Centre for Research on Ecology, Cognition and Behaviour of Birds
Centre for Research on Ecology, Cognition and Behaviour of Birds 🐣
Ghent University, Belgium
Posts by @fredverb.bsky.social & @katywillcox.bsky.social
- MAJOR NEWS! We just launched an awesome new tool! The illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer lets users trace any bird’s lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button. SHARE and EXPLORE! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/news/phy...
- New paper out! Early-life social instability increases aggression in chickens, but does not affect response inhibition 🐤 We discuss what this means for developmental links between social environments, cognition, and social behaviour, highlighting strong context dependence Full text: rdcu.be/eYOzC
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- Please repost: 🚨Field assistant position 🐧 We offer a 14-months field assistant position through the French Polar Institute to work on king penguin ecophysiology and behavioral ecology. Requirements: EU citizen < 30yo having experience with harsh fieldwork & wild bird/mammal handling/sampling.
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- 🐦 EcoBird is hiring a Postdoc in animal cognition! Join us + @themanybirds.bsky.social to investigate innovation & problem-solving in birds. 📅 Start: as early as Jan 2026 🌍 Funded through UGent’s international mobility scheme More info & how to apply ↓ www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...
- You’ll also play a key role in our new EcoBird project on cognition, innovation, and invasiveness, with colleagues from @inbo.be, making this a fantastic opportunity for anyone excited about connecting cognitive research with real-world ecological and conservation challenges.
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- Waiting at Sofia Airport for my flight back to Brussels after an amazing trip to Bulgaria 🇧🇬. The visit was part of our new vulture conservation project with KMDA/ZOO Planckendael, and also connected to the documentary by Lode Desmet (and produced by ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS) on our ECoBird research.
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- Wonderful to see this project published! We were glad to contribute a small part to this impressive collaborative effort through ECoBird.
- 🐦 Exciting news! Our new paper is out in PLOS Biology: “A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia.” Led by the #ManyBirds Project - 129 researchers, 82 institutions, 24 countries 🌍 🔗 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... @themanybirds.bsky.social
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- Congratulations @alixkristiansen.bsky.social on your first paper from your PhD - it's out! @ecobird.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
- 🚨 Calling researchers, students, technicians in cognition 🚨 We’re running a 10-min anonymous survey on how animal cognition is defined and studied across disciplines (from ecology, ethology, psychology, neurology, etc). 🧠✨ Scan the QR code & share widely #AnimalCognition #ResearchSurvey #Science
- 🚨 Calling researchers, students, technicians in cognition 🚨 We’re running a 10-min anonymous survey on how animal cognition is defined and studied across disciplines (from ecology, ethology, psychology, neurology, etc). 🧠✨ Scan the QR code & share widely #AnimalCognition #ResearchSurvey #Science
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- New paper out! To Peck or Not To Peck: The influence of early-life social environment on response inhibition and impulsive aggression in Japanese quails royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
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- The survival of the smartest? Assessing how cognition shapes fitness in animals. A really fun collaboration to be part of—thread below! 👇
- Proud to share our newest gecko paper published @ecol-evol.bsky.social! We raised geckos either with or without their parents and found some effects on the development of behaviour and cognition! Read the rest here: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
- New paper led by @anneleendewulf.bsky.social out now! 👇🎊
- 🚨New paper out!🚨 We tested whether birds show better response inhibition when the stop signal matches their ecological niche. 🐤 No clear effect, but plenty of learning (on both sides of the test box). More + behind-the-scenes: bit.ly/45ZYHtq Read the registered report: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
- Nice to see more media attention for this paper 📰🥳 www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/ar...
- 🚨New Paper Out!🚨 We found that juvenile herring gulls in groups were less neophobic (quicker to eat & spent more time near novel objects) than individuals tested alone🤝 🎉 Read the preregistered report, led by Sophia Knoch & Reinoud Allaert, here: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
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- This work has also made it to the news 📰 📢 www.independent.co.uk/news/science... 📢 www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...
- 🚨New Paper Out!🚨 We found that juvenile herring gulls in groups were less neophobic (quicker to eat & spent more time near novel objects) than individuals tested alone🤝 🎉 Read the preregistered report, led by Sophia Knoch & Reinoud Allaert, here: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
- 🚨New Paper Out!🚨 We found that juvenile herring gulls in groups were less neophobic (quicker to eat & spent more time near novel objects) than individuals tested alone🤝 🎉 Read the preregistered report, led by Sophia Knoch & Reinoud Allaert, here: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
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- Data from detection reaction systems on turbines provide a unique opportunity to study bird behavior in wind energy facilities. To learn more, check out our recent work in @jappliedecology.bsky.social 👇
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- Big news: the quails for our new pilot study have hatched! 🐣At just two days old, they’re already mastering the art of social bonding—because nothing brings young tiny quails together like the cozy warmth of an electric hen.
- @tcansse.bsky.social wrote a blog post for Seabird Tracking, discussing his latest research on Black-faced Cormorants: www.seabirdtracking.org/foraging-eff... #seabirds #ornithology
- ⭐New paper out on great tits' social behaviour⭐ We manipulated food access & stability of social interactions at feeders (small-scale) to investigate their effects on individual-level social network position & dyadic assoc. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... (birds handled with required permits)
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- New preprint from the lab: To Peck or Not To Peck: The influence of early-life social environment on response inhibition and impulsive aggression in Japanese quails. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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- Another great year at the NVG Annual Meeting! MSc student Tine Uytterschaut presented her work on released rehabilitated gulls 👏 Frederick presented the 📢recent pre-print📢(osf.io/hzxus) led by Sophia Knoch & Reinoud Allaert on neophobia across social contexts in juvenile gulls 🐤
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