbm-unil.bsky.social in Switzerland, studying how the social and resource landscapes shape the learning process for soaring flight. Deadline: Oct 30. Pls repost! career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

Golden eagle on the nest in Finland (by O. Karlin)

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

One for the occasional series of #ornithology papers you need in your life but might not have read - Common/Spotted Sandpiper flight style as an antipredator behaviour.
academic.oup.com/auk/article-...

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 2d

New radar research is revealing how long-distance bird migrants change the pace of their migration once they reach South America. #ornithology

In South America, Bird Migration Is Slow and Steady

Blackburnian Warbler in Colombia by Linda Rudolph / Macaulay Library. From the Autumn 2025 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now. For birders in the U.S. and Canada, fall migration means the…

www.allaboutbirds.org

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 5d

It's Friday, and for at least some of us that means we'll have time in the next two days to get outside and look for birds! Congratulations on making it through another week. 🐦

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 5d

The frontispiece of the current issue of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology is this gouache and colored pencil illustration of an Eastern Whip-poor-will by artist Kelly C. Balantine, inspired by a paper in the issue on the species' nesting phenology and chick development.

artist's close-up illustration of the head of a whip-poor-will

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Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · 5d

POV: you’re a mouse about to have a bad time

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BOU @bou.org.uk · 5d

The absence of top predators may increase nest predation through mesopredator release: bou.org.uk/blog-afm-...

Read all about it on #theBOUblog, and check out the original #IBISjournal paper: doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... | #ornithology

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 6d

Have you used your 15% WOS member discount to purchase anything from Kowa Optics? Let us know! (And remember, you can access this discount by logging into wilson.wildapricot.org and clicking on "Member Benefits"!)

Wilson Ornithological Society - Home

wilson.wildapricot.org

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Journal of Avian Biology @avianbiology.bsky.social · 6d

NEW PAPER: Nest mass in forest tits increases with elevation and decreasing body mass, promoting reproductive success.

➡️ vist.ly/48zub

#ornithology #birds #extendedphenotype #climate #adaptation

Coal tit. Photo credit: Marton Berntsen, Wikimedia commons

Fig. 1 from the article: Observed nest masses [g] for three tit species, ordered by ascending mean species weights, as indicated by the values below the species names.

Fig. 2a from the article: relationship between elevation and nest mass.

Fig. 3 from the article: Visual representation of the analyzed paths between the variables in the piecewise structural equation models.

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Chris Fisher @fisherspeaks.bsky.social · 6d

There is nothing quite like hearing and seeing thousands of Sandhill Cranes flocking together on their southbound migration. The bounty of the harvest and the bounty of summer nesting success. #birds #SK

Nine Sandhill Cranes are flying in for a landing with several having their legs extended.

A small portion of a large flock of Sandhill Cranes set against a blue fall sky.

A flock of Sandhill cranes rising above a harvested cropland in the fall.

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 6d

From the current WJO issue: Frugivory in the Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus elegans). #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

photo of a red-shouldered hawk eating an avocado

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 7d

From the current WJO issue: Renaming a bill type for Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus). #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...

photo of two tundra swans in flight against a blue-gray sky

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jocelyngould.bsky.social @jocelyngould.bsky.social · 7d

My contribution to today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme birds showing #attitude.

I’ve chosen #seabirds, #waders aka #shorebirds and #waterfowl. 🪶❤️

#birds #ukbirds #worldbirds

Red-billed Gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae scopulinus or tarāpunga, Plimmerton beach, North Island, 31st Oct 2015. They look very disapproving.

Salvin's Albatross or Toroa Thalassarche salvini, Kaikoura pelagic, South Island, New Zealand, 2nd Nov 2015. It’s the eyebrows!

Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa fighting, The Mere, Martin Mere, 13th Feb 2025. So many fights over grain from the Swan feeds!

Canada Goose Branta canadensis pair, Woodend Marsh, Martin Mere, 29th March 2023. Another pair landed nearby, and they weren’t having it.

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BOU @bou.org.uk · 7d

Diets of Three Sympatric Grebe Species in Lake Titicaca Indicate Possible Dietary Niche Partitioning | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🪶

Diets of Three Sympatric Grebe Species in Lake Titicaca Indicate Possible Dietary Niche Partitioning

Lake Titicaca is home to three grebe species whose diets have not been thoroughly studied. In this natural history note, we provide the first description of the diets of these species and how they ov...

doi.org

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 7d

Need a break? Take a few deep, calming breaths while you watch this Cornell Lab of Ornithology video of chickadees and titmice landing in slow motion.

Chickadees and Titmice Make Epic Slow-Motion Landings: Backyard Birds Revealed

Feeder birds like titmice and chickadees may look quick and fluttery, but slow them down and a whole hidden world of flight is revealed. Using a 1,000-frames-per-second camera, Tim and Russell Laman…

www.youtube.com

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Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 8d

There's a new guest post on the WOS blog! Konshau Duman writes about his discovery that White-throated Sparrows regularly mimic the chip calls of Golden-crowned Sparrows, opening up new questions about whether calls are learned. #ornithology wilsonsociety.org/2025/09/26/g...

a young man stands outside on a road through the woods, looking up and holding out a sound recording device

a white-throated sparrow, a brown bird with a black and white striped head and yellow spots by its eyes, on the ground

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