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Devi Satarkar

@devisatarkar.bsky.social
172 followers 89 following 30 posts

DPhil (PhD) student at the University of Oxford | studying the impact of climatic instability on wild birds 🌱🪺🪶

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Reposted by Devi Satarkar
Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Latest work from @devisatarkar.bsky.social DPhil thesis exploring the ecological effects that modulate the link between offspring and adult body mass in great tits. The correlation is really quite plastic! Fun collaboration with @lbliard.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @davididiaquez.bsky.social
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Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
jeez this is nice work on the foundational concept P = G + E
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Heavier great tit nestlings 🐥 usually end up as heavier adults 🐦. Is this always a strong correlation? Our new preprint shows that the strength of this 'silver-spoon' association shifts continuously with environmental context, and is stronger in harsh conditions! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
14-day old great tit (Parus major) nestling in hand. Bird handled under appropriate BTO licence. Adult great tit (Parus major) in hand. Bird handled under appropriate BTO licence.
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Journal of Animal Ecology @animalecology.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
📖 New paper! Early-life environment drives long-term decrease in adult body mass in a wild bird population🌍 🐦‍⬛ 🏔️ 🔎 buff.ly/7Lra4iN
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David López-Idiáquez @davididiaquez.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Our pre-print analysing the 1 std decline in mass in Wytham great tits has just been published in @animalecology.bsky.social check it out: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @biology.ox.ac.uk
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Early‐life environment drives long‐term decrease in adult body mass in a wild bird population
Using more than 90,000 body mass measures of adult and nestling great tits Parus major, we show that the 1 SD decline in adult mass between 1978 and 2024 is a consequence of changes in the environmen....
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Patrick Lewin @plewin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Excited to share my second published PhD chapter out now in Current Biology! @cellpress.bsky.social 🧵 below but tldr: birds are known to use the magnetic field to navigate. But is magnetism the whole story? We find that an amazing avian navigator doesn’t seem to rely on magnetic cues at all.
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Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Remember the summer heatwaves in the UK in 2026? The late May heatwave was exceptional: an event +4.3 sd above mean - likely to occur only once every few decades under normal conditions. It was also unusual in being early and coinciding with tit breeding season. What consequences did it have? 🧵1/n
Temperature fluctuations in Wytham Woods between 15 May and June 15 for 2023-2026. Orange and green lines represent mean hourly temperatures from 218 temperature loggers in 2026 (orange) and 2023-2025 (green). The grey line and ribbon represent the mean daily temperature ± mean daily temperature range from the Central England Temperature dataset (CET; 1772-2025)
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David López-Idiáquez @davididiaquez.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
New preprint out in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social with @devisatarkar.bsky.social and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social in which we analyse the effects of this summer's unprecedented and severe #heatwave on tit reproduction and mass. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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David López-Idiáquez @davididiaquez.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
This week has been one of the warmest on record in Oxford. This heatwave has also been recorded by the thermologgers we have in @wythamwoods.bsky.social. The period between 23rd and 28th May has been ~8°C (+2.6 SDs) warmer in 2026 than the same period between 2023 and 2025.
Temperature anomalies in May in Wytham Woods between 2023 and 2026. Each line represents the temperature departure from the 4-year mean each hour. In orange, we can see 2026 temperatures which between the 23rd and 28th of May were 8.11º C higher on average than the mean of the 2023-2025 period (representing a difference of 2.6 standard deviations). Data comes from 8 thermologgers. Thick lines represent the average of these 8 loggers and thin lines temperature from each individual logger.
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Happy 100th Birthday Sir David! Short clip from a film with Sir David Attenborough featuring @ellafcole.bsky.social explaining research in @wythamwoods.bsky.social into how Great Tits adjust behaviour during incubation to fine-tune hatching date: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGjL...
youtube.com
How Do Birds Incubate Their Eggs? | Attenborough's Wonder of Eggs | BBC Earth
YouTube video by BBC Earth
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David López-Idiáquez @davididiaquez.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
In our new paper, published yesterday, we use the long-term data set of Wytham Woods to show that great tits have maintained stable temperature at breeding despite the almost 2ºC increase in Spring temperature. w. E. Cole, C. Regan & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social Link -> www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Planning a nestbox temperature manipulation experiment in birds? We’ve just published a preprint that may be useful! 🪺🪶 We review 46 studies and also share our own blue tit pilot experiment from Wytham Woods, highlighting some very real practical challenges doi.org/10.32942/X25387
a blue tit peeking into a wooden nestbox
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Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a #greattit population: @lbliard.bsky.social et al. 2026: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
doi.org
Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a great tit population
Abstract. Lack’s seminal work on bird clutch sizes has spurred expansive research on reproductive trade-offs, especially focusing on offspring quantity–qua
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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Great paper showing impact of extreme spring weather on woodland birds (in nestboxes). Besides rain/cold affecting nestling growth, in natural cavities another major impact of extreme weather is the nest hole soaking with rainwater, which can be a big killer. Broods even drown in severe downpours.
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
My second DPhil paper is out! A nice example of how continuous long-term monitoring of natural populations can be so valuable for understanding impacts of climate change on wild animals 🪶 📍Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire 🌳🪺
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Oxford Biology @biology.ox.ac.uk · 11/03/2026
Climate extremes are on the rise, and early life is extra vulnerable 🌧️ New research led by @devisatarkar.bsky.social reveals that cold snaps and heavy rain can stunt growth and survival prospects in young great tits 👇
bit.ly
Climate extremes hinder early development in young birds
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David López-Idiáquez @davididiaquez.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
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...
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)
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Eleanor Bath @eleanorbath.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Interested in fighting, flies, and evolution? I've got a project at Durham investigating the ecology, evolution, and genetics of aggression in fruit flies (Drosophila): iapetus.ac.uk/studentships.... All questions welcome - just shoot me a message or email!
iapetus.ac.uk
What drives aggression? Linking Ecology, Evolution, and Genes
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
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...
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/membersThe annual Wytham Field Team Photo!Celebrating a successful field season with great food & good company - May 2025Front view of the Life & Mind Building, which opened in Oct 2025: The new home of Biology at Oxford
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Rona Learmonth @rona-learmonth.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
New preprint! 🌳🐛 We combined experimental and genomic methods to study local adaptation of winter moths to variation in oak budburst timing in Wytham Woods, UK. With @andreaestandia.bsky.social, Lea Beaupere, Ella Cole, and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Integrative analysis of fine-scale local adaptation of winter moths to variable oak phenology
For herbivorous insects whose fitness depends on tight phenological synchrony with host plants, spatial variation in plant phenology can impose strong selective pressures and promote local adaptation ...
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
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...
a 14 day old great tit nestling, ringed for individual identificationFigure 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
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Delphine De Moor @delphinedemoor.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
@devisatarkar.bsky.social gave beautiful talk on the extent to which social network traits are heritable vs. shaped by the spatial & social environment at birth using long-term data on blue tits 🐣🧬 @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org
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Oxford Biology @biology.ox.ac.uk · 30/07/2025
Wild great tits signal ‘divorce’ long before the breeding season — even in the winter, months before the couples rebreed with different partners in the following spring New study with @universityofleeds.bsky.social in @royalsocietypublishing.org 👇 bit.ly/4lRt7TN @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
bit.ly
Great tits show early signs of splitting up: researchers uncover social clues to bird 'divorce'
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Oxford Biology @biology.ox.ac.uk · 30/01/2025
New research shows that the early-life environment of great tits shapes their adult behaviour more than their genetics 🐦🍃. Read more here ⬇️ bit.ly/40SkDDT @devisatarkar.bsky.social, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @iremsepil.bsky.social 📷 @davididiaquez.bsky.social
Great tit at Bagley Woods by David López Idiáquez, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford.
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Lovely to see Devi Satarkar’s first DPhil paper out in print
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 19/07/2024
Had such a wonderful time at #ECBB2024 where I had the privilege of presenting my PhD work at an international conference for the first time ever! Beautiful city & campus and absolutely brilliant people & research 🤩 Thanks to everyone for being so encouraging about my work 🐣
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
Excited to share the first preprint from my PhD doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.11.603055 Turns out social phenotypes are not heritable in great tits! Presenting this at #ECBB2024 tomorrow (10 am, Meerkat room). Please come along if you like social networks and birds!...
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 01/03/2024
Presented my first ever poster at the @royalsociety conference on age and sociality this week and immensely enjoyed 2 days of really cool research and chatting with even cooler people 🤩 Massive thanks to the organisers for such an enlightening meeting ✨
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Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 29/06/2022
Excited to share my 1st ever paper that got published last week! It's a #review on the role of CXCR3 (a chemokine receptor) in neuronal 🧠 and cardiovascular 🫀 diseases. Beyond grateful for @drchinmoypatra's encouragement and guidance as I wrote...
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