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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Great to visit Loughborough's feral pigeons again this morning 🐦. Despite constant Peregrine and Sparrowhawk interventions making the flock v. jittery, we @jezierskimt.bsky.social collected data from 10 birds during a quick trip. I think feral pigeons are like snowflakes, every one is different !

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Any moth experts: is this a Spectacle, or a Dark Spectacle? Also I’m stuck on these other two… 🤔 (in Leicestershire) #TeamMoth

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

A cool chicken paper 🐓. Such work benefits from having healthy comparator populations of domesticated species' wild forms (in this case, Red Junglefowl). We wrote about this: doi.org/10.1093/orni.... It's part of why @jezierskimt.bsky.social and I visit Uist regularly, to study the wild pigeons.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Separately, whilst on St Kilda last month working on these endemic Wrens, a Redpoll which flew into our nets already had an ID ring. Turns out it was ringed in September 2025 as a first-year bird, on Sula in Norway. That's 1135km away from St Kilda! @jezierskimt.bsky.social @stkildawhs.bsky.social

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

St Kilda Wrens weigh ~14g (large birds >16g!). 7-11g is usual for mainland GB/continental Wrens. So this subspecies can weigh the same as some Great Tits or Blackcaps. GINORMOUS! Congrats @jezierskimt.bsky.social on the paper! #ornithology doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Mean body mass of St Kilda and Great Britain Wrens.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Uist's wild Rock Doves seem to be having a solid breeding season so far, with lots of nests (which is good, since they had quite a tough winter). Also nice to see @jezierskimt.bsky.social give a talk on his island Wren research.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Nice that this has come out as we are in Uist, working with wild Rock Doves. It's great to get to know individuals, following them through their lives out in the meadows, ruins, and caves. If you live on, or visit, the islands, please keep an eye out for ringed doves to help us to learn more 🕊️

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Domestic birds play major roles in our lives - so it's weird that we often lack basic knowledge of their wild forms, e.g. Red Junglefowl 🐓 / Rock Doves 🕊️! Eben Gering, @jenteo.bsky.social 🪿, Philip Lavretsky 🦆, and I discuss research + conservation priorities #Ornithology. doi.org/10.1093/orni...

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This beautiful Song Thrush, caught today in Uist (whilst mist netting for @jezierskimt.bsky.social's island bird research), is of the 'hebridensis' subspecies. I can't see any differences cf. those I'm used to seeing in England...? Open to suggestions of features I've not noticed... 🤔 #Ornithology

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Whilst on holiday in Fuerteventura, @jezierskimt.bsky.social and I noticed that many visiting birders report 'African Collared Doves'. But we saw only Eurasian birds, or probable hybrids. With Hein van Grouw, we did a mini study exploring this 🕊️: doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... #Ornithology @bou.org.uk

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Also, I learnt there is such a thing as a 'worm lizard'. Such an odd animal 🪱🦎. Alongside beautiful Violet Carpenter Bees, glowworms, and hundreds of Perez's Frogs 🐸

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

It's been great to help out on the @uniofnottingham.bsky.social undergraduate field course in Portugal. Lots of very cool birds caught, all contributing to a long-running study of their feather mites. This work has involved generations of Nottingham students, over decades! #Ornithology 🐦‍⬛

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

6/6 We @jezierskimt.bsky.social now hope to compare cave vs building colonies. We hope that this will provide insights into the domestication (and conservation) of wild Rock Doves. Our pilot project was funded by: @btobirds.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social @britishbirds.bsky.social

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

5/6 A subset of the Outer Hebridean population has abandoned cave-dwelling, and lives completely within anthropogenic ecosystems. It is easy to imagine this happening 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, and our ancestors taking advantage of this easy source of protein!

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

4/6 We GPS tagged five birds roosting in a building. We found that they spend all their time adjacent to their roost site, and had completely foregone the classical 'commuting' behaviour of wild Rock Doves. Instead, they spent a lot of time inside their roost site, throughout the day.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

3/6 Buildings (derelict houses or barns) constructed within farmland regions provide opportunities for Rock Doves to roost and nest much closer to their optimal foraging habitats.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

2/6 This population is not actively interbreeding with feral pigeons (doi.org/10.1016/j.is...). Most Outer Hebridean Rock Doves feed in agricultural habitats, roosting in caves 10-20km away, past moorland. They 'commute' between the two, leaving in the morning, and returning in the evening.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

🧵 1/6 I'm at #BOU2026, presenting the results of our pilot study, GPS tracking Outer Hebridean 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Rock Doves. These birds represent the wild form of feral/domestic pigeons. This is published as a natural history 'insight', in @amornith.bsky.social's #Ornithology. doi.org/10.1093/orni...

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

This Rock Dove was ringed in 2022, as a chick in a South Uist ruin. This morning, he turned up again, happy and well-fed (having somehow evaded notice across 2023, 2024, and 2025...). Without colour ringing, and help from local people reporting 'their' doves, we wouldn't know that he is still alive!

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

First Rock Dove chicks of 2026, ringed in a derelict building in Uist @jezierskimt.bsky.social. They already have their white bum patches, but there's a while to go until they lose they (gross?) yellow fluff 🐣. Hopefully we will see them later this year, and find out where they've dispersed to...

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

vs wild Rock Doves from our study population in Uist, Outer Hebrides - with 'blue' colour, 'bar' pattern, 'white' rump, and 'wildtype' eye. In most feral populations, only a minority of individuals have this combination of phenotypes. @jezierskimt.bsky.social @uniofnottingham.bsky.social

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Love seeing feral pigeon variation...surely the most extensive of any wild bird! How amazing that they thrive in the concrete jungle. Here are some examples from across the UK, being studied for projects supported by @gensocuk.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk @britishecologicalsociety.org

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Third and final Uist trip finished! That's 481 individual Rock Doves ringed/recaptured/resighted during 2025, providing great data to help us understand this population. It's been nice to also get the opportunity to update the community on our project progress. @jezierskimt.bsky.social

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

We've been catching lots of Rock Doves in Uist 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 this week. @jezierskimt.bsky.social and I are here for our ongoing monitoring work. Hoping for lots of reports of colour-ringed birds to generate survival + movement data 🤓 🤞@uniofnottingham.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

A very kind interpretation of a baby pigeon! Here are some wild Rock Dove chicks, who may not be winning beauty contests... 🫠 (nests visited for ongoing @uniofnottingham.bsky.social research in the Outer Hebrides, and for @btobirds.bsky.social @btoscotland.bsky.social #NestRecordScheme)

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

A little write up @leverhulme.ac.uk summarising my research plans @uniofnottingham.bsky.social for the next few years: media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/wsmith. 🧬🐦🤓

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

It's always exciting to get reports of the wild Rock Doves that @jezierskimt.bsky.social and I study in Uist. 'Green SI' is one of my favourites. It has been re-sighted 53 times since being ringed in 2022. It is a big fan of garden bird-feeders, and sees meadow-based foraging as too much effort.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Reed Warbler range expansion paper just out, led by the amazing Nora Bergman 🧬🪶 with @informedbirds.bsky.social @katjaronka.bsky.social @fishcongen.bsky.social @rytikerttunen.bsky.social @frodefossoy.bsky.social and others doi.org/10.1111/mec.70077

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

The breeding season is now in full swing around Helsinki, with long days out in the reedbeds trying to better understand behavioural evolution in this species 🔬

Colour-ringed, individually identifiable Reed Warbler.

Filming a Reed Warbler nest to study the provisioning rate from parent birds.

Cage test collecting data on Reed Warbler behaviour.

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

We've just had a brief visit to Uist to check in on the Rock Dove study population. A few (cute?) squabs ringed, and a nice selection of adults re-encountered through colour ring sightings. They seem to be having a good breeding season this spring 🐦🧬 @jezierskimt.bsky.social

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

This March, we've ringed the 1000th Rock Dove since @jezierskimt.bsky.social and I began monitoring them in Uist in July 2019. We also re-captured a (now a bit elderly, but thriving) dove first ringed during that trip. Lots of great data collected on overwinter survival and individual condition. 🕊️🪶

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Studies of domestic pigeons have taught us lots about cognition, navigation, and genetics. If you’d like to learn why their wild cousins are also worthy of scientific attention, I’ve written a Rock Dove @currentbiology.bsky.social ‘quick guide’: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.065

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

The new @ibisjournal.bsky.social British List update formalises the fact that UK Golden Pheasants are extinct as a self-sustaining wild entity (doi.org/10.1111/ibi....). This follows our recent study, and lots of time spent in the woods with these beautiful birds: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Much of our knowledge about bird movements comes from studies of domestic pigeons. With funding from @britishbirds.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social, we carried out a small pilot study, GPS tracking their wild Rock Dove cousins. #ornithology. doi.org/10.1093/orni...

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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Hi, I’m Will and I'm a biologist mainly working with Rock Doves (the wild form of the domestic/feral pigeon) in the Outer Hebrides 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. I’m currently a post-doc in Helsinki, where I study Reed Warbler genomics 🧬 and Cuckoo brood parasitism. I am also very interested in the UK’s non-native birds.

Golden Pheasant being ringed in Breckland as part of a research project studying these birds in a 'naturalised' context.

A Rock Dove being ringed for research in the Outer Hebrides.

Reed Warbler nest being monitored in Helsinki.

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