Badger Wetherhill

DON'T know why I they call them seagulls. There's loads of the buggers down by the River Trent sewage outlet at Stoke Bardolph near Nottingham, and that's about as far from the sea as you can get in Britain. These ornithologists don't know what they're talking about. Tiorbjorn Xerxes, Stoke Bardolph

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Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost Some species officially bid us farewell this year. They may have long been gone, but following more recent assessments, they’re now formally categorized as extinct on the IUCN Red List, considered…

Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost

A coloured pencil drawing of a mountain hare in snow. Drawn on warm grey paper. There are snowflakes falling, and the hare is in the bottom right of the image, hunkered down.

Day twenty-three of #ArtAdventCalendar

Here is a coloured pencil drawing of a mountain hare in the snow.

MUSTARD and custard are both yellow, so the suffix 'ustard' must mean yellow. But there's a bird called a bustard, and it isn't yellow, but rather a sort of brown and white. Explain that, Susie Dent. Joe Williams, Leeds

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Cluster of Red Wings perched on frost-traced branches set against a pale background suggesting snow

Other work of the Ladybird artists
Redwings in Winter

Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

This is a great paper that EVERY field biologist should read. www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

Amazing, well done!

Just don’t open yer mouth!

when you actually *really* properly have a good think about it, it *is* a bit weird that a whole bird comes out of an egg, isn't it?

Excellent, do pass my thanks on to James and I look forward to receiving your feathers.

Hi Angus. I’ve received a parcel of PM feathers. I will add them to the next batch I send to Sweden. Mìle taing!

Wood Warbler perched on a branch. Wording over the top of the image reads We’re hiring. Trusts and Foundations Fundraising Manager, Research Ecologist – Climate Change, Senior Research Ecologist, Bioacoustics Support Officer, Seabird Monitoring Support Officer. www.bto.org/jobs

There are lots of opportunities to join us at BTO! Discover jobs and apply at www.bto.org/jobs #Ornithology

Here’s a thing that I did! I spent two years catching and tracking Goosanders, and I’m really pleased to see this paper out in the wild. Now to to get to work on figuring out how to get the tags to stay on for longer…

🚨⛰️Our intrepid team has been out on Scotland’s mountains, carrying out montane surveys that are completed around every 10 years. This time, we also deployed acoustic recording devices, recorded Mountain Hares and collected Ptarmigan feathers for possible genetic analysis!

I’ll take as many as you can give me. Genetic material from feathers is often low quality, so it held to have a larger sample.

Hi Angus, I’d be delighted to receive any feathers from your surveys (I think the RSPB surveys are a bit different to ours). Could you just pop them in marked packets with location and time, and then send to BTO Scotland in Stirling? Mòran taing!

If you're involved with fieldwork in any way, you may want to check out these resources we made last year for LGBTQ+ inclusive fieldwork (even if you don't think any LGBTQ+ people are involved!) inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/pride/

The First GPS Observation of a Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) Riding in a Long-Haul Garbage Transfer Truck | doi.org/10.1675/063.... | Waterbirds | #ornithology 🪶

Melodious Warbler, a small brown and cream bird with beak open singing, among leaves of an oak tree. Slightly blurry because the photo was taken on a phone through some binoculars.

I was recently at a wedding in France, which was an opportunity to do some holiday birding. This is a Melodious Warbler giving it laldy, which was a new one for me.

Has the Nechisar Nightjar Mystery Been Solved? - American Birding Association The authors of a new study believe they have solved one of the world’s great rare bird mysteries: the case of the Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala.

Has the Nechisar Nightjar Mystery Been Solved?

A fascinating summary on the identity of the mysterious single wing found in Ethiopia in 1990.

www.aba.org/has-the-nech...

#birds #birding #ornithology @aba.org

If you’d like to read the short note that we published in Malimbus on the chicks of this species, get in touch and I can send you a copy.

Fledgling Long-tailed Nightjar, with brown wings and grey-buff down on gravel. The bird is damp from overnight rain

One of mr wonderful colleagues at APLORI, Dickson Matthew, who is a brilliant birder adding so much to West African ornithology, continued to monitor the chicks after I returned to Scotland, and the final photo from him shows one of them just about fledged (and a bit soggy from the rain)

An interesting thing was that when I found them, the female nightjar was incubating and flushed a short distance away, but both chicks had ants all over them! At first I thought they were attacking them but they seemed totally fine with it. They must’ve been all over the adult as well 🐜

A female Long-tailed Nightjar incubating eggs on the gravelly ground among grasses. The nightjar is mottled brown and cream, and very well camouflaged against the soil.

Over the course of 2 weeks I watched mama nightjar return to the nest and incubate her eggs. On my very last day in Nigeria (an hour or so before I was due to get a lift back to Abuja!) I’d found the eggs had hatched and the chickies, even though they were blind, had wandered a short distance away

Two eggs of Long-tailed Nightjar, both sandy brown in colour and in a nest which is just sandy gravel with some grass nearby.

We came across the nest (like most nightjars just a shallow scrape in the soil) while setting up mist nets to catch and tag African Thrush. To prevent us inadvertently stepping on the well-camouflaged eggs, we put a marker branch nearby and moved elsewhere to catch thrushes

Two downy chicks of Long-tailed Nightjar, one slightly larger than the other and both with eyes closed. They’re sandy and buff coloured, with some areas of bare purplish skin. Both chicks are on sandy soil.

A couple of years ago in Nigeria, I came across a Long-tailed Nightjar nest, and monitored it through to fledging. Surprisingly, this was the first time the chicks of this widespread but cryptic species had been documented, and with my amazing colleagues at APLORI in Jos it’s now published! 🧵

Star Trek The Next Generation scene. We're in personal quarters, the lights are low. The carpet is a smokey red. A table sits close, lit with multiple candles burning. A glass & bottle set sits close by filled with a green liquid. Just behind the table, sitting on the floor facing us, is Barclay. His eyes are closed and he looks meditative. He's wearing what looks like a bathrobe, and we have an aggressive deep V-neck situation happening. Closed caption reads, "Computer, more birds."

Here’s Juniper Titmouse (aka The Velvet Breezeblock) with Bramblejam, her spiky wee adopted sister

SWIFTS!

Chiffchaff perched on a branch. Image by Sarah Kelman/BTO.

BTO is for everyone. 🐦 We welcome all people and celebrate diversity. Together we can succeed in our goal: achieving the biggest impact for birds. 🦅

For more information about our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy go to ➡️ www.bto.org/edi Thank you.