Dr Steve Portugal, The University of Oxford

Congratulations to PhD student Steph McClelland, whose had her first PhD paper accepted! Our study finds that a reduced eggshell conductance is seemingly a commonality amongst avian brood parasites. Previously we’d just identified it in common cuckoos. More details to follow soon.

We (Elli Leadbeater and myself) have a PhD opportunity – details below, and via this link. Feel free to get in touch if interested! All about the social dynamics of flocking in birds.

Portugal and Leadbeater PhD Advert

I’ll be spending January in Borneo, planning a new field course for our third year BSc students here at Royal Holloway. Finishing touches to travel plans finished and can now just be excited reading about gibbons.

(Photo: Frans Lanting)

Busy couple of days acting as External and Internal Examiner for James Walker (Oxford) and Callum Martin (RHUL). Congratulations both!

Thrilled to be awarded a Leverhulme Grant to study eggshell physiology, biomechanics and possible biomimetic applications. There will be a postdoc position starting summer 2019. Full advert and details to follow. Get in touch if interested.

Our new paper is out today in Biology Letters! All about the costs of moulting flight feathers in wild geese; it’s high! You can read the paper here!

Interested in bird eggs? Come and do a PhD with Douglas Russell (Natural History Museum) and I – details here!

Interested in flight/flocking/social learning/cognition? -Come do a PhD with Dr Elli Leadbeater and I. Homing Pigeons and Southern Bald Ibis as model species. Details in the link here – PhD.

PhD Jenny Cantlay is busy at the dive tank facility in Patuxent, working with some fantastic diving duck species (photos by Jenny).

We’ve had a paper accepted in Biology Letters, all about the energetics of moulting in barnacle geese (goose photo; Trevor Gunby).