Decline in body mass in adult (left) and nestling great tits. In the nestling plot, the purple line represents all nestling and the green line those that recruited to the population as breeders. Their different slope suggest an increase in the strength of selection on nestling mass something confirmed in the MS by analysing the temporal trends in selection differentials (see link for further information)
We have published a new pre-print showing a decline in great tit adult and nestling mass of around 1 gram in 47 y. [rate of approx. -0.040 Hadanes] With @ellafcole.bsky.social, @devisatarkar.bsky.social, Sam. Crofts, @mcmahok.bsky.social & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
15.02.2026 17:07
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🚨🚨🚨 Field Assistant positions - four of them!! - working with the long-term Wytham project this coming spring. Details below. Previous year's field team - come and join us! Details below ⬇️
16.01.2026 15:07
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Very excited to be giving a talk at #BES2025 where I’ll be presenting my Masters research that I carried out @biology.ox.ac.uk supervised by @sheldonbirds.bsky.social and @rona-learmonth.bsky.social 🐛🌡️
15.12.2025 22:24
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Project | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership
The project advertisement
Second PhD alert:
Advertising a second PhD alongside Amanda Lenzi (lead) and Finn Lindgren on: 'Forecasting nature’s calendar: Joint probabilistic models of phenology in space and time'. Also competition funded through the E5 DTP at Uni of Edinburgh.
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...
22.10.2025 13:05
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alt="Schematic of a graph of a population trajectory for blue tits that is known for half of the x-axis (time) and then forecasted with uncertainty. Above the population trajectory are some weather images (a sun and some rain) they have connections to the population size but the path is unknown. "
PhD advert alert!
Come work with me at Edinburgh.
I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both.
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...
22.10.2025 12:57
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Examples of some recent papers from graduate students in my group - a full list of recent papers and preprints can be found here (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=pTdxVdIAAAAJ) and profile of the group here: https://egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/members
The annual Wytham Field Team Photo!
Celebrating a successful field season with great food & good company - May 2025
Front view of the Life & Mind Building, which opened in Oct 2025: The new home of Biology at Oxford
Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
20.10.2025 19:43
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a 14 day old great tit nestling, ringed for individual identification
Figure from the paper showing that extreme climatic events interact with ambient climatic conditions and breeding timing within a season, in a developmental stage-specific manner, to influence nestling growth in great tits
New preprint! 🪶
We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️
With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
14.10.2025 14:35
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My first time attending this conference, but certainly not the last! Left me feeling super excited to started my PhD in October after hearing so many incredible talks in the field🪺
12.09.2025 23:58
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🔭🐑 Our summer field team have been busy beavering away and have completed their 10 censuses of the village bay population (picured). Over ten days a team of three will go out and count all the sheep in this area, tagged and untagged, so we know who is where and who they are grouping with.
06.08.2025 08:30
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Feel incredibly lucky to have been a tiny cog in this amazing team for a second year now. I don’t think i’ll ever get tired of seeing spring unfold right before my eyes! Excited to do it all again next year when I’ll be a bit further north… @phenoweb.bsky.social 🪺
29.05.2025 21:48
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Meanwhile my 'baby' nest round required cycling a mere 210km with only 1050m of elevation gain... I can't compete, its no wonder you're the strava local legend!
26.05.2025 19:04
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A single Blue Tit egg in a complete nest inside a woodcrete nestbox in Wytham Woods, 3 April 2025
Early developing Oak in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, April 2025
Newly emerged Oak leaves, Wytham Woods, near Oxford, 3 April 2025
Figures showing the change in the date of the first egg in the Great Tit and Blue Tit populations at Wytham Woods, near Oxford 1960-2025, and the relationship between average March daily maximum temperature and date of the first egg in the population for each species. In each figure the line fitted is for the data for the 65 years from 1960-2024, with the value for 2025 shown as a green (Great Tit) or blue (Blue Tit) star. The two right hand panels compare the change over time and the response to March temperature in the two species; Great Tits show a slightly steeper response to temperature than Blue Tits, and are advancing the population first egg date slightly more quickly.
The first eggs have been laid in this, the 79th year of data collection in the Wytham Tit Project! First Blue Tit egg laid 2 April, first Great Tit 3 April. Looks like an early spring, with first oak leaves out, though the observed first egg dates fit the long-term pattern well
wythamtits.com#intro
03.04.2025 21:11
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