We are so excited to be supporting science with pride by marching in Pride in London parade today! 🌈 #WeAreEverywhere

🏳️‍🌈🧪🫶👨🏽‍🚀🏳️‍⚧️ A truly special and memorable experience joining in the The Royal Society’s first Pride! Pride in London #WeAreEverywhere #Pride2024 #SupportingSciencewithPride #STEM 🚀💉🦠🛰️🧬🐢🔬🔋🪐🧫🔭🧮 ❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🤎🖤🩵🩷🤍

Was so much fun and uplifting to get to march with the Royal Society’s Pride Network at London Pride over the weekend 🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️✨ #GayInScience #WeAreEverywhere #BiAndProud

Huge congratulations to Klara Widrig who recently passed her PhD viva with flying colours! *Dr* Klara Widrig will be off to the Smithsonian to begin a postdoc working in the Division of Birds—woohoo! She is a most deserving recipient of the coveted Rhea of Honour (pictured).

Congrats first author Carla du Toit on our new paper out today in Royal Society Publishing Biology Letters (link below). Titled "Tactile bill-tip organs in seabirds suggests conservation of a deep avian symplesiomorphy." With @kiwi_sjc Daniel Field & @TheLabAndField.

First paper from my Newton Fellowship published 🥳 Royal Society Publishing Describing tactile structures in the beaks of penguins and albatrosses - unknown foraging strategy in seabirds, or remnants of distant past? with Steve Portugal @kiwi_sjc @TheLabAndField Field Palaeobiology Research Group 🔗below

It’s true! They have what's known as a bill-tip organ - a web of nerves in their beak that could help them find fish! They're not the only birds with this secret weapon - albatrosses, kiwis and parrots have one too! Find out how their power works👇 nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/…

New discovery by Cambridge Earth Sciences team: Seabirds have highly sensitive regions in their beaks that could be used to help them find food. How can this help conservation efforts? Tap to find out 👇 cam.ac.uk/stories/seabir…

Congratulations to Carla du Toit on her first postdoc publication—and her lovely photograph of Black-footed Penguins is on the cover! The paper explores tactile sensory structures in the bills of certain seabirds. Great work, Carla!

Evidence for tactile organs in the bill tips of penguins and albatrosses: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs… Congratulations to Carla du Toit and colleagues!

1st author Carla du Toit made great animations/scans to accompany our paper about tactile organs in the bill tips of penguins and albatrosses, in Royal Society Publishing Biology Letters (paper link below). With @kiwi_sjc @TheLabAndField & Field Palaeobiology Research Group. (Natural History Museum). (Alberta Claw FYI).

#ornithology

Bird bills can have a delicate sense of touch - Alex Bond @TheLabAndField Steve Portugal & al. look at which groups have these organs and what their origins might have been doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2…

Why do birds have whiskers? Long a mystery, phylogenetic analysis of these facial bristles in Old World passerines found the number & length was associated with various functions related to insect capture & tactile sensing! academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/art… The Linnean Society of London Batmunkh Davaasuren

Honeyguides ISBE2024! Can't wait to talk about the double-lives of honeyguides in Session 2F (Mon 12:30-12:45) L: Freshly-hatched honeyguide in a bee-eater nest (my 📷) R: Honey-hunter Seliano Rucunua holding a honeyguide captured for research (📷: Claire Spottiswoode) #ISBE2024

Happy to have the Fitz swag (thanks @kiwi_sjc) for my talk today at #ISBE2024 on the effect of substrate water content on ibises’ ability to remotely sense prey! Probably one of the last talks I’ll give presenting my PhD work 🥲 ISBE2024 FitzPatrick Ins