Dr Steve Portugal, The University of Oxford

Our new pigeon paper is out in Journal of Experimental Biology. Led by PhD Lucy Taylor. All about how pigeons fly differently depending on how familiar they are with their surroundings. You can read it here.

I recently interviewed Chris Packham about his career, and to see what tips he had about how young people could begin their careers in science communication and science media. You can read the interview here!

Our paper on Greater Ani eggshells has been accepted in the journal Ibis. More to follow. All about how the rare mineral, vaterite, acts as a shock absorber in the eggs of these unusual communally nesting birds. This work was done in collaboration with Christie Riehl (Princeton) and James Bowen (Open University).

Our new paper on body temperature in migrating ducks is out in Frontiers in Physiology. You can read it here!

 Our paper on eider migration and body temperature has been accepted in Frontiers in Physiology. More details soon. Magella Guillemette (UQAR) leads the study.

Bit of prize success for PhD students Lucy Taylor and Dan Sankey. Lucy won best poster prize at the Annual Main Meeting for the Society for Experimental Biology (with “Fellowship of the Wing”), and Dan won best talk at the annual RHUL Symposium. Nice work.

Our new paper on pigeon laboratory behavioural traits and subsequent homing is out in Phil Trans B. You can read it here!

Thrilled to get a grant to undertake more research into the Bathyergidae group (inc. naked mole rats). Head to South Africa in October, working with Chris Faulkes (QMUL), Monica Daley (RVC) and Nigel Bennett (Pretoria).

Our episodes of David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities will be shown on Sunday June 25th, 7pm, W channel. Featuring our eggshell work, and mostly, our Siamese Fighting Fish (thankfully just the animals on TV though, not me).