I'm in Tallinn!


To find out what I'm up to, please have a look at....
The EU contest website homepage
The project website
The project abstract in nine different languages!

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What's a bird's favourite colour?

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A shortened version of the project write-up can be read here! Abstract This was a field-based experiment to attempt to answer a question: Do birds have a favourite colour? Four coloured feeders (dark blue, green, yellow and red) and a clear control were used. The number of visits and the mass change in the feeders were recorded so preferences could be gauged. The results show a clear trend for blue being the preferred colour; red and yellow were unpopular. We suggest that this is because high energy colours (blue and UV) are used by birds in short distance communication and that the blue feeder may have been the most detectable for the birds. We also suggest that red and yellow were unpopular because they are employed for aposematic colouration (toxins) in insects. Applications of this research could include influencing the design of turbines or aeroplanes, to deter birds.  Over 3000 feeder visits later... Mean average percentage of visits to each feeder. Error bars
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Pecking Order – the hierarchy at the feeders

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Bird feeders act as central congregation points for local birds, but when they start panic buying, which species is top of the pecking order? A study carried out by the University of Exeter and the BTO suggests that heavier birds are more dominant at bird feeders, allowing species such as House Sparrows to gain superior access to higher “value” food that is either high in energy or efficient to consume (e.g sunflower hearts require less energy to eat than a sunflower seed with the husk still on). Goldfinches tucking into sunflower hearts - a high "value" food This idea of dominance was calculated by recording which of two feeders a bird visited (either a “low value” sunflower seed with husk feeder or a “high value” sunflower heart feeder), the length of time a bird spent on the feeder, how many pecks a bird made whilst at the feeder and the outcome of any interactions between birds of different species (i.e. would a House Sparrow displace a Blue Tit from a f
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Bird Migration – Navigation

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Coming into spring, with the first few Swifts arriving in the UK in the last week, this seems like an opportune moment to discuss how birds navigate in order to migrate. Whilst the feat of a tiny Willow Warbler travelling 12,000 km (in the case of  Phylloscopus trochilus yakutensis ) is humbling and physiologically incredible in its own right, migration becomes even more fascinating when you consider how the birds navigate, without the luxury of GPS, Google Maps and all the other tools humans need to find their way around. It is thought that some birds use the Sun to navigate whilst there is also evidence that points to Homing Pigeons using olfactory cues to navigate, building up a local “map” based on odours at each location. However, we can’t explain navigation without considering the cognitive abilities of birds and their ability to build mental maps. Perhaps the most remarkable way this is done is using the Earth’s magnetic field. Juvenile birds of some species on their first m
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