Dr Steve Portugal, The University of Oxford

We have a new paper accepted in the Royal Societies Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. All about  the link between laboratory based personality traits, exploration and homing in pigeons, with co-authors Dora Biro (Oxford), Jackie Chappell (Birmingham), Emily Shepard (Swansea), Craig White (Monash) and Undergraduate student at RHUL, Rhianna Ricketts. Thanks to Frank Seebacher for inviting us to contribute to the special issue. Exciting times for pigeon research!

Having a great week visiting Harvard University, giving a Seminar and getting to see all the amazing museum collections.

I chatted very briefly about bird strikes on Bizarre ER. You can watch the programme here!

Our new paper on White-headed Vulture vision is out! You can read it here!

Animal Behaviour module is in full swing – today, practical work with the Siamese Fighting Fish!

Our new paper about pigeon social networks and perch choice is out, you can read it here!

We have a new funded PhD studentship, funded through ERC grant success by Emily Shepard at Swansea University. Emily is the Primary Supervisor, and myself and Luca Borger are co-supervisors. The project is all about how weather affects the costs of flight in birds. More details can be found here in the findaphd advert. Any informal enquiries should be directed to Emily. Deadline is February 10th. 

We’ve been busy getting our museum collection professionally photographed for new educational and outreach purposes.

Co-supervisors Emily Shepard and Dora Biro spent Friday at Royal Holloway discussing experiments and plans for Dan Sankey’s PhD. Lots of good discussions and mince pies.

Congratulations Rebecca McGoran on graduating from your Masters with a Distinction, for your work with the Siamese Fighting Fish.