Matteo Beccardi

New Frontiers in Avian Physiology: What’s Migration got to do with it?: Journal of Avian Biology Click on the title to browse this issue

🔈Really happy to see this one ⬇️ out! 🎉

Great to see this compilation of studies finally published. Thanks to all the authors, reviewers and the team @avianbiology.bsky.social who made this possible!

Editorial: nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#Ornithology #Physiology #Migration

Special issue flyer. Photo shows bar-tailed godwits (image: iStock)

Editorial team behind the special issue: Tiia Kärkkäinen, Pablo Salmón and Barbara Helm

Figure from the editorial: Features and topics of the studies included in the Special Issue. (A) Global distribution of studies with Flyway System boundaries and names defined according to BirdLife International. The circle size represents the number of studies per country. (B) Taxonomic composition of studies grouped into broad species categories. (C) Distribution of studies across physiological domains addressed in this issue. Each category represents a primary focus, although several studies span multiple topics.

✨ Editorial: a summary and synopsis of the studies included in the special issue on migration physiology written by the editorial team @pablosalmon.bsky.social @barbarahelm.bsky.social #TiiaKärkkäinen

➡️ vist.ly/4ucex

#ornithology #birds #migration #physiology

Thanks for featuring our work! Across 6 Italian cities (220 point counts; breeding + winter), we find that established parakeets tend to expand the functional trait space of urban bird communities, consistent with filling underused niche space.

Proud to present: Suitcase Science, a new outreach format containing 6 assignments to take on a journey to schools in the region, to teach kids about terns, how to study them, their fascinating behaviour and some of the things that threaten them. Wanna book us? Drop me a line. :-)

Extra food buffers thermoregulatory costs during early development but does not reduce heatwave-induced mortality in nestlings of a cavity-nesting raptor Global climate change is increasing both average temperatures and the occurrence of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves. These changes pose majo…

⚠️Paper out ⚠️
Here, we tested if extra feeding lesser kestrel nestlings during development (and under a heatwave) can help them deal with extreme heat. Spoiler: they really struggle. Extra food helps them grow when it’s just hot, but not under a heatwave. See 👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If you're at #BES2025 and interested in owls and how noise & light pollution affect their foraging behaviour, come to check out my owl poster 🦉💡🚗

#owls #ecology #ornithology #RaptorResearch

Valentina Alaasam | What is the “hidden cost” of abandonment to rock sparrow offspring? In this ‘Behind the Paper’ blog post, we’re getting real about parenthood! From their recently published paper: “Mate desertion affects offspring survival, development and p…

👀Behind the Paper!👀

🪺Author Valentina Alaasam discusses single parenting in the avian world, enjoying all the outdoors has to offer, and the importance of not fearing failure🐦

Read it here👇
buff.ly/EjX8SQO

🧪🌍

When one parent leaves: The consequences of mate desertion on offspring survival and physiology Valentina Alaasam, Alejandro Cantarero, Matteo Beccardi, Alejandro Corregidor-Castro, Manuel Fuertes-Recuero, Matteo Schiavinato, Lia Zampa, Alessandro Grapputo, Matteo Griggio, Jenny Q Ouyang, And…

📰Published📰When one parent leaves: The consequences of mate desertion on offspring survival and physiology🪺

buff.ly/dURNn4V

🧪🌍

Mate desertion affects offspring survival, development and physiology in a songbird with multiple parental strategies Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

New paper out in @funecology.bsky.social: Parental conflict over care is bad for offspring growth! 🐤🐣
Check out our article: Mate desertion affects offspring survival, development and physiology in a songbird with multiple parental strategies.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Mate desertion affects offspring survival, development and physiology in a songbird with multiple parental strategies Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Happy to share our latest publication out now in @funecology.bsky.social. 🥳
Here, we studied the effects of mate desertion on offspring survival, development and physiology in one of the most interesting bird species, the Rock sparrow!

Check out the paper for more info👇
doi.org/10.1111/1365...

🎤 We’re excited to introduce another plenary speaker for the 5th EOU Fledglings Meeting in Gdańsk (27–29 March 2026)!

🌿 Miriam Liedvogel (@genmig.bsky.social) will share her work on blackcap migration - a fascinating look into one of Europe’s most dynamic songbird species.

#EOU26 #Ornithology

A great seminar from @mmoiron.bsky.social walking us through how to disentangle the causes of similarity among partners & the estimation & implications of indirect effects in natural populations

This week's EGI seminar is being given by Dr Maria Moiron @mmoiron.bsky.social of the University of Bielefeld at 3.30pm on Friday 21 Nov in LT1 in the Life & Mind Building @biology.ox.ac.uk. See below for online joining details - all welcome!

Evaluation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and organochlorine pesticides in great tit eggs from areas with different anthropogenic pressures in Padova, Italy - Environmental Science and Polluti... This study investigates the contamination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in eggs of great tits (Parus major) from urban, agricultural, and woodland ...

Are you interested in PFAS and OCPs contamination in birds? In our latest publication, we studied the levels of these contaminants in Great tit eggs from areas with different anthropogenic pressures.

Read the paper here for more details👇
doi.org/10.1007/s113...

There’s one month left to apply for the PhD position on interactions between contaminants and parasites in common terns, co-supervised by @alicecarravieri.bsky.social, Bernd Sures from @unidue.bsky.social and myself. You can do so here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/380142

The date is set for the next EOU Fledglings Meeting 🐥 in Gdansk, Poland! Share the news with your peers! 🦆

Premio Matteo Griggio | Istituto Veneto Con i fondi messi a disposizione dai famigliari di Matteo Griggio e, attraverso una sottoscrizione promossa dalla Società Italiana di Etologia, da amici e colleghi, l'Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lette...

Premio Matteo Griggio per tesi di dottorato di ambito ornitologico.
www.istitutoveneto.it/premio-matte...
Scadenza: 20 febbraio 2026

Per concorrere al Premio, bisogna aver conseguito un dottorato presso un'università italiana tra il 1° gennaio 2023 e il 31 dicembre 2025.

Out @animalecology.bsky.social today - a paper with David Ewing in which we explore the #HPAI outbreak in the terns. We find bird-to-bird transmission to be the main driver of infection and estimate the probability of mortality to drop from 0.26 to 0.14 from 2022 to 2023: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

When we hypothesised female terns to have lower mercury levels than males due to egg laying, @matteobeccardi.bsky.social et al designed an elegant experiment to prove the effectiveness of this pathway. That proof just got published & the open access paper can be found here: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Out now in Environmental Pollution: 'Experimental evidence for maternal offloading of mercury pollution via reproduction'
By @matteobeccardi.bsky.social, @commonternproject.bsky.social, @pablosalmon.bsky.social, @icbm-uol.bsky.social & @oscarvedder.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2025.127121

A special thanks to all who contributed to this work!
@ifv-whv.bsky.social, @oscarvedder.bsky.social, @commonternproject.bsky.social, @pablosalmon.bsky.social, Justine Bertram and Peter J Schupp

I'm happy to share with you our new paper out now in Environmental Pollution!
Here, we experimentally studied the maternal offloading of mercury pollution via reproduction in an avian model species.

Read the paper here for more details👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

#Birds and #ClimateChange
⚠️ spoiler alert ⚠️

Check out my #EOU2025 #poster in advance about #AlpineSwifts and Extreme Temperatures...

Interested? Come chat at the poster session Wednesday afternoon!
link: osf.io/cfe46

@eounion.bsky.social #ornithology

So much cool avian vagrancy research presented and discussed at our #EOU2025 symposium today. Thanks to everyone who presented and attended @pauldufour80.bsky.social
@joewynnbirds.bsky.social
#Ornithology

#EOU2025 delegates birding at the beautiful South Stack nature reserve

#EOU2025 at the start with a plenary by Tim Birkhead!
Fascinating talk about long term studies of seabirds in Wales!

Out now in Environmental Research – Anna’s new paper in which she assesses the levels of 118 contaminants in unhatched eggs and dead chicks found in the last and endangered population of gull-billed terns in Central Europe, breeding at Neufelderkoog: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Ooooh, one of our beautiful terns made it to the cover of the issue of Ethology that contains Melina's study on individual behavioral responses to novel stimuli: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Are you interested in the effects of mercury contamination on seabirds?
Check out the latest @commonternproject.bsky.social paper pubblished in Environmental Research!👇

"Mercury levels in chicks of a long-lived seabird – parental effects and links with growth and survival".
doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

New publication by @commonternproject.bsky.social with @coralinebcht.bsky.social, @mmoiron.bsky.social, @matteobeccardi.bsky.social & @icbm-uol.bsky.social: 'Mercury levels in chicks of a long-lived seabird – parental effects and links with growth and survival'. doi.org/10.1016/j.en...