Was lovely to have Shailee Shah visit us at the Behavioural Ecology Lab at IISER M.
We talked about #CooperativeBreeders #SuperbStarlings #Babblers #Fieldwork #Inclusion in science & in outreach.
The sun finally showed up in Mohali and we ended the day with Jamun-flavoured 🍻
Here's to #BirdLove

I was inspired by
a colleague to try my hand at making some neat visuals. What do you think of this group image? Too simple?

Based on a photo of #babblers during a morning dance🥰 #ArtScience #ScienceArt #SciArt

Found a new group in the Park! Caught and ringed four, put tracking tags on two. You can see the group waiting on the ground behind the female (dark eye).
#babblers #ornithology #fieldwork #TrackingData #birds

We finally know what happened to tagged bird 43. While it is very sad to see she was likely killed by a bird of prey, it’s very exciting to know we can find the tags. #tracking #babblers #ornithology #fieldwork

Arts and crafts time! Otherwise known as making little backpack setups for my very fancy tracking tags to (hopefully) deploy on a few more Arabian Babblers tomorrow.

Tags are prepared but left able to be adjusted to each individual bird 🤗🐤

#fieldwork #science #birds #tracking #babblers

Caught and tagged four babblers this weekend! I catch and tag 1-2 new birds per group every 3 months as I am trying for annual territory use.

The first two males are both from the Picnic group. I thought they were from the GreenYonder group but turns out the were just way out of their normal territory. Next male was actually from GreenYonder (hooray) and the juvenile was from NewPlant. These groups are now good until February.

#ornithology #bird #babblers #birds #science #MovementEcology

Caught and tagged four babblers this weekend! I catch and tag 1-2 new birds every 3 months as I am trying for annual territory use.

The first two males are both from the Picnic group. I thought they were from the GreenYonder group but turns out the were just way out of their normal territory. Next male was actually from GreenYonder (hooray) and the juvenile was from NewPlant. These groups are now good until February.

#ornithology #bird #babblers #birds #science #MovementEcology

This is just crazy. Almost all of the babbler groups are converging on the kibbutz. Coming into full winter, there isn't a lot of food out on the plateau. Each tag represents a group of 7-15 birds (except 28&41 who are in the same group), and that kibbutz is a small settlement of ~500 people. Amazing that it seems to have enough resources to draw in babblers from the whole area.

Either that or there is a conference to which my invitation was lost.

#babblers #science #ornithology #birds

This morning I helped Marie put vocalization recording tags on #babblers at Hatseva as a pilot deployment for her #PhD. Should be some very cool data!

#fieldwork #science #ornithology

Still a long way to go, but here is the “cleaned” data from five tags representing five groups of #babblers! 💪

There are so many more tags to add, and to figure out how to analyze the movement, and oh so many other things, but it’s an exciting first step!

#ornithology #science #MovementData #TrackingData

Caught a female this morning, and it was nice to see her acting normally within a few minutes, foraging with a friend🤗 The atlas tag is nearly impossible to see, which is also great 👍

These groups are driving me crazy. The fusion-fission is insane and I just honestly have no idea how many groups there are right now. Definitely between 10-18, but it changes daily 😅 Are babbler supergroups a thing???

#birds #ornithology #fieldwork #babblers

It’s nearly impossible to target a specific group in this area where four groups are constantly fighting. I caught another unringed male. Can’t wait to find out which group he’s from!! I may have to wait until night time to see who he roosts with

Assuming I have another tagged bird in the group, that is…

#babblers #ornithology #science

I was trying to catch a bird from one group when they started having a territorial battle with another group. The bird I caught was unringed so I didn’t know which group he came from. Unfortunately, not the one I wanted, but any babbler is a win:) Meet #44! He’s from one of the many groups hanging around the area being watered beside the kibbutz.

#babblers #birds #ornithology #tracking

The babblers are learning, which is good for them but bad for me 😅 we went to a new area today, with no captured babblers but did get this view of the plateau. Pretty stunning in my opinion 🥰

#babblers #desert #view #ViewOfTheDay

Sorry for the blurry photo, but this is four days of babbler movement from 9 territories and it is just the most stunning thing I have ever seen 🤩🤩🤩

#science #ornithology #babblers #ecology #movement #tracking

Do you think this will do the trick in attracting the babblers to my flap traps? I’m hoping they come check it out but am not sure if it will be from fear or cuteness 🥰😊

#babblers #birds #fieldwork #ornithology #snek #snake #ToySnake #Viper

BEn and I may have two new groups! Although the pictured lady may be from a group whose tag died two weeks back. The map looks so full this morning, and there are still two un-tagged groups (highlighted) since they’re difficult 😱

Apparently I can’t write photo descriptions with the app I use 🤷 so the first is a map with tag numbers and he second is a female Arabian babbler with a new tracking backpack. 🐦

#babblers #science #fieldwork #birds

The map is looking so good!!! Look at all those #babblers 🥰 🥰 😍

Today we tagged #42, the male now known as Douglas (with the pink), and then the lovely lady ( with the lime green). These birds are from the furthest groups a at our study site, and are great to let us know where territories begin and end.

#science #bird #birds #ornithology #academia

I can upload photos!! I’m excited to share my first confirmed evidence of “kidnapping”! This young bird (41) was raised as a nestling in the Vultures group (18&22 on the map) and is now with the Tower group (28 on the map). Crazy!!

#babblers are so fascinating, and I’m pretty sure I’m not biased 🤗 #bird #birds #academia #science #movement

Is this where everyone is going now that twitter is imploding?

Follow me to hear about tracking Arabian Babblers in the desert, conservation efforts, biodiversity, keeping your cat inside, re-sharing of fun job opportunities, and probably some random thoughts on my DnD campaign. 👩‍⚕️👩‍🔬🧝‍♀️

Here's my cat Hyperion as an example!

🐆🦉 🦇🦋 🐌 🐞 🐜 🪰 🪲 🪳 🦟 🦝 🦨 🦡

#academia #birds #cats #indoorcats #babblers #conservation