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Will Smith

@willjsmith.bsky.social
974 followers 399 following 140 posts

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Nottingham Uni. Evolution @ the wild-domestic interface: focusing on feralisation 🕊️🦆🐓 I study wild-type Rock Doves (doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.065). scholar.google.com/citations?user=U…

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Reposted by Will Smith
Dr George RA Hancock 🦋🦎 @grahancock.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Woohoo, it's now live! We show, using four lines of evidence, that butterfly wings can create illusory motion effects! @esbriolat.bsky.social, @scienceanna.bsky.social, @lauraakelley.bsky.social, @jtroscianko.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Butterfly wing patterns in flight create powerful illusory motion cues - Nature
Butterfly wing patterns and flight dynamics work in tandem to create powerful visual illusions that confuse predators, potentially representing one of the most successful visual defence strategies in ...
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
congrats!
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
That would be cool! They’re quite sparsely distributed in Uist, but could maybe catch a few….
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It's nice that this little note (first published in May) is an editor's highlight in Ibis. A fun mini-project (following on from a side-quest to find 'doves with white bums' among millions of grey-arsed ones, whilst on holiday on Fuerteventura....) @jezierskimt.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/ibi....
doi.org
Feral Barbary dove phenotypes are lost following Eurasian Collared Dove invasions
Interactions between different non-native species can have positive and negative effects on their invasion potential and ecological impact. Here, we infer interbreeding of feral African Collared Dove...
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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
New in #BirdStudy And a rather special 'classic' paper from Ian Newton, ahead of his upcoming monograph book on Bullfinches next year: A 51-year study of Eurasian Bullfinches Pyrrhula pyrrhula in Treswell Wood (UK) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #ornithology
Bullfinch, (c) R&B Mearns.
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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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Denise Wawman @denisewawman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Just published in Ibis. A 15.5 year study of avian pox in Dunnocks (Prunella modularis). Quick summary: Dull brown bird doesn't die of disease & haematophagous Hippoboscidae from healthy heterotrophs help hypothesis. (Can anyone think of a better word than heterotrophs?) More details below. 1/n
doi.org
A longitudinal study of avian pox in a small passerine, the Dunnock (<fi>Prunella modularis</fi>)
Long-term, longitudinal studies of disease in wild bird populations are rare. Diseases are important determinants of bird survival and may spill-over into other species including livestock and, in so...
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
congratulations :)
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 10/09/2026
NEW on #theBOUblog from Michał Jezierski Wren evolution in the British Isles: How might island evolution generate patterns of avian diversity? bou.org.uk/blog-jezi... #ornithology 🪶
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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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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
congratulations! 😁
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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026
"if it looks like a wild boar, and it behaves like a wild boar, then it is a wild boar” The article is interesting, the paper even more so. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Philip Amies @philipamies.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026
Rock Dove and feral pigeons, perhaps the most pressing issue in British bird conservation. follow @willjsmith.bsky.social to learn more, Rock Doves cooing in a sea cave is one of the best wildlife experiences you will have onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Rapid assessment of the extent of feral introgression in British and Irish Rock Dove (<fi>Columba livia</fi>) populations
Interbreeding of related forms following anthropogenic activity can lead to genomic homogenization, contributing to decreasing biodiversity. Assessing spatiotemporal variation in the extent of introg....
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Steve Portugal @sjportugal.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
What do you do with a day off, when you're on an island off an island off an island in Seychelles. Get permissions and use jaffa cakes to catch some Moorhens and measure their visual fields! And interesting they are too! New paper in Ecology and Evolution @britishecologicalsociety.org. Link below.
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Regina Fairbanks @reginafairbanks.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Pleased to share that my first, first-author publication was published yesterday in @pnas.org ! We (me + @jrossibarra.bsky.social) did a little bit of detective work to better understand the age and origin of a mutation that played a key role in maize domestication. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... (1/n)
Scattered teosinte kernels in their fruitcases, which are triangular in shape and a mottled brown in color
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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Big new @adriftlab.bsky.social paper - we show for the first time that plastics affects seabirds at the POPULATION level. Plastic ingested as a chick reduces recruitment of birds to the breeding population. And the story is pretty grim. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Jente Ottenburghs | Avian Hybrids @jenteo.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
🥳 New paper out in the Journal of Biogeography! I am excited to share the first PhD chapter from Zhichang Cheng, who I co-supervise with Fred de Boer. Habitat and Thermal Breadth Shape Climate-Driven Range Shifts in Arctic Birds onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #ornithology
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Nishant Kumar @nishantkumar.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
😇🐕 Our work on “The Indian street dog crisis and multispecies coexistence in tropical urban futures” has made it to the cover & banner www.nature.com/articles/s44.... It is an ordinary Indian street, with people, dogs, food, traffic, homes, trees, and all the negotiations that make a city alive.
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
🫢
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Thank you!
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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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Jonathan Fenn @jfennbio.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I was honoured to make a small contribution to this paper published today in Cell, detailing the first T2T genome assembly of the zebra finch, a crucial model species for neurobiology: tinyurl.com/tguttata
tinyurl.com
The complete genome of a songbird
Bird genomes are the smallest among amniotes; however, they remain challenging to assemble due to their structural complexity. This study presents a f…
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Crepuscular/nocturnal Dodos!??? 🦤🌝
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Awesome new paper about wild/domestic interbreeding in DUCKS*, just out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🦆🧬 #ornithology *not quite pigeons, but still very interesting 😅... doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
doi.org
Redirecting
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Michał Jezierski @jezierskimt.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Humans changed islands, not just holiday destinations, but home to 10% of humans, including us here 🇬🇧. What is the ecology of islands today, and how are island organisms adapting? Neatly summarised by @ferransayol.bsky.social, our new paper lead by Tom Matthews on the 'Anthropocene' on islands.
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Yes, I wonder! I have some more Orkney DNA samples to work with, and morphology/plumage data, so hopefully more Orkney pigeon work to come :)
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Jamie Dunning @j-dunning.net · 20/07/2026
Really nice research on a familiar to system to all of us - pigeons in buildings.
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Thanks @bou.org.uk for the opportunity to write a bit about our ongoing PIGEON SCIENCE 🕊️ including work funded by @btobirds.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social @britishbirds.bsky.social 🐦
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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10
rdcu.be
Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI
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Arjun Amar @arjundevamar.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Our new review paper is out - iOrnithology: a review of the use of web-sourced photographs and videos in ornithological research, published in Ibis @connorpanter.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<fc>iOrnithology</fc>: a review of the use of web‐sourced photographs and videos in ornithological research
The internet hosts vast quantities of digital media across webpages, repositories and social media platforms, providing unprecedented opportunities for ecological research. The use of web-sourced med...
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
new idea for gaining the trust of Uist Rock Doves 👍
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Jente Ottenburghs | Avian Hybrids @jenteo.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Nice YouTube-summary of the 2025 study on bird nests by @jezierskimt.bsky.social, @willjsmith.bsky.social and their colleagues. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzN6... Here is the link to the original paper: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... #ornithology
youtube.com
Scientists Can't Explain Why Bird Nests Are So Different
YouTube video by SciShow
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I'm proud to be an associate editor for this journal: please send us your fun bird science! 🤓🐣
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Gloria Murari @gloriamurari.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
How nice is it when you spot other species while doing fieldwork?
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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
New issue of #BirdStudy today! www.tandfonline.com/toc/tbis20/7... Moroccan Little Terns Scottish Water Rails (OpenAccess) Nightjars & wind-damaged forests Urban Coots & disturbance Trail cameras for Corncrakes (OpenAccess) Age effects on bird monitoring Moorland Curlews in Nth England #ornithology
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
could you email me please and I'll send it :) at my will.smith[at]nottingham.ac.uk email - sorry for the trouble, it's annoying when stuff is not easily available
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
it's exactly the same but without the snazzy formatting that the journal does 😅
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
I think you should be able to get it here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Research and conservation priorities for domesticated birds' wild counterparts
PDF | The viability and phenotypes of wild populations can be affected by hybridization with domesticated and/or feral conspecifics. These impacts can... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...
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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 · 08/06/2026
Jente wrote this the day before he examined by DPhil viva, three years ago!
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The Conversation UK @uk.theconversation.com · 05/06/2026
Why pigeons deserve more respect.
tcnv.link
The pigeon fanciers of the Bronze Age
Why pigeons deserve more respect.
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Good luck!!
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Deryk Tolman @deryktolman.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
New paper in @journal-evo.bsky.social and I'll be defending my thesis in a few hours! Relaxed selection diminishes social memory and expression of host defenses against cuckoos academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
academic.oup.com
Relaxed selection diminishes social memory and expression of host defenses against cuckoos
Behavioral traits are thought to be rarely or slowly lost when selection relaxes, but attempts to confirm this are rare. At the same time, behaviors can be
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
No I have not !
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Running out of ways to introduce them after so long studying them 😅
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
It was very nice to be asked by @theconversation.com to write about this fascinating new research. Pigeons in Bronze Age Cyprus! Big congrats to the authors. Excited to see what more we can learn about the early stages of the human-pigeon relationship… doi.org/10.64628/AB....
doi.org
The pigeon fanciers of the Bronze Age
Why pigeons deserve more respect.
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
the Norwegians had put it down as 'flammea/rostrata'. I had it as 'not a Lesser' 😅
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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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St Kilda World Heritage Site NTS @stkildawhs.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Grateful to any visitors this season that are able to photograph any of @jezierskimt.bsky.social 's colour-ringed birds in the Village. If you're able to read a darvic ring, please report the alphanumeric code, time and location to NTS staff for contribution to Michal's research 🙏
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Will Smith @willjsmith.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Ha! We are both very keen 😊. Michal is in charge of Wrens so up to him, but i think it’s in his medium term planning… i suspect the Scottish subspecies history and origin can only properly be understood in the wider context of Faroes and Iceland Wrens etc
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