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Peter Santema

@petersantema.bsky.social
312 followers 259 following 61 posts

Ornithology | Behavioural Ecology | Natural History. Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Department of Ornithology. Father of three.

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Reposted by Peter Santema
Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New #ornithology paper out in @ecography.bsky.social! The tendency of birds to return to the same breeding area in different years varies wildly among species. We show that breeding site fidelity is much lower in #shorebirds nesting in the #Arctic tundra than in those nesting in other habitats. 1/n
Map showing the geographic locations of shorebird populations included in the study, alongside four Arctic-breeding shorebird species with low breeding-site fidelity: Red Phalarope, Long-billed Dowitcher, White-rumped Sandpiper, and Pectoral Sandpiper.
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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New #ornithology paper out in @ecography.bsky.social! The tendency of birds to return to the same breeding area in different years varies wildly among species. We show that breeding site fidelity is much lower in #shorebirds nesting in the #Arctic tundra than in those nesting in other habitats. 1/n
Map showing the geographic locations of shorebird populations included in the study, alongside four Arctic-breeding shorebird species with low breeding-site fidelity: Red Phalarope, Long-billed Dowitcher, White-rumped Sandpiper, and Pectoral Sandpiper.
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Reposted by Peter Santema
BirdGuides @birdguides.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A new study has tracked female Eurasian Dotterel throughout an entire summer for the first time, revealing a summer of long-distance travel in search of multiple partners:
f.mtr.cool
Tags reveal 'summer of love' for Eurasian Dotterel
The first study to track female Eurasian Dotterel across an entire breeding season reveals a summer of long-distance travel in search of multiple partners.
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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Very chuffed that our dotterel study made the front cover of Proceedings B! 🎉 Thread below: 👇
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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
New #ornithology paper out in @royalsocietypublishing.org! We show that female dotterels can move across large distances within a single breeding season in search of mating opportunities, visiting up to five different sites (median: 3) and travelling up to 1000 km between sites (median: 71 km). 1/n
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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Our paper on breeding site fidelity in Red Phalaropes now available in early view @behavecol.bsky.social! academic.oup.com/beheco/advan... We colour banded 169 males and 184 females of this polyandrous shorebird on their Arctic breeding grounds, and monitored their return in the next year 1/4
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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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Clemens Küpper @chorlnev.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
📣Please share: We are looking for a field assistant to join our team in studying #ruffs on coastal meadows at Botnian Bay in Finland. The job will provide fantastic insights into lekking behaviour and provide essential skills in field ornithology. Details here www.bi.mpg.de/2790786/2512...
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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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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
New paper led by Jinggang Zhang just out in @royalsocietypublishing.org! We show that nestling redstarts learn to respond to calls of other species if hear them together with alarm calls of their own species doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
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Reposted by Peter Santema
Dom Cram @domcram.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Honeyguides lead you to 🍯, but if you don't reward the bird, next time it will guide you to a lion 🦁! So goes the story, but do honeyguides actually guide to dangerous animals, and is it punishment? New research suggests they do, but it's more "oops" than "revenge!" doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
doi.org
To Bees or Not to Bees: Greater Honeyguides Sometimes Guide Humans to Animals Other Than Bees, but Likely Not as Punishment
We show that greater honeyguides guide humans to nonbee destinations (snakes and a dead mammal); yet this is a rare occurrence, happening in only 3.7% of human-honeyguide interactions in 1 year and 0...
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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
New paper on breeding site fidelity in pectoral sandpipers out in @asab.org! The pectoral sandpiper is a highly nomadic polygynous shorebird, but a very small proportion of individuals is nevertheless faithful to their breeding site between years 1/6 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
New paper on the demographic drivers of cultural evolution in Great Tit song published today - epic work led by @nilomr.bsky.social with help from @andreaestandia.bsky.social Ella Cole & Sara Keen. Why did we do this, and what did we find? 🧵 follows: 1/n www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The demographic drivers of cultural evolution in bird song
Social learning can give rise to shared behavioral patterns that persist as culture within animal communities,1,2 such as bird and whale songs and cet…
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Reposted by Peter Santema
BirdGuides @birdguides.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
How much effort have you put in this Valentine's Day? Research has revealed that male Ruff travel thousands of kilometres in search of mating opportunities over the course of the breeding season:
bit.ly
Male Ruff travel thousands of kilometres in lekking season
A new study on Ruff movements has defied traditional ideas about bird migration and breeding, with some males covering up to 9,000 km in search of a mate during the nesting season.
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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
I am a sucker for natural history books, and occasionally find a really good offer for a book that I already have (see www.amazon.co.uk/dp/185310566X). Very tempted to buy this one as a 2nd copy, but that would open the floodgates. Someone please buy this fabulous book for less than a cup of coffee!
amazon.co.uk
The Lost Birds of Paradise
Buy The Lost Birds of Paradise First Edition by Fuller, Errol (ISBN: 9781853105661) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 09/01/2025
Large-scale sampling of potential breeding sites in male ruffs | royalsocietypublishi... | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | #ornithology 🪶
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Peter Santema @petersantema.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
New paper out in @rsocpublishing.bsky.social! Research from our group shows that males of the polygynous ruff visit many potential breeding sites within a breeding season, travelling up to 9000 km and visiting up to 23 different sites! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... 1/7
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