Профиль

Am I right that this paper just shows that 1) chicks have a basic preference for round shapes, 2) this preference disappears when a stress-evoking sound is being played in the background? 1/4

Really interesting article (in Polish) on the science of birdsong! www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/o-czym-spiew...

DSA hasn’t endorsed him, so not sure about the connection. Even so, the contextual variables in this case (tattoos, etc) make it hard to know what the opposition to him is. Using that as a referendum on DSA in general is like using a strange outlier as an average. Grasping at straws here.

It’s telling that one in polisci would throw any methodological integrity into the wind to disparage the DSA. There has to this date been zero, absolutely none, solid demographic work on the class character of DSA. This is an opinion piece that uses college as a benchmark for class, embarrassing.

Chestnut-sided warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica) at Norton Brook NY. This individual was exceptionally confiding and he followed me around the site.

Twitter is going kind of crazy about crime and genetics right now (What's new?). My next post is a deep dive into a paper behind a widespread claim that brutal execution in Medieval Europe selected for reduced aggression, allowing civilization to develop. The title says it all, really.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time bird conservation sparks a national revolution, and I’m looking forward to the ruling Lëvizja Bashkë-Birdlife Albania coalition. I birdied in Vjosë–Nartë around 08ish, and you’d have to be crazy to build a trashy resort there.

What makes a new kind of mind possible? In this @royalsocietypublishing.org paper, the authors explain why cognitive transitions are not just moments when animals became smarter, but evolutionary shifts that opened new spaces of cognition. @eplantec.bsky.social pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

American yellow warbler (Setophaga aestiva) at Norton Brook NY.

Really interesting book that covers Lefebvre’s studies on avian innovation and behavioral flexibility. How this relates to “general intelligence” is an open conceptual question for me, but the studies here really speak to the potential of behavioral drive in avian evolution.

Many assumptions behind Hamilton’s inclusive fitness theory don’t jive with our modern understanding of genetic causality (such as additivity). There are enough violations of inclusive fitness even in birds (Acorn woodpeckers, Grooved-Billed Anis, adoption studies) to give one pause on its ubiquity.

tl;dr: There never was a paradox of the organism. It was just a mistake about genes. But genetic conflicts do occur and are fascinating. This is also an invitation: if you like the selfish-gene idea, I'd love to hear why. What biological reality does the metaphor capture?

In all my years of studying birds I have never had a wild one fly right onto my lap. Until today. This fledgling Red-eyed Vireo appeared from nowhere in what was probably its first flight. I moved it to safety and it was later observed being fed by its parents. Handled with training and permits.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) in Bloomingdale Bog, NY.

Amazing. No notes. @evoroseman.bsky.social talk about race science for Ghent University. ugent.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Page...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

How do social networks become adaptive? From self-organisation and phase transitions to cultural learning, social networks are shaped by feedback between individual interactions and collective dynamics. Check my new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...