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Tohar Tal

@tohar-tal.bsky.social
937 followers 754 following 40 posts

Birding | Ornithology | Bird Migration | Movement ecology | Computational Ecology | Citizen-Science | Conservation | co-chair @batumiraptorcount.org & coordinator wader working group CACN 🌐 tohartal.com

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Reposted by Tohar Tal
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture @burkemuseum.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
In the early 1980’s, we began preparing separate spread wings to help illustrate features of birds that had never been accurately drawn. Today our collection of spread wings is the largest in the world, preserving more than 40,000 specimens.
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sandrahodic.bsky.social @sandrahodic.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
1. post! What a nice start here with a celebration - our work is now published! 😊 In short: The annual survival of the collared pratincole, a migratory bird species that breeds around the Mediterranean, depends on flooding conditions in the Sahel. Sincere thank you to all contributors! Read more!👇
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 09/08/2026
Meet our trainees! Toka from Egypt, Arda from Türkiye, and Redha from Lebanon will join us as the 2026 cohort of the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship. We set up this traineeship program with OSME last year. Read more about the program and trainees: www.batumiraptorcount.org/news/2026/8/...
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Tohar Tal @tohar-tal.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
How does personality affect spring migration timing in Red Knots? We combined experimental food manipulations, measures of exploration speed, and individual tracking to find that fast-exploring birds delayed departure, but only after restricted food access. Read more in our paper👇
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 25/07/2026
EARLY VIEW in IBIS Exploration speed in Red Knots affects spring migration timing, but only after experimentally constrained fuelling conditions | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Tohar Tal, Allert I. Bijleveld, Karein van Bijssum, Hidde Kressin, Thomas K. Lameris | #ornithology
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Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
🐦🌙 Happy to see this big collaborative paper out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We address a seemingly simple question using geolocator data collected across many species and individuals: how much of bird migration actually happens at night? www.cell.com/current-biol... A short🧵
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 01/07/2026
🔈 APPLICATIONS OPEN... ...for BOU Small Research Grants & Career Development Bursaries Application deadline: 30 Oct 2026 Full details via links ⬇️ Grants: bou.org.uk/funding/s... Bursaries: bou.org.uk/funding/c... #ornithology 🪶
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 15/06/2026
🔈 NOMINATIONS OPEN Know someone in #ornithology deserving of recognition? Nominate them for a BOU award now! 🪶 🥇 Godman Salvin Prize 🥇 Alfred Newton Lecture 🥇 Janet Kear Union Medal 🥇 Early Professional Award Deadline: 15 September 2026 Nominate: bou.org.uk/about-the... 🪶
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Antonia Klöcker @cakloecker.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
📢 New IMR study on movement patterns of #BaskingSharks shows that sharks tagged above the #ArcticCircle in #Norway perform repeated large-scale movements to subtropical waters and actively use the water column across habitats.🧵 1/5 👉 doi.org/10.3354/meps... @whoi.edu @thembauk.bsky.social
Map of the showing seasonal shark migration routes in the Northeast Atlantic. Sharks move to the Norwegian and Barents Seas in summer (May–July), the Icelandic Basin in autumn (September–December), and the Western European Basin in winter (January–March). Colored arrows indicate migration paths of the sharks illustrated as black silhouettes.
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 11/05/2026
NEW on #theBOUblog from Alejandro Corregidor‐Castro When conservation tools turn context dependent bou.org.uk/blog-corr...‐castro-when-conservation-tools-turn-context-dependent Based on this IBIS paper doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... #ornithology 🪶
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Pablo Macias Torres @pablomaciastorres.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Small migratory birds cross deserts and seas as part of their annual migration. But how? Our new study shows how thrush nightingales do it: by flying night after night and stopping during the day, when they remain innactive🐦➡️(1/3) doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... @royalsocietypublishing.org #BirdMigration
Figure in the main study showing the migration route and diurnal locomotion along their migratory journey
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 27/04/2026
EARLY VIEW in IBIS Low breeding propensity in a declining Arctic-breeding swan revealed by telemetry data | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Tohar Tal, Bart A. Nolet, Tom S.L. Versluijs, Judy Z. Shamoun-Baranes, Götz Eichhorn, Sabine Urban, Hans Linssen | #ornithology 🪶
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Tohar Tal @tohar-tal.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Why are Bewick’s Swans declining? Here, we set out to answer this question by breaking down the reproductive cycle of the rapidly declining Western Palearctic population, using both GPS/ACC and citizen-science data. Click the link below to read the full story! @hanslinssen.bsky.social
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 18/04/2026
⏳ Just 7 days to apply for the Flyway Monitoring Traineeship Spend a month at Batumi Raptor Count, learning hands-on migration monitoring in one of the world’s largest raptor flyways. Fully funded travel + acco. Open to conservationists in OSME region. www.batumiraptorcount.org/flyway-monit... 🪶🦅
batumiraptorcount.org
BRC Flyway Monitoring Traineeship — Batumi Raptor Count
We are raising \u20AC30,000 to continue our monitoring, conservation and education work in 2026.
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 01/04/2026
Call for Counters! Join BRC in Autumn 2026 to witness the magnificent migration of >1 million raptors, improve your ID skills, and contribute to population monitoring! Fees: €10-24/day with discounts available! Read more & apply here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/volunteer-as-raptor-migration-counter
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 04/04/2026
Our 2026 Flyway Monitoring Traineeship is open for applications from raptor enthusiasts living in the OSME region. Learn all about raptor migration, identification and what it takes to run a count like the BRC, and receive up to €1300 to cover costs. www.batumiraptorcount.org/flyway-monit... 🪶
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Spurn Bird Observatory @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Want a year at one of the UK’s top bird observatories? We’re offering a 12-month Conservation Internship at Spurn — a unique chance to gain real experience in monitoring, conservation and migration. Apply now 👇 spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/news/conserv...
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Sayam U. Chowdhury @sayamchowdhury.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Pleased to share the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Action Plan (2025–2035) -- a major collaborative effort, bringing together science, conservation priorities, evidence and inputs from across the flyway. Scan the QR code or follow the link [below] to access the full document tinyurl.com/326r23d7
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David Toews @davetoews.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Heading into conference abstract / presentation season, I 100% recommend Kathryn Langin's (@kangin.bsky.social) "Tell me a story! A plea for more compelling conference presentations". It's short, sweet, and not just for ornithologists. I can get behind every word! 🔒 academic.oup.com/condor/artic...
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De Groene Amsterdammer @groene.nl · 17/03/2026
Hij houdt vast aan het internationaal recht, zegt nee tegen de oorlog met Iran en vaart een eigen, mildere migratiekoers. De Spaanse premier Pedro Sánchez is uitgegroeid tot de Europese anti-Trump. Raakt hij daardoor in een internationaal isolement?
buff.ly
De Spaanse premier Sánchez is een van de weinigen die zich uitspreekt tegen Trump – met het risico op internationaal isolement
Hij houdt vast aan het internationaal recht, zegt nee tegen de oorlog met Iran en vaart een eigen, mildere migratiekoers. De Spaanse premier Pedro Sánchez is uitgegroeid tot de Europese anti-Trump.…
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Tohar Tal @tohar-tal.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
NEW PUBLICATION! Long time coming — now out: the results of our pilot spring raptor counts in Batumi! Read about seasonal contrasts in raptor migration, the eastern Black Sea coast as a principal spring flyway, and much more. 🦅 Paper: doi.org/10.5253/arde... #ornithology @batumiraptorcount.org
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 05/03/2026
NEW on #theBOUblog from Heather Fortune World Book Day 2026! Recommendations from BOU Council and Committee members bou.org.uk/blog-fort... #ornithology 🪶
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Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Waders in a changing climate? New WaderTales blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/m... To coincide with paper published on Saturday: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #Iceland #ConservationScience🌍
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Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Social learning in Black-tailed Godwits - where to find food? Summary of new paper in @asab.org journal by Josh Nightingale is summarised in this blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/l... Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #ConservationScience🌍
Composite image - a feeding flock of Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits and image of front page of new blog.
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Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Redshank - is this a cry for help? Icelandic waders are under pressure - roads, summer houses, power lines, forestry are all having effects: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/i... Paper by Aldis Pálsdóttir and colleagues summarised in WaderTales blog 20 Feb 2025 🎂 #ornithology
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Andrew Straw @andrewstraw.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Using our bee-tracking drone, we discovered that honey bees 🐝 have highly precise and individual routes. Now published at @currentbiology.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 24/12/2025
Recommended read: our 2025 Autumn Report is out! As part of our tradition and commitment, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the season’s highlights and phenological peculiarities — complemented by many beautiful photos of both birds and people! 👉 batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-report-2025
Short-toed Eagle. Photo by Nikolina Bukovac.
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Kane Brides 🦆 @kanebrides.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
📉 Our new paper shows Bewick’s Swan numbers in NW/NE Europe have fallen to ~12,900 birds - a 56.7% decline since 1995, with further losses predicted by 2026 unless survival or breeding success improves. Flyway-wide conservation is urgent. 🦢 Download paper > tidsskrift.dk/Wildfowl/art... #Ornithology
A flock of Bewick's Swans by Ben Cherry/WWT
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Kyle Horton @kyle-horton.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Take three minutes to look at pretty birds, explore radar data, and see how we connect the structure of skies to MacArthur's ideas of niche partitioning. 📡🐦☁️🎧
youtu.be
Structuring the skies: Diel dynamics of migratory animalmovement in the lower atmosphere
YouTube video by Kyle Horton
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 18/11/2025
A typical Batumi migration scene, illustrating the idea of an ‘aerial niche’. For Steppe Buzzards in our bottleneck, that niche is often somewhere between the clouds: great to watch, tricky to count. Fascinating paper by @cnilsson.science et al: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... 📸 @barthoekstra.bsky.social
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Hadley Wickham @hadley.nz · 07/11/2025
filter_out() = yeet()
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 28/10/2025
Dispersal, maturation and recruitment in a long-lived, intercontinental migrant bird | www.sciencedirect.co... | Animal Behaviour | #ornithology 🪶
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Bart Hoekstra @barthoekstra.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
To reduce negative impacts of #renewables (eg #windenergy) on migrating birds, we need to know *where* and how *high* they fly. Using weather radar, we mapped 6yrs of nocturnal migration over the Netherlands, revealing patterns we can use to avoid and minimize impacts: doi.org/10.1016/j.je... 🧪🪶
Fig. 2. Maps of nocturnal bird migration across the Netherlands in spring and autumn, with the 100 km radius circles of the weather radars enclosing the onshore study area. Colors represent seasonal migration passage, converted from the original bird densities. Shaded areas mark grid cells for which over 25% of the input data, prior to filtering, were impacted by ground clutter. Migration passage in these regions may be compromised in either direction: overestimated due to remaining clutter artifacts or underestimated where terrain features partially obstruct the radar’s lower scanning angles.Fig. 1. Flight altitude distributions (in m above sea level (asl)) of nocturnal bird migration for both Dutch weather radars at a coastal Den Helder and inland site Herwijnen. Bar length denotes the proportion of migration within the respective altitude range (50 m vertical resolution). Donut charts aggregate this further to coarser 200-m classes and display the proportion of migration occurring above 1000 m (patterned). Red highlights indicate the altitude range of onshore energy infrastructure in the Netherlands, which is generally present in the lowest 200 m of the atmosphere. Donut chart proportions do not sum to 100% due to rounding. The small inset map of the Netherlands shows the locations of both radars (solid dots) and the surrounding areas up to 35 km (circles) from which altitude distributions are aggregated.Fig. 3. a, c Observed combinations of migration passage and mean wind power density, a measure of wind power potential, in North-Holland. Red circles represent average values for candidate sites and their size reflects the relative candidate site area. The grid reflects binned values of migration and wind power density, with color shading indicating the type of combination: orange = high migration passage, blue = high wind power density, dark browns and blues = both high. White lines indicate averages for wind power density and seasonal migration passage. b Spatial distribution of autumn migration (orange hues) and wind energy (blue hues) in North-Holland. Candidate wind energy sites are shown in bright red. The highest and lowest autumn migration passage sites are linked to their positions in a and c, emphasizing large differences between sites in autumn, but not in spring. Shaded areas mark grid cells for which over 25% of the input data, prior to filtering, were impacted by ground clutter. Migration passage in these regions may be compromised in either direction: overestimated due to remaining clutter artifacts or underestimated where terrain features partially obstruct the radar’s lower scanning angles.
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 23/10/2025
Halloween costume ideas for birders.
A comic called halloween costume ideas for birders. In panel 1, labeled easy, there's a person labeled northern cardinal wearing a party hat, a beak, and red clothes, and a person labeled roseate spoonbill wearing pink clothes and a wooden spoon on their nose. In panel 2, labeled harder, there's a person labeled merlin sound ID wearing a big green circle with a microphone modeled after the button on the merlin sound ID app, and a person labeled hybrid green x blue jay wearing a complex costume with a mask and robe and hat modeled after a recently discovered hybrid bird. In panel 3, labeled challenging, there's a person labeled baltimore oriole nest wearing an enormous accurate woven oriole nest suspended from their arms and shoulders, and a person labeled african jacana carrying chicks with a hideous costume of long-toed bird feet hanging from their armpits. In panel 4, labeled hot, there's a person labeled high quality spotting scope who is shirtless and is wearing a spotting scope mask on their head, and a person labeled sexy owl pellet wearing an owl pellet top and bottom with a mouse skull on their head.
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 21/10/2025
It’s a wrap! 🎉 Today marked the final day of #BRC17! What an unforgettable season it’s been: records broken with countless surprises and memories made. All the details will be included in our upcoming autumn report, which will be released soon. Keep an eye on our social media to stay up-to-date.
Station 1 team today.Station 2 team today.The last bird of the season? Thas was a Steppe Buzzard of course! Photo by Bart Hoekstra.The final season total!
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 20/10/2025
1.5 MILLION RAPTORS! 🦅🤯 For the first time in BRC history, we have recorded a staggering 1.5 million raptors in a single autumn season — a true milestone after 17 years of counting! Read more here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/brc17/2025/10/15-million-raptors #ornithology #RaptorResearch
Steppe Buzzards moving through the cloudy Batumi bottleneck. Photo by Tohar Tal.The Station 1 team.The Station 2 team.The team of coordinators at station 3 — for a change.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 16/10/2025
Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised
theguardian.com
Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised
Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are reshaping them.
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Jen Gill @jengill.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
The latest wadertales blog (no. 151) describes how scoring moult from photographs can reveal moult season duration and how it varies between populations: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m... #ornithology
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 05/10/2025
Live from the field! The 1,422,172nd bird — a juvenile Black Kite flying through the misty clouds — crossed our transect line this afternoon, making 2025 the BIGGEST year in BRC history!! Stay tuned for more!
Team at station 1Team at station 2Black Kite making it's way through the mist - though views, yet so rewarding! Photo by Bart Hoekstra.
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Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
🚨 Master’s project! Curious how birds find their way? 🧭🐦 Analyze decades of ringing data to study abnormal migratory routes and uncover what these deviations can reveal about the mechanisms guiding birds on their journeys. Drop me an email for details! #ornithology www.vogelwarte.ch/de/wir/mitar...
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Jason Dove Mark @jasondovemark.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
If conservationists work from a compromised baseline, our notions of abundance, scarcity, and ecological wellbeing will keep getting defined downward: "The researchers show that using the 1970s as a baseline tends to normalize an already severely degraded state." phys.org/news/2025-10...
phys.org
Bird conservation threatened by shifting baseline syndrome
New research shows that populations of dozens of waterbird and seabird species have been declining for much longer than previously thought in Europe. The article "Shifting the baseline for waterbird a...
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 01/10/2025
170.000 RAPTORS IN ONE DAY! After yesterday’s heavy rain and a quiet morning, today the sky exploded with Steppe Buzzards and large eagles! Continuing from 10 am until almost the end of the count. At some point, we counted over 14.000 raptors in less than 20 minutes. THAT'S BATUMI! #ornithology
Today's totals! See our website for more details!Steppe Buzzards. Photo by Filiep T'jollynAfter-count team photo - with perhaps the most beautiful rainbow ever seen in the background
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 29/09/2025
After the thrill of reaching the million, we went straight to the peak of diversity. The challenge of counting high numbers of birds slowly shifted into identifying the (relatively) fewer but more difficult ones: the large eagle species! But they also brought a special guest along...👇 1/2
Lesser Spotted Eagle - Photo by Eduardo Campos Wals
Lesser Spotted Eagle - Photo by Matthew Sprangers
Black Kite (left) and Steppe Eagle (right) - Photo by Matthew SprangersLesser Spotted Eagle - Photo by Filiep T'jollyn
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Dr. Catherine Scott @cataranea.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
I love the way science used to be written. Is it necessary to know that the author was pushing his baby in a pram while making observations of insects? Perhaps not, but it provides delightful context, while assuming the reader is familiar with his previously published baby-wheeling-related work.
A screenshot of some text of a paper, with the following sentence highlighted: "One July evening last summer, while engaged in wheeling the baby (another one this time) through some tall grass in the corner of my yard, I noticed..." It continues "an Ammophila attached to a grass-stem in the peculiar..."
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Migration Ecology Group @migecol.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
NEW PUBLICATION on stopover ecology of Songbirds during spring migration: After packmor et al. 2020 (Mov Ecol) found that trans-Saharan migrants react differently to weather for migratory departure, we aked ourselves, whether this is also valid for spring migration? 🐦 a thread 🧵 on 7 hypotheses:
the 5 study species: Dunnock, Northern Wheatear, European Robin, Common Redstart, Garden Warbler
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Wouter Vansteelant @wmgvs.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
A dramatic end for an ambitious Spoonbill. Yday morning LAYLA crashed into the ocean just offshore Madeira, 56h after departing from the Wadden Sea. She rested barely 7h even though she found nice Spoonbill hotspots on the way. Poor choices... #ornithology www.globalflywaynetwork.org/tracks/speci...
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 22/09/2025
A true Bluesky — filled with raptors! After days of rain, we were greeted by a bright, blue, cloudless sky this morning! The result? Thousands of birds and a high species diversity. With the main message: the eagles are coming! Stay tuned for more! For daily totals: www.batumiraptorcount.org/data
Marsh Harrier. Photo by Nikolina BukovacShort-toed Eagle and Black Kite. Photo by Nikolina Bukovac. Greater Spotted Eagle. Photo by Nikolina Bukovac.Where are the birds? Somewhere up there in the blue sky!
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Wouter Vansteelant @wmgvs.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
The www.BirdEyes.org team is thrilled to announce a new paper by Mohamed Henriques showing how Spoonbills change space use over the course of their summer stay in the eastern Dutch Wadden Sea. After breeding, many adults converge in the Lutjewad area. #ornithology www.birdeyes.org/lutjewad-amo...
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Cecilia Nilsson @cnilsson.science · 22/09/2025
Are animals randomly distributed in the air, or is there a structure to where and when we find them? In our new paper we outline factors that shape habitat use in the air, from abiotic structure to biotic interactions. A lot of fun discussions behind this one! 🦅🦋🦇🌬 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
cell.com
Animal niches in the airspace
For flying animals, including many birds, bats, and insects, the air is a crucial arena for a range of behaviors. Technological advances, such as year-round tracking of flight altitudes and expanded u...
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Batumi Raptor Count @batumiraptorcount.org · 17/09/2025
This achievement was only possible thanks to our amazing and hard-working team – counters, trainees, coordinators – and our wonderful host families for their endless hospitality. Check out our daily counts and news flashes here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/data 2/2
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