Institute of Avian Research 'Vogelwarte Helgoland'

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

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

female blackcap with its characteristic brown cap

happy international women's day

(c) of the beautiful female blackcap @co-la.bsky.social

Early morning start 😴 but on my way to the joint ringers conference between Radolfzell and Helgoland to present some results about bird-tick interactions won through standardized monitoring of breeding birds ☺️

📢 Hiring: Tenure Track Professor of Flyway Ecology & Scientific Director of BirdEyes, the Centre for Global Ecological Change

Apply before 31 Mar 👇
werkenbij.rug.nl/vacature/ten...

#Hiring #Vacancy #ScienceJobs #SciComm

Oral Presentation and Poster submission is now open!

Our upcoming annual meeting will take place from 16–20 September at the University of Mainz. The main topics are #LifeHistory, #BehaviouralEcology, #MovementEcology, and environmental endocrinology.

www.do-g.de/veranstalten...

This week's EGI seminar will be given by Prof Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz @unimainz.bsky.social on the role of time in avian trade-offs. All welcome in person in LT1 in LaMB @biology.ox.ac.uk 3.30pm on 6 March. Also live-streamed: details available ⬇️

a chaffinch staring at the photographer

New paper led by @alperyelimlies.bsky.social with @caglaonsal.bsky.social where we examine the repeatability of aggression in urban and rural chaffinches. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I’m so over-the-moon happy to share that our lovely @mjgarciabianco.bsky.social, so far with us as a fellow funded by @sfb1372.bsky.social, will be able to continue her work in the common tern team as a PhD student, co-funded by ANID and the @daadworldwide.bsky.social.

DOG Online Symposium: Parrots on Facades and Seagulls on Roofs
Join us on March 6th (15:00-18:00) for our inaugural online symposium. Dive into the world of urban nesting birds. Don’t miss this chance to enhance your understanding of these unique species!

A comparison of methods to assess selective disappearance and quantify ageing
doi.org/10.32942/X2Q...

⌛Last change to register for #EOU26!

Don't miss the opportunity to join us in Gdańsk and meet our inspiring plenary speakers and round table participants!

🔗Register now: eou-fledglings.github.io/2026/registr...

@biologists.bsky.social #Ornithology

DOG Annual Meeting in Mainz 2026

Join us from 16–20 September at the University of Mainz for a deep dive into life history, behavioural ecology, movement ecology and environmental endocrinology. Excursions, a public evening lecture and a GNOR symposium await.
www.do-g.de/veranstalten...

Enjoyed reading this Perspective from Tautz and colleagues which calls for a re-engagement on the part of classical genetics with the realities of complex phenotypes as revealed by quantitative genetics
academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

four panel figure with a bee on a forget-me-not flower upper left, ants finding their way upper right, migratory bird on the lower right and the logo of the special intestest group on animal navigation of the royal institute of navigation on the lower left. in the middle it is written "royal institute of navigation (RIN) - animal navigation group with the RIN logo"

12th RIN Conference on Animal Navigation - one of my favourites 🧭🦉🐟🦇🐝🐜 - this time we tried a new format, inviting topical sessions to make sure we represent the wonderfully broad range of research in #animal #orientation and #navigation and are super excited about the lineup s.gwdg.de/EBROf7

Beyond Mendel: a new genetics agenda
Most traits aren’t “one gene–one trait”. A Genetics perspective calls for new experimental paradigms to capture polygenic effects in real environmental context—backed by large-scale automated phenotyping and new infrastructure.
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3866699/news...

Left: Adult and nestling White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus; adult on top, chick below). Right: Microscopy images showing microplastics from nestling faecal samples. Birds were handled under license.

🔈New study!

Microplastics found in 62% of White-throated Dipper broods in Scotland & Basque Country. No body condition effects detected.

Led by @cmartin3.bsky.social

@sbohvm.gla.ac.uk
@aranzadiornito.bsky.social

🔗
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#Ornithology🐦 #Microplastics #Freshwater💧

wonderful female scientists I have the pleasure to work with

girl power for the win! amazing, appreciative, brave, clever, curious, creative, funky, funny, inspirational, persistent, supportive, stubborn (if needed), wonderful, visionary – and simply the best #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience #WomenInScience thank you!

Prof. Dr. Miriam Liedvogel
Explores bird migration by linking behaviour and genetics to uncover how migration is controlled at the molecular level. @genmig.bsky.social

This #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the amazing women and girls I currently have the pleasure of sharing my #ternscience journey with. Onwards and upwards we go! ❤️

Happy 40th birthday, Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park! May your biodiversity be safeguarded, and your birds thrive.

Common Tern Museum at the Bantersee

Common Tern Museum at the Bantersee

View of the ice-bound Waddensee

Profs Miriam Liedvogel & Prof Sandra Bouwhuis - brilliant leaders of the Institute of Avian Research (with some old German ornithological leaders in the background)

A richly rewarding two days reviewing @ifv-whv.bsky.social: thriving under the brilliant leadership of Sandra Bouwhuis & Miriam Liedvogel. An exciting programme of research into avian migration & life histories with many future stars. Outstanding @commonternproject.bsky.social museum by frozen sea!

Differences in (A) blood telomere length and (B) mitochondrial copy number between migrant and resident blackbirds Turdus merula sampled on Helgoland Island during autumn migration

🧬 Excited to present some of our recent research on 🐦‍⬛:
(1/3) Contrary to expectations, migratory Eurasian blackbirds had longer telomeres than residents at a major stopover (Helgoland), despite similar mitochondrial DNA copy numbers

🔗 #OpenAccess
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

We're so happy to finally anounce that registration for #EOU26 is now OPEN!

Thank you all for your patience — we can’t wait to meet you in Gdańsk 🐦

👉 Registration & info: eou-fledglings.github.io/2026/registr...

#Ornithology

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. :-)

Experimental Evidence That Prenatal and Postnatal Developmental Stress Affects the Adult Seminal Fluid Proteome in a Precocial Bird Seminal fluid proteins are important modulators of male fertility and reproductive success, yet little is known about how their abundance responds to early-life developmental stress. Japanese quail C...

How does pre- and post-natal environmental stress affect the seminal foam proteome of Japanese quail? Find out here, Chloe Mason’s second PhD thesis paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @martingarlovsky.bsky.social @oscarvedder.bsky.social

Out in @natcomms.nature.com, a collaborative paper showing that, across 73 species (including common terns), warmer years are associated with earlier phenology, and that populations in which such an association was observed have often been stable or increasing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Last call for abstracts! 🚨
Only 7 days left to submit your abstract for the EOU Fledglings Meeting 2026 🐣
🗓 Deadline: 16 January 2026
🎤 Oral & poster presentations welcome
🌍 Conference for early-career ornithologists
👉https://eounion.org/fledglings

Don’t miss out — we’d love to see your work! ✨🦉