🚨New paper in Biology Letters! 🥳 Hybridization events in Squamata support the viviparity-driven conflict hypothesis royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... Based on the MSc thesis of David Broek. Hybridization is also interesting in other taxonomic groups, not just birds. 😉

🥳 New paper out in the Journal of Biogeography! I am excited to share the first PhD chapter from Zhichang Cheng, who I co-supervise with Fred de Boer. Habitat and Thermal Breadth Shape Climate-Driven Range Shifts in Arctic Birds onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #ornithology

My reading spot for today. Nice and cool beneath the trees. 😃📚🌳

Just received the reviews for a manuscript, based on a MSc thesis. Apparently, reviewer #3 did not do his/her homework. 😂

✍️New blog post! (Almost) Everything Is Worth Publishing jenteottenburghs.wordpress.com/2026/07/01/a... Although everything is worth publishing, it also depends on your career stage which tends to follow an “impact factor curve”. As a fun exercise, I tracked the impact factors of my own work. 🤓

When it is too cold, I stay inside to read. ❄️ When it is too rainy, I stay inside to read. 🌧️ When it is too hot, I stay inside to read. 🔆 So, this tropical weekend is the perfect excuse to ... stay inside and read. 😀📚 Next book on the reading list: "Persian Fire" by Tom Holland.

🥳New paper in Avian Research Biology! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... 🦉 Hybridization in owls is rare, involving ca. 8% of species. Captive hybrids span more morphologically distinct species than natural hybrids, while similar iris coloration may maintain premating isolation. #ornithology

✍️New blog post! “If You Have a Garden and a Library, You Have Everything You Need” jenteottenburghs.wordpress.com/2026/06/23/i... If you could truly choose how to spend your time, what would fill your days? For me, the answer is simple: reading, writing, and walking in nature.

Just submitted the revision of my paper on hybridization in owls! Fingers crossed 😀🤞 #ornithology

Guess what I will be doing the coming days... 😏 Reading "The Story of Birds" by @stevebrusatte.bsky.social, of course! 🤩 I really enjoyed his previous books (on the evolution of dinosaurs and mammals). Looking forward to learn more about the early history of birds. #ornithology

A nice surprise in my mailbox today! The latest edition of Emu, which includes my paper on ratite hybridization. 😍 You can read the paper online here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #ornithology

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This morning, three of "my" BSc thesis students presented their work. A nice mixture of topics: - Hybridization in Galliformes - The impact of African elephants on meso-herbivores - Migration of White Wagtails Great to see what they learned during their thesis. And I hope they enjoyed the process.😀

✍ New blog post! The Death of Expertise in the Age of AI and the Attention Economy jenteottenburghs.wordpress.com/2026/05/14/t...

My latest Digest for Evolution is now available online! @sse-evolution.bsky.social Digest: Evidence for incipient hybrid speciation in the Black-cheeked Gnateater academic.oup.com/evolut/advan... #ornithology

🥳 New paper in Ornithological Applications! @amornith.bsky.social Research and conservation priorities for domesticated birds’ wild counterparts academic.oup.com/condor/advan... A wonderful collaboration with @willjsmith.bsky.social, Philip Lavrestsky and Eben Gering. #ornithology

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No teaching duties for the coming weeks + a well-deserved holiday. Time to dive into this book: "The Origins of Genome Architecture" by Michael Lynch. 😀📚

🥳New paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Cotinga communication constrained: body size and lekking behaviour influence cotinga song (Aves: Cotingidae) doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #ornithology

Funny coincidence. 😅 I just started reading "Fatherland" by Robert Harris (a novel in which Germany has won WW2). Today is Tuesday 14 April. And the first part of the book starts on Tuesday 14 April...

My latest Digest for Evolution is now available online. One of my favorite pieces to write. 😉 Digest: Chance and necessity shape introgression patterns across three replicate avian hybrid zones academic.oup.com/evolut/advan... #ornithology

This figure... 😅 ENHYDROSS: A New Mechanistic Model Supports the Trans-Oceanic Dispersal Capability of Terrestrial Vertebrates | Ecology and Evolution onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The result of exploring second-hand bookstores in Leiden. 😊📚 I recently started collecting books by Wilbur Smith and Robert Harris (as you might have guessed from the picture...).

🚨New paper out in Oryx! Bali starlings and the journey towards happiness: introduction and breeding in the Besikalung Wildlife Sanctuary, Bali, Indonesia www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #ornithology

Deze week was een meteoroïde als een vuurbal te zien in Vlaanderen. De "wetenschapsexpert" (zie verdere frustratie over deze term hieronder) van roddelkrant @hln.be wijdde er meteen een alarmistisch clickbait-artikel aan. Alles voor de clicks. Sensatie boven inhoud. 🙄

My latest game: Whack-a-Reviewer! jenteottie.github.io/Whack-a-Revi... Vent your frustration at reviewer #2 and get your paper accepted. 😉 Made using vibe-coding in Claude.

And another #ornithology game: Green Wave-surfing Geese jenteottie.github.io/GreenWave/ Pick your favorite goose species and help them migrate north. Stay within the green corridor 🌿 while firing poop 💩 at eagles and hunters. 😅 Created through vibe-coding with Claude.

Presenting my newest #ornithology game: Ratite Runner! 😀 jenteottie.github.io/RatiteRunner/ Pick your favorite flightless bird, use the power-ups wisely and avoid the obstacles. Enjoy!

I bought the Dutch version of this book for my niece, but started exploring it myself. Wonderful illustrations with short, informative texts about all kinds of prehistoric organisms. Reminds me why I became an evolutionary biologist... 🥲

Recently, I was interviewed by the French magazine Epsiloon about recent developments in hybridization research. The resulting piece brings together a wide range of researchers working on hybridization across different systems. Wonderful! 🥳 #ornithology #scicomm