Michal Šulc

A map shows the locations of BTO satellite tagged Cuckoos in Africa. The headshots of four Cuckoos appear in circular frames around the map, alongside the wording: First Cuckoo Update for 2026.

1/ And they’re off! 📢 Our BTO satellite-tagged Cuckoos are on the move! 🌍

Follow their migrations via our interactive map ➡️ www.bto.org/cuckoos #Ornithology 🪶

PhD position: Evolutionary Physiology of Avian Energetics We are seeking a motivated PhD candidate to investigate the ecological and evolutionary significance of major energy metabolites (glucose and fatty acids) circulating in avian blood.

PhD position: Evolutionary Physiology of Avian Energetics
Review of the applications begins on March 16, 2026, and continues until the position is filled.
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/413707

Check out the new bowerbird special issue in Emu - Austral Ornithology!

Lots of interesting new #bowerbird research, featuring a fancy flame bowerbird on the cover!

Check out our review on the origins and functions of bower construction behaviour here: doi.org/10.1080/0158...

Simply incredible work. Among other findings- about half of all migration stopover hot spots are in urban areas! 🤯

Study in English at the Faculty of Science, @charlesuni.cuni.cz – submit your application by the end of February!

Bachelor’s degree programme "Science": 1url.cz/verD4

Follow-up Master’s degree programmes: 1url.cz/3erDd

Our BehaveAI paper has just come out!

Easy & effective tracking & behavioural classification, even with tiny (2px), fast moving, camouflaged objects.

Paper: doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Download: github.com/troscianko/B...

@uniexecec.bsky.social @kevinjgaston.bsky.social @jimamclgalloway.bsky.social

Our latest article on extra-pair paternity of blue tits & great tits nesting in tree holes in Poland’s #Białowieża Forest, published #OpenAccess. 1/2

tinyurl.com/3tsbfnjd

#ornithology
@mszulkin.bsky.social @funecology.bsky.social @mizpas.bsky.social

We actually tried our best and modelled visual system of birds when preparing mimetic model eggs and calculating how the artificial eggs differed from real barn swallow eggs.

NEW in Journal of Vertebrate Biology:
We video recorded 284 common cuckoo parasitism events and showed that cuckoo females do not use their "bubbling" call as a counter-defence strategy in two warbler hosts in Europe and Asia doi.org/10.25225/jvb...
@czechacademy.bsky.social @ivb-cas.bsky.social

Swallows learn: breeding experience improves nest care — Ústav biologie obratlovců 21st January 2026, Brno Swallows can remove foreign eggs from their nests even without a “template” of what their own eggs should look like. A new study by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate...

Swallows can remove foreign eggs from their nests even without an innate “template” of their own eggs. A new study by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Biology, published in Biology Letters, sheds new light on nest hygiene and defence against brood parasitism. www.ivb.cz/en/news/swal...

Recent breeding experience improves egg ejection behaviour Abstract. Recognizing one’s own eggs is crucial for birds, especially for hosts of brood parasites that must identify and reject different-looking parasiti

Hot off the press 🐣 Do birds have any idea of what their eggs look like? Contrary to our expectations, we show that barn swallows don't, nor do they learn it over time. Yet that doesn't stop them from successfully ejecting foreign eggs!
🔗 Read more here: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... #OpenAccess

Bioacoustics as a tool for the detection and monitoring of a scarce woodland bird – the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Excellent @britishbirds.bsky.social paper from @lesserspotnet.bsky.social et al. using passive acoustic monitoring.

LS detected at >60% of sites in southern England, most of which had no recent records. Drums/calls very few over thousands of hours. Birders' chances of an encounter clearly very low!

Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...

Cool paper suggesting that naturally higher body T˚ in birds leads to flu viruses originating in birds being pre-adapted to resist mammalian fever as a defence mechanism...

Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Duration of nest-building in passerine birds: the roles of latitude, nest size, and nest type Why do birds build nests at different speeds? Nest building is crucial for reproductive success, but the drivers of its varying duration across species wer

academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...

10 attractions in Brno - the Czech Republic's second largest city In the south-east of the Czech Republic lies the country's second largest city, Brno. Here you will find a youthful and exuberant university town, full of innovative ideas that at the same time preser...

Brno will bring you more than great science! Get ready for rich history, beautiful architecture, vibrant streets and amazing gastronomy! Explore a first glimpse of Brno here, for example: www.rucksack.se/en/sevardhet...

We are happy to announce that the next EOU Conference will be in Brno, Czech Republic in 2027! Check our website eounion.org and follow us on social media for regular updates! #ornithology #EOU2027

When nocturnally migrating birds encounter low-level light pollution patches: a case study from the Croatian coast | www.sciencedirect.co... | Biological Conservation | #ornithology 🪶

The structure of the annual migratory flight activity in a songbird | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Migratory songbirds have an internal circannual genetic programme that controls the timing and extent of migratory flight activity, as demonstrated by experiments with birds held in cages. We used mul...

A new tracking study reveals migration is more rigid than the long held view that it is a flexible process. In Red-backed Shrikes at least.

#OpenAccess paper in @royalsocietypublishing.org Proc B

#ornithology 🪶 #OA

Wild jackdaws recognise the contact calls of their mate - Animal Cognition Animal Cognition - In stable social environments, the ability to recognise other group members and integrate individual cues with previous experience is likely to be beneficial in mediating social...

New paper, led by our former PhD student Victoria Lee. Wild jackdaws recognise the contact calls of their mate: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
@uniexecec.bsky.social @guillmcivor.bsky.social

Brings back happy memories of ISBE 2024 where the conversation about this paper began.. great to see it out in @natecoevo.nature.com. Thanks to co-authors and to the organisers of that brilliant conference 🙏🏽. @bbmwong.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social, Suzanne Alonzo🫶, Sasha Dall, “Dr Cunningham”

Many thanks to all authors, namely to @scienceanna.bsky.social, @lisandrinamari.bsky.social, @jtroscianko.bsky.social, V. Jelínek and T. Albrecht, to all participants that played the egg game, to our research institute @ivb-cas.bsky.social of @czechacademy.bsky.social. And of course, to all BIRDS!

🧵5/5
AI model outperformed participants, including experienced ornithologists! We suggest using our model ideally with information about egg-laying sequence to identify eggs laid by CBP. The complete pipeline is freely available in the suppl. material.

📸 Barn swallow © Vladimír Pokorný

🧵4/5
We used photographs of non-parasitized barn swallow clutches and shuffled eggs to create thousands of parasitized clutches. Then we tested the accuracy of human participants at identification of parasitic eggs and compared it with results of our AI model.

📸 Which one is the parasitic egg?

🧵3/5
CBP is still quite a mystery, partially because it is hard to reveal it. Eggs laid by parasitic and host females look often very similar and therefore genetic markers has been recommended to reveal this reproductive strategy.

📸 Barn swallow eggs with numbers showing the egg-laying sequence

🧵2/5
Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP), where females lay eggs in nests of other females of the same species, is in birds relatively common. It has been observed especially in waterfowl (pochards, goldeneyes, coots) but also in songbirds (swallows, sparrows, starlings).

📸 Common goldeneye female

🧵1/5 Excited about our new paper in PRSB! @royalsocietypublishing.org

Can AI make research on avian brood parasitism easier? YES!
We show that AI model can identify conspecific parasitic eggs better than an average ornithologist.
doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

📸 Barn swallow – our study species.

Genomic architecture of egg mimicry and its consequences for speciation in parasitic cuckoos Host-parasite arms races facilitate rapid evolution and can fuel speciation. Cuculus cuckoos are deceptive egg mimics that exhibit a broad diversity of counterfeit egg phenotypes, representing host-ad...

Our new @science.org paper is out! Cuckoos and hosts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race over egg mimicry.

But how are these egg types inherited, and could this drive speciation? We sequenced hundreds of genomes to find out!

doi.org/10.1126/scie...

🧵1/6

Where exactly did you see it? They should be on the way to wintering grounds in Sub-Saharan Africa.

We should not only avoid predatory journals but it's:
Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly eco-evo journals ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

database
dafnee.isem-evolution.fr

Proud that our institute @ivb-cas.bsky.social publishes 💎open-access J. of Vertebrate Biology

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉