From Movement to Meaning: A New Era in Bird Tracking
Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa limosa) are among Europe’s most intensively tracked migratory shorebirds. Long-term monitoring has provided critical insights into their migration strategies, site fidelity, and survival – making them emblematic of longitudinal studies in avian ecology. © Attila Szilágyi
Ecology and Behaviour

From Movement to Meaning: A New Era in Bird Tracking

For decades, tracking devices have told us where birds go. Now, researchers are asking an even more intriguing question: what happens to the birds we track along the way?

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Sound-based surveys uncover fine-scale habitat selection in the declining Crested Tit
Forest birds are often assumed to depend primarily on age and maturity, yet fine-scale structure and composition may shape habitat use long before breeding begins. © Steve Roach

Sound-based surveys uncover fine-scale habitat selection in the declining Crested Tit

New research from Finland suggests that Crested Tits respond more to fine-scale forest structure than to forest age in early spring, challenging assumptions about how habitat quality is defined in managed boreal forests.
Ecology and Behaviour
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
Choosing Survival: Habitat Shifts in Wintering Taiga Bean Geese
Winter landscapes can appear rich in food, yet a few degrees below zero can render familiar feeding grounds unusable. For Taiga Bean Geese, survival depends on recognising when to abandon frozen pastures and seek alternative refuges. © Lars Petersson

Choosing Survival: Habitat Shifts in Wintering Taiga Bean Geese

When frost locks grasslands out of reach, Taiga Bean Geese turn to winter cereal fields to survive. New research shows how these fields become lifelines during the coldest days of winter.
Ecology and Behaviour
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
Fabricated Birds: AI and the Future of Ornithology
AI-generated image. A Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) in papyrus habitat. The bird depicted here does not exist – a reminder that in the age of generative imagery, realism is no longer proof of presence. Image created by Daniel Szimuly/The Ornithologist. All rights reserved.

Fabricated Birds: AI and the Future of Ornithology

When we generated a Shoebill that never existed, the realism was flawless – and unsettling. In an age where synthetic plausibility becomes effortless, ornithology must reconsider what authenticity means and how it is protected.
Editorial
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly
Upstream of Science: The Role of Bird Art in Understanding — An Interview with Szabolcs Kókay
A reconstruction of a species now considered extinct, placed carefully within the landscape that once held it. Slender-billed Curlew with Eurasian Curlews on oil (2010). All Rights Reserved by Szabolcs Kókay

Upstream of Science: The Role of Bird Art in Understanding — An Interview with Szabolcs Kókay

Ornithology begins not with numbers, but with looking. This conversation with Szabolcs Kókay examines how bird art operates upstream from science – shaping what we notice, understand, and value.
Editorial
Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly