Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶
Singing evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, insulaphile. PhD. Senior Curator of #Birds @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social, Scientific Assoc @nhm-london.bsky.social, ME+AE Ornis Svecica, ~Sequencer+RAGer AviList. [Views obvs my own; ex-X-@nesospiza]
- Reposted by Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶Translocation of Raso Larks to the island of Santa Luzia in 2018 after eradication of invasive cats has been spectacularly successful, with nearly 1000 individuals now. Great work by @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social partner Biosfera, and long-championed by Mike Brooke www.birdguides.com/news/raso-la...
- It's 5y since my greatest scientific breakthrough was published w the great @dhaelewa.bsky.social in OFOAJ! It truly marks a paradigm shift! 🤣 Need a break from the world? Read about fishy #birds + fungi + pizza at doi.org/10.19080/OFO... — and background at tinyurl.com/4ayknbty! 🪶🧪🐦🐟🍄🟫 #Scam
- #Thanksgiving 🦃 with our amazing volunteers in the bird collections of National Museums Scotland 🏴! 😉 Do you live nearby and would like to join? We're capturing data from all our #birds. Well, now's your chance! Don't wait... careers.nms.ac.uk/job/800113 #museum #ornithology 🪶
- Reposted by Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today. Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology
- I've been silent a while, as I've struggled to keep up with *most* things, due to accumulated stress from hubby's 5-month unemployment, teenager+school+drama, challenging relatives & whatnot. #Birding gives me relief when #MentalHealth is so-so: recent Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini) = golden band-aid!
- A good 6 hours and 6 minutes left to apply! Don't be shy.
- Join us as Assistant #Curator of Vertebrates @ 🏴NMS! Large collections of #birds & #mammals + very active specimen prep = cool place! The ad doesn't say, but I say there's a good chance of prolongation beyond 1y. Hurry up and apply/spread the word: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/748553! 🪶🧪 #museumjobs #job
- Reposted by Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶The most chilling science video ever shot www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...
- Great news, the new application deadline is 31 August. 9 more days for you all to spread the word or/and submit your application for our position as Assistant Curator of Vertebrates! Again, in reality this should be a longer-term position despite what the ad says. Happy to chat/answer questions!
- Join us as Assistant #Curator of Vertebrates @ 🏴NMS! Large collections of #birds & #mammals + very active specimen prep = cool place! The ad doesn't say, but I say there's a good chance of prolongation beyond 1y. Hurry up and apply/spread the word: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/748553! 🪶🧪 #museumjobs #job
- #EOU2025 #ornithology folks and friends liking #birds and #mammals, this is the position I just highlighted. Join us! Cool collection and very active continuous preparation of new specimens. Deadline soon... Happy to chat with anyone curious today!
- Join us as Assistant #Curator of Vertebrates @ 🏴NMS! Large collections of #birds & #mammals + very active specimen prep = cool place! The ad doesn't say, but I say there's a good chance of prolongation beyond 1y. Hurry up and apply/spread the word: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/748553! 🪶🧪 #museumjobs #job
- I am very pleased to note confirm that the application deadline has now been extended to 31 August. We look forward to your applications!
- Join us as Assistant #Curator of Vertebrates @ 🏴NMS! Large collections of #birds & #mammals + very active specimen prep = cool place! The ad doesn't say, but I say there's a good chance of prolongation beyond 1y. Hurry up and apply/spread the word: careers.nms.ac.uk/job/748553! 🪶🧪 #museumjobs #job
- Reposted by Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶Either you recognize a state or you don't. If you do, that sovereignty shouldn't be any less, depending on a third party. This is like telling someone you're their friend unless their neighbor stops parking in their driveway. Where's the integrity? Where's the spine? #KeirStarmer #palestine #israel
- Reposted by Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.
- Reposted by Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶1. Here's a fish swimming upstream. Nothing unusual about that. What's unusual is that this particular fish is *dead*. Vortices in the water as it flows past the fish cause the fish's body to flex, maintaining orientation and actually propelling it forward. (D. N. Beal et al 2006 J. Fluid. Mech.)
- Welcome a new family of #birds, the Caribbean cave rails, Nesotrochidae! They were—surprisingly—the sisters of NZ adzebills, all sadly extinct. New #OpenAccess paper out in Avian #Systematics w Gerald Mayr, Chen Guangji & Feng Shaohong: www.avespress.com/uploads/down... 🧵 #ornithology #taxonomy 🧪🪶
- So what's new and what was known? In 2021, Jessica Oswald & colleagues managed to extract ancient DNA from a Haitian Cave Rail (Nesotrochis steganinos) and, analysing #mitochondrial DNA, found they were not #rails(!) but more closely related to flufftails and adzebills: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
- This was a super cool study, but the exact placement of cave rails was unresolved: they could be basal to flufftails & adzebills, sister to flufftails (best supported) or to adzebills—yielding wildly different classification options. Expanding Sarothruridae (flufftails) or Aptornithidae (adzebills)?
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View full threadFinally, I must shout out to the journal Avian Systematics and EiC Trevor Worthy + wizard Steven Gregory. I've learned tons about nomenclature in the revisions and edits and the process has been fast and good. No fees + Open Access, the journal just moved to www.avespress.com/avian-system....
- Reposted by Martin Stervander 🏳️🌈🇸🇪🏴🏛️🦉🦤🪶NEW JOB in #ornithology and #conservation managing two major restoration projects for #islands important for #seabirds: buff.ly/yfl1Vo2
- 🐦 It's been a while (in several aspects), so I'm extra excited to start the day with a #paper accept. Can't wait for this to hit the press, clarifying relationships among a bunch of cool #birds and introducing a new #avian family! Which one? You'll soon see... 😉 #taxonomy #systematics 🪶🧪
- Aspects, respects, my brain is mush. Also, might have been smart to tag this with #ornithology... Oh well!
- My main contribution to this monumentous project has been to shake up the linear sequence of the checklist to better reflect our current understanding of the avian evolutionary tree! Ostrich first—Saltator last no more... We go from Somali Ostrich to Blue-necked Tanager!
- 🦅 The new unified global #avian #taxonomy #AviList has just been released at www.avilist.org! Xmas for anyone interested in #birds & checklists... The first version will be followed by annual updates, with decisions and processes aimed to be more transparent than its predecessors'. 🪶🧪 🧵
- The principles applied are outlined on the Components page: www.avilist.org/checklist/co.... I'm expecting to annoy a fair number of peeps who would have liked things not to change. 😆
- 🦅 The new unified global #avian #taxonomy #AviList has just been released at www.avilist.org! Xmas for anyone interested in #birds & checklists... The first version will be followed by annual updates, with decisions and processes aimed to be more transparent than its predecessors'. 🪶🧪 🧵
- The checklist is downloadable from doi.org/10.2173/avil... and comprises *lots* of info, incl e.g. author, year of description, and publication source. Decision summary statements are included for all 1000+ cases where taxonomy differed between IOC, eBird/Clements & @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social.
- The process up to release has been a bit of a black box to the world, but take note of clearly stated ambitions of participation and transparency. Anyone can submit a taxonomic proposal (www.avilist.org/about/propos...), and any change is published with a decision summary.
- There's a tab explaining how to use the checklist (different fields etc.), but importantly, there is a also a page outlining various important components of the checklist: www.avilist.org/checklist/co....
