SPI-Birds

A person or institution that has collected the raw data and/or is hosting the primary data. Called "data owner" in Culina et al. 2021 (external link).

SPI-Birds does not claim custody of data hosted at the SPI-Birds Database; custody of the data remains with data custodians.

A person interested in using data hosted at SPI-Birds. Data custodians can be data users of someone else's data. Source: Culina et al. 2021 (external link).

Data as collected in the field. Source: Culina et al. 2021 (external link).

A set of code functions and commands used to convert data provided in the primary format into the SPI-Birds' standard format. A pipeline usually has a hierarchical structure (outputs of one component of the processing sequence are fed to the next step) and often is modular (non-necessary components can be removed or changed to modify the final structure of output data). SPI-Birds' pipelines are coded in R (and sometimes SQL where convenient) and available on our GitHub pipeline repository (external link).

Data stored locally by each research group (i.e., data custodian). Primary data might differ from raw data because of (a) errors made during transcribing raw data into primary data or (b) correction of obvious errors in raw data during transcribing them into primary data (c) primary data contain some derivate of primary data (e.g. average value for a repeated measurement of an individual). Source: Culina et al. 2021 (external link).

A format in which primary data are stored. This includes the way that data are divided among different tables, the variables recorded, names of these variables and how values of these variables are expressed. Source: Culina et al. 2021 (external link).

A data hub or repository of (meta)data on individually marked birds collected through (often long-term) field studies of bird populations in the wild. Metadata of all study sites part of SPI-Birds are available here (external link); data can be requested (and used upon consent by data custodians) by anyone within or outside the SPI-Birds Network.

A network of researchers who study and monitor populations of individually marked birds, and collaborate to make their data, and science in general, more FAIR. This includes the SPI-Birds team members (i.e., coordinators, developers, designers) as well as all data custodians whose data are hosted at SPI-Birds.

A standard protocol for the collection of individual-level bird data, defined and shaped by the SPI-Birds Network. This protocol is the foundation of the pipelines that convert data custodians' primary data format into SPI-Birds' standard data format, as well as as a guideline for people who wish to establish a new field site for monitoring individual birds.

A format agreed upon within the research community to record and archive data. The standard format defines the way data are organised among different tables, the vocabularies used to describe the data elements (names of the variables) and conventions used to express the values of the variables. Source: Culina et al. 2021 (external link).

Antica Culina
Antica’s expertise covers evolutionary ecology of bonding, life-history trade offs, evidence synthesis, and data and code standards. She strives to apply her knowledge of different modelling approaches to inform wildlife conservation decisions. She is one of the pioneers in studying and promoting Open Science practices in ecological and evolutionary research.

Antica has worked on a variety of free-living animal populations, but the majority of her work has been based on long-term studies of great tits, including the project she currently leads on the stability of bonds between breeding partners. Within this project, she has initiated SPI-Birds Network and Database. She has finished undergrad degree in Ecology, worked on bird conservation projects in Croatia (NGO BIOM) before moving to the Oxford University for her PhD.

Antica acts as Scientific Advisor to Open Knowledge Maps and Go FAIR Implementation Network. More info here: https://nioo.knaw.nl/en/employees/antica-culina (external link).

Marcel E. Visser
Marcel is the head of the Animal Ecology Department at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and he is widely recognized as a world-leading expert on the ecological and evolutionary impact of anthropogenic environmental changes. His pioneering research on how climate change disrupts natural systems used long-term studies on wild species. The work he led on how climate change leads to phenological mismatches within food chains has turned his model species, the great tit, into the poster child for climate change impact. His work on wild long-term populations is complemented with studies in aviaries, and by genomic work, among which the sequencing of the great tit genome.

Marcel combines fieldwork, aviary work and molecular techniques in single projects, for instance by using genomic selection to create selection lines for timing of reproduction in great tit, and then use these lines to look at epigenetic regulation of gene expression as well as to measure fitness consequences of timing in the wild. He is managing the four long-term study populations of hole-nesting species that have ran at the NIOO from 1955 onwards.

Marcel has been awarded a NWO-VICI and an ERC Advanced grant, and has been elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). He is co-founder and inaugural president of the Netherlands Society for Evolutionary Biology (NLSEB). More info here: https://nioo.knaw.nl/en/employees/marcel-visser. (external link)

Sandra Bouwhuis
"I am an evolutionary ecologist with a specific interest in the causes and consequences of within-individual change in life-history traits and between-individual variation in life-history strategies. I mostly conduct analyses on long- term individual-based datasets collected in wild populations, and have so far had the pleasure to work on great tits (Parus major), pre- industrial humans (Homo sapiens) and common terns (Sterna hirundo)."

You can find more information about Sandra's current research interests here. (external link)

Josefa Bleu
"I am an assistant professor at the University of Strasbourg in the Hubert Curien Pluridisciplinary Institute. My research lies at the interface between evolutionary ecology, behavioural ecology and eco-physiology. I am interested in the effects of the biotic and abiotic environment on the life-history traits, the physiology and phenotype of the organisms. I am working in the field (monitoring of great tits populations in and around Strasbourg) and also in the lab (model species: zebra finches)."

You can find more information here (external link).

Malcolm D. Burgess
Malcolm is a Principal Conservation Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, where he has mostly worked in the UK and western Africa investigating the causes of decline and migration behaviour of Afro-Palaearctic migrant birds. He has also developed frameworks for spatial conservation prioritization, and recently moved into research related to ground-nesting birds and predation. Malcolm has set up and runs PiedFly.Net (external link), a citizen science project that coordinates hole-nestling bird and phenology monitoring at 50 sites across the UK, most in southwest England, and curates historic datasets.

Malcolm is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, where he conducts collaborative research centred on a 65 year hole-nesting bird dataset at East Dartmoor (UK), which he has been involved with since 1998, and took over this nest box study in 2007. This data is largely used collaboratively with research groups across Europe working on climate change, migration, population dynamics, genetics and blood parasites.

Andrey Bushuev

Anne Charmantier
Anne is an evolutionary ecologist holding a senior CNRS position (eq. Prof) in the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE, Montpellier, France). Her main research interests are focused on understanding the mechanisms involved in the evolution of adaptive traits, especially in a context of rapid anthropogenic changes. Since 2007, she is managing a long-term database initiated in 1976 by Jacques Blondel, which includes data (and samples) on blue tits in Corsica and mainland France, and great tits in urban and forest areas of the South of France. This data contributes to her research on local adaptation, plasticity, senescence, ecological genomics and sexual selection. She has particularly pioneered quantitative genetic approaches in wild populations, to study adaptive and non-adaptive responses to climate change and urbanisation. 

Anne is a member of the scientific councils for the European Society of Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) and the Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité (FRB), involved in the French Women & Science Society, and is an Associate Editor for Evolution Letters.

Ella Cole

Erik Matthysen​​​​​​​Erik is Professor in Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Antwerp, where he teaches courses related to ecology, behaviour, evolution and conservation, as well as ornithology. Hole-nesting birds have been the major study system throughout his career. His first projects were on territoriality and population dynamics in Eurasian Nuthatches, culminating in a PhD in 1988 as well as a monograph published in 1998.

In 1994 he took over the ongoing nestbox study on Great and Blue Tits in Belgium started by André Dhondt, with two main study areas: the Peerdsbos site (running since 1979) and the fragmented Boshoek area (since 1994). These populations have been and are still studied for questions related to dispersal, personality, habitat fragmentation, host-parasite interactions and climate change. The data have been used in many collaborative studies with colleagues all over Europe.

Other bird-related projects in the lab have dealt with conservation, sociality and population dynamics of forest birds in Kenya and Bolivia, and invasion biology of parakeets in Belgium. He has been active in the EOU and IOU as council member and scientific chair of conferences, and has participated in all seven hole-breeding passerine meetings organised since 1985.

Learn more about Erik’s work here www.uantwerpen.be/erik-matthysen (external link)

Adele Mennerat​​​​​​​
Adele is an evolutionary ecologist with broad interests within behaviour and life history evolution. Her research mostly focuses on disease ecology and evolution in wild and domestic animal populations, in the context of a rapidly changing world. After a first period in Bergen as a researcher, she joined the EGI at Oxford University as a Marie Curie fellow. During this time she became a single carer for her children, aged one and three at the time - a challenging period. After a few years as Associate professor in Amiens, France, she joined Bergen once more, where she established in 2017 a monitored population of hole-nesting birds. She currently leads a project on anthropogenic parasite evolution, in addition to engaging in outreach, including exhibitions at the Natural History Museum in Bergen.

More information on Adele’s work here: https://www.uib.no/en/persons/Adele.Mennerat (external link)

Bernt-Erik Sæther

Marta Szulkin​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​Marta is an urban evolutionary ecologist and associate professor at the Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, Poland. She holds a PhD in Zoology from the University of Oxford, and worked at the University of Oxford as Magdalen College Research Fellow (JRF) and in Montpellier (CEFE CNRS) as Marie Curie Fellow before starting the Wild Urban Evolution & Ecology Lab at the University of Warsaw in 2015. While much of her work originally focused on long-term datasets of wild passerines in natural habitats (inbreeding in Oxford, population genomics in CEFE CNRS), she is currently mostly focusing on evolution and ecology in cities.

Marta started a prospectively long-term study of wild passerines (blue tits and great tits) in a gradient of urbanisation in 2016, and is also involved in large-scale projects on the impact of urbanisation on ecological and evolutionary dynamics globally (see NSF urbanecoevo.net). She is the editor and co-author of Urban Evolutionary Biology (Szulkin, Munshi-South & Charmantier eds, Oxford University Press, 2020).

Link to website: http://leem.cent.uw.edu.pl/ (external link)

Coordinators
Antica Culina - Antica’s expertise covers evolutionary ecology of bonding, life-history trade offs, evidence synthesis, and data and code standards. She strives to apply her knowledge of different modelling approaches to inform wildlife conservation decisions. She is one of the pioneers in studying and promoting Open Science practices in ecological and evolutionary research.

Antica has worked on a variety of free-living animal populations, but the majority of her work has been based on long-term studies of great tits, including the project she currently leads on the stability of bonds between breeding partners. Within this project, she has initiated SPI-Birds Network and Database. She has finished undergrad degree in Ecology, worked on bird conservation projects in Croatia (NGO BIOM) before moving to the Oxford University for her PhD. Antica acts as Scientific Advisor to Open Knowledge Maps and Go FAIR Implementation Network. More info here: https://nioo.knaw.nl/en/employees/antica-culina (external link).

Stefan Vriend - Stefan is a quantitative population ecologist interested in open science, data standards, and developing statistical models to study eco-evolutionary processes across space and time. Formerly a PhD student at the Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics in Trondheim, Norway, he joined the Department of Animal Ecology at NIOO-KNAW as a postdoc in 2022. Recently, he started a new position as the coordinator of the Veluwe as part of the large-scale research infrastructure LTER-LIFE (external link), in which a consortium of scientists, data experts and software engineers will built the e-infrastructure for developing digital twins to help predict how changes in climate and other human-induced pressures affect ecosystems and biodiversity.

Joey Burant - Joey is a population ecologist and tenure-track research scientist at NIOO, where he is focussed on using long-term data on hole-nesting birds to understand how individuals and populations of wild animals respond to environmental change. His research expertise lies at the intersection of population dynamics, seasonality, and early warning signals, and spans from laboratory studies in fruit flies, to theoretical work, and field studies in birds. Previously, during his postdoc with the Living Data Project, an initiative of the Canadian Institute of Ecology and Evolution, he co-designed and delivered a series of graduate courses on topics related to open science, including data management, reproducibility, synthesis statistics, and scientific collaboration. His work at the Living Data Project included "data rescue", which involved the identification, preservation, and open sharing of valuable yet publicly-inaccessible data and associated metadata.

Developers
Stefan Vriend - At the developer team, Stefan has recently been involved in updating the standard protocol to version 2.0.0, standardising the metadata form for easier metadata entry for data contributors and handling for the SPI-Birds developers.

Amélie Fargevieille - Amélie is an evolutionary behavioural ecologist interested in the effect of spatiotemporal variation on the evolution of life-history traits and phenotypes (with a focus on coloration) using long-term datasets. She was a PhD student at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE) in Montpellier, France, working on long-term dataset on plumage coloration in blue tits, then joined Auburn University (AL, USA) as a postdoc, still working on eco-evolutionary processes with long-term data on reptiles. In 2021, she came back to CEFE in Montpellier to manage the field season and help managing and improving the associated database. Her main interest now is to work on databases, and develop tools to standardise data collection and datasets, to facilitate the management, the sharing, the archiving and hence the reproducibility of data for research in evolutionary ecology. At SPI-Birds, Amélie focusses on constructing the very first pipelines that accommodate version 2.0.0 of the standard protocol.

Liam D. Bailey - Liam is the head of developers team, and he coordinates all the activities related to converting various long-term individual based datasets into a standard format. Liam’s scientific interest lie in combining his biological knowledge and skills as a data scientist to understand the ecological impacts of climate change using long-term individual based data. In his current work, he is using agent (individual) based modelling to understand the complex social system of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta).

Find out more at https://liamdbailey.com/ (external link)

Design
Szymon Drobniak - Evolutionary biologist working at the Jagiellonian University in Poland and UNSW in Sydney. He specialises in quantitative genetics, behavioural ecology, research synthesis using meta-analysis and comparative studies, and biostatistics. He is also a writer and graphic designer. In his artistic work he focuses on information architecture, science illustration, and bridging gaps between art and science. See his artistic profiles here (external link) and here (external link).

Outreach
Antica Culina
Stefan Vriend

Former team members
Eduardo Santos (coordinator South America)
Zuzana Zajkova (developer)
Chloé Nater (developer)
Chris Tyson (developer)

PROJECTS THAT USE DATA FROM MULTIPLE BIRD POPULATIONS

1) sTraitChange – How do trait responses to climate change translate into demographic rates and population dynamics? (external link)

The project aims at developing a mechanistic framework that improves our ability to predict climate-induced changes across levels of organization, and generalizations of how species with different life-histories respond to climate change.

2) Pair bonds beyond the breeding season (external link)

In this project, Dr. Antica Culina (external link) uses data on multiple populations of great tit to study causes and consequences of divorce and pair fidelity.

3) EVOCLIM – Phenotypic selection and population demography in fluctuating environments

In this project, Stefan Vriend (external link) and Prof. Bernt-Erik Sæther (external link) use data on multiple populations of hole-nesting birds to study the role of environmental stochasticity and density dependence in phenotypic selection and population demography across Europe.

4) Why do tits (Paridae) cover their eggs before incubation? The roles of temperature, nest predators and information parasites

Dr. Olli Loukola  (external link)uses data on multiple tit populations to investigate variation in great and blue tits' egg covering behaviour across different populations in Europe and variables that may explain the geographical variation.

5) Quantifying intra-specific variation in sensitivity to climate change

This project uses sliding window analyses (external link) to study how phenological sensitivity to temperature varies among European populations of great and blue tits. The project then seeks to understand how such variation may be driven by differences in the biotic and abiotic environment experienced by each population.

6) Can we use multivariate autoregressive state-space models to quantify species interactions from time series data?

In this project Dr. Emily Simmonds (external link) and Prof. Bob O’Hara (external link) use Bayesian hierarchical models, including observation error, to try and quantify the strength of competitive interactions. This work predominantly uses simulated data to test model performance, but also uses multiple populations of great tits and blue tits as a case study illustration.

7) Phenotypic variation along urban gradients

Urbanization affects the mean phenotypes of many wildlife populations, but it is not well known how urbanization affects phenotypic variation, a major driver of eco-evolutionary processes. Urbanization can affect phenotypic variation through several processes and can increase the phenotypic variation in urban populations (e.g., urban great and blue tit populations, see here (external link)). This project aims to explore how environmental factors associated with urbanization, stress, and heterogeneity impact phenotypic variation along multiple urban gradients across Europe. 

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES THAT USE DATA FROM MULTIPLE BIRD POPULATIONS

2021-present

• Vriend, S.J.G. et al. (2022). Temperature synchronizes temporal variation in laying dates across European hole-nesting passerines. Ecology. Read here (external link)
• Bonnet, T. et al. (2022). Genetic variance in fitness indicates rapid contemporary adaptive evolution in wild animals. Science. Read here (external link)
• Keogan, K. et al. (2022). Variation and correlation in the timing of breeding of North Atlantic seabirds across multiple scales. Journal of Animal Ecology. Read here (external link)
• Bailey, L.D. et al. (2022). Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less sensitive to climatic variation. Nature Communications. Read here (external link)
• Samplonius, J.M. et al. (2021). Strengthening the evidence base for temperature-mediated phenological asynchrony and its impacts. Nature Ecology & Evolution. Read here (external link)

2016-2020

• Culina, A. et al. (2020). Connected data landscape of long-term ecological studies: the SPI-Birds data hub. Journal of Animal Ecology. Read here (external link)
• Radchuk V et al. (2020). Adaptive responses of animals to climate change: not universal, likely insufficient. Nature Communications 10: 3109. Read here (external link)
• Møller, A.P. et al. (2020). Interaction of climate change with effects of conspecific and heterospecific density on reproduction. Oikos 129: 1807–1819.
• Loukola, O.J. et al. (2020). The roles of temperature, nest predators and information parasites for geographical variation in egg covering behaviour of tits (Paridae). Journal of Biogeography 47:1482–1493. Read here (external link)
• Norte, A.C. et al. (2020). Host dispersal shapes the population structure of a tick-borne bacterial pathogen. Molecular Ecology 29:485–501.
• Ruuskanen, S., Espín, S., Sánchez-Virosta, P., Sarraude, T., Hsu, B-Y., Pajunen, P., Costa, R.A., Eens, M., Hargitai, R., Török, J., Rokka, A., Eeva, T. (2019). Transgenerational endocrine disruption: does elemental pollution affect egg or nestling thyroid hormone levels in a wild songbird? Environmental Pollution 247: 725-735.
• Gamelon M, Vriend SJG, Engen S, Adriaensen F, Dhondt AA, Evans SR, Matthysen E, Sheldon BC, Saether B-E. (2019). Accounting for interspecific competition and age structure in demographic analyses of density dependence improves predictions of fluctuations in population size. Ecology Letters 22: 797-806. Read here (external link)
• Jones, W., K. Kulma, S. Bensch, M. Cichoń, A. Kerimov, M. Krist, T. Laaksonen, J. Moreno, P. Munclinger, F. Slater, E. Szöllősi, M.E. Visser & A. Qvarnström (2018). Interspecific transfer of parasites following a range-shift in Ficedula flycatchers. Ecology & Evolution 8: 12183–12192. Read here (external link)
• Samplonius, J.M. et al. (2018). Phenological sensitivity to climate change is higher in resident than in migrant bird populations among European cavity breeders Global Change Biology 24:3780–3790. Read here (external link)
• Møller, A. et al. (2018). Effects of interspecific coexistence on laying date and clutch size in two closely related species of hole-nesting birds. Journal of Animal Ecology 87: 1738–1748. Read here (external link)
• Vaugoyeau M. et al. (2016). Interspecific variation in the relationship between clutch size, laying date and intensity of urbanization in four species of hole-nesting birds. Ecology and Evolution 6:5907–5920. Read here (external link)
• Laine, V.N. et al. (2016). Evolutionary signals of selection on cognition from the great tit genome and methylome. Nature Communications 7:10474. Read here (external link)
• Lemoine, M. et al. (2016). Low genetic differentiation shaped by environmental factors in a passerine bird: on the potential role of partial migration in gene flow. Biological journal of the Linnean society 118, 668–685

2010-2015

• Stenseth NC, Durant JM, Fowler MS, Matthysen E, Adriaensen F, Jonzén N, Chan K-S, Liu H, De Laet J, Sheldon BC, Visser ME, Dhondt AA. (2015). Testing for effects of climate change on competitive relationships and coexistence between two bird species. Proc Roy Soc B 282: 20141958 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1958. Read here (external link)
• Ruuskanen, S., J. Morales, T. Laaksonen, J. Moreno ,R. Mateo, E. Belskii, A. Bushuev, A. Järvinen, A. Kerimov, I. Krams, C. Morosinotto, R. Mänd, M. Orell, A. Qvarnström, F. Slater, H. Siitari V. Tilgar, M.E. Visser, W. Winkel, H. Zang & T. Eeva (2014). Large-scale geographical variation in eggshell heavy metal and calcium content in a passerine bird (Ficedula hypoleuca). Environmental Science and Pollution Research 21: 3304-3317. Read here (external link)
• Møller A.P. et al. (2014). Variation in clutch size in relation to nest size in birds. Ecology and Evolution 4:3583–3595. Read here (external link)
• Møller A.P. et al. (2014). Clutch-size variation in Western Palaearctic secondary hole-nesting passerine birds in relation to nest box design. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5:353-362. Read here (external link)
• Møller, A. et al. (2013). Assessing the effects of climate on host-parasite interactions: a comparative study of European birds and their parasites. PLoS ONE 8:e82886. Read here (external link)
• Burger, C., Belskii, E., Eeva, T., Laaksonen, T., Mägi, M., Mänd, R., Qvarnström, A., Slagsvold, T., Veen, T., Visser, M.E., Wiebe, K.L., Wiley, C., Wright, J., and Both, C. (2012). Climate change, breeding date and nestling diet: how temperature differentially affects seasonal changes in pied flycatcher diet depending on habitat variation. Journal of Animal Ecology 81:926-936. Read here (external link)
• Morales, J., S. Ruuskanen, T. Laaksonen, R. Mateo, E. Belskii, T. Eeva, A. Järvinen, A. Kerimov, E. Korpimäki, I. Krams, C. Morosinotto, R. Mänd, M. Orell, A. Qvarnström, H. Siitari, F.M. Slater, V. Tilgar, M.E. Visser, W. Winkel, H. Zang & J. Moreno (2013) Variation in eggshell traits between geographically distant populations of pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca J Avian Biol 44: 111–120. Read here (external link)
• Mueller J, Korsten P, Hermannstaedter C, Feulner T, Dingemanse N, Matthysen E, van Oers K, van Overveld T, Patrick S, Quinn J, Riemenschneider M, Tinbergen J, Kempenaers B. 2013. Haplotype structure, adaptive history and associations with exporatory behavior of the DRD4 gene region in four great tit (Parus major) populations. Mol Ecol 22: 2797-2809. Read here (external link)
• Burger, C., E. Belskii, T. Eeva, T. Laaksonen, M. Mägi, R. Mänd A. Qvarnström, T. Slagsvold, T. Veen, M.E. Visser, K.L. Wiebe, C. Wiley, J. Wright & C. Both 2012 Climate change, breeding date and nestling diet: how temperature differentially affects seasonal changes in pied flycatcher diet depending on habitat variation. J Anim Ecol 81: 926–936. Read here (external link)
• Dingemanse N, Bouwman KM, van de Pol M, Van Overveld T, Patrick SC, Matthysen E, Quinn J. 2012. Variation in personality and behavioural plasticity across four populations of the great tit Parus major. J Anim Ecol 81: 116-126. Read here (external link)
• Eeva, T. et al. 2011 Geographical trends in the yolk carotenoid composition of the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) Oecologia 165:277–287. Read here (external link)
• Ruuskanen, S., H. Siitari, T. Eeva, E. Belskii, A. Järvinen, A. Kerimov, I. Krams, J. Moreno, C. Morosinotto, R. Mänd, E. Möstl, M. Orell, A. Qvarnström, J.-P. Salminen, F. Slater, V. Tilgar, M.E. Visser, W. Winkel, H. Zang & T. Laaksonen 2011 Geographical variation in egg mass and egg content in a Passerine bird PLoS ONE 6: e25360. Read here (external link)
• Korsten P, Mueller JC, Hermannstädter C, Bouwman KM, Dingemanse NJ, Drent PJ, Liedvogel M, Matthysen E, van Oers K, van Overveld T, Patrick SC, Quinn JL, Sheldon BC, Tinbergen JM, Kempenaers B. 2010. Association between DRD4 gene polymorphism and personality variation in great tits: a test across four wild populations. Molecular Ecology 19: 832-843. Read here (external link)
• Lambrechts, M. M et al.(2010). The design of artificial nestboxes for the study of secondary hole-nesting birds: a review of methodological inconsistencies and potential biases. Acta Ornithologica 45: 1-26.
• Van den Steen, E., Pinxten, R., Covaci, A., Carere., Eeva, T., Heeb, P., Kempenaers, B., Lifjeld, J.T., Massa, B., Norte, A.C., Orell, M., Sanz, J.J., Senar, J.C., Sorace, A., Eens, M. (2010). The use of blue tit eggs as a biomonitoring tool of organohalogenated pollutants in the European environment. Science of the Total Environment 408: 1451-1457.

Prior to 2010

• Van den Steen, E., R. Pinxten, V.L.B. Jaspers, A. Covaci, E. Barba, C. Carere, M. Cichoń, A. Dubiec, T. Eeva, P. Heeb, B. Kempenaers, J.T. Lifjeld, T. Lubjuhn, R. Mänd, B. Massa, J.Å. Nilsson, A.C. Norte, M. Orell, P. Podzemny, J. J. Sanz, J.Carlos, J.J. Soler Senar, A. Sorace, J. Török, M.E. Visser, W. Winkel & M. Eens 2009 Brominated flame retardants and organochlorines in the European environment using great tit eggs as a biomonitoring tool. Environment International 35: 310-317. Read here (external link)
• Sæther, B-E, S. Engen, V. Grøtan. W. Fiedler, E. Matthysen, M.E. Visser, J. Wright, A.P. Møller, F. Adriaensen, H. van Balen, D. Balmer, M.C. Mainwaring, R.H. McCleery, M. Pampus & W. Winkel 2007 The extended Moran effect and large-scale synchronous fluctuations in the size of great tit and blue tit populations J. Anim. Ecol. 76: 315-325. Read here (external link)
• Both C., J. J. Sanz, A. A. Artemyev, B. Blaauw, R. J. Cowie, A. J. Dekhuijzen, A. Enemar, A. Järvinen, N. E. I. Nyholm, J. Potti, P.-A. Ravussin, B. Silverin, F. M. Slater, L. V. Sokolov, M.E. Visser, W. Winkel, J. Wright & H. Zang 2006. Pied flycatchers travelling from Africa to breed in Europe: differential effects of winter and migration conditions on breeding date. Ardea 94: 511-525. Read here (external link)
• Both C., A.V. Artemyev, B. Blaauw, R.J. Cowie, A.J. Dekhuizen, T. Eeva, A. Enemar, L. Gustafsson, E.V. Ivankina, A. Järvinen, N.B. Metcalfe, N.E.I. Nyholm, J. Potti, P.-A. Ravussin, J.J. Sanz, B. Silverin, F.M. Slater, L.V. Sokolov, J. Török, W. Winkel, J. Wright, H. Zang & M.E. Visser 2004. Large-scale geographical variation confirms that climate change causes birds to lay earlier. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 271: 1657-1662.Read here (external link)
• Saether BE, Engen S, Møller AP, Visser ME, Matthysen E, Fiedler W,  Lambrechts MM, Becker P, Brommer JE, Dickinson J, du Feu C, Gehlbach FR, Merilä J, Rendell W, Thomson D, Török J. 2005. Time to extinction of bird populations. Ecology 86: 693-700.
• Saether BE, Engen S, Møller AP, Weimerskirch H, Visser ME, Fiedler W, Matthysen E, Lambrechts MM, Freckleton R, Badyaev A, Becker PH, Brommer JE, Bukacinski D, Bukacinska M, Christensen H, Dickinson J, du Feu C, Gehlbach FR, Heg D, Hötker H, Merilä J, Nielsen JT, Rendell W, Thomson D, Török J, Van Hecke P. Life history variation predicts stochastic effects on avian population dynamics. 2004. Amer. Nat. 164: 793-802. Read here (external link)
• Sæther B-E, Engen S, Møller AP, Matthysen E, Adriaensen F, Fiedler W, Leivits A, Lambrechts MM, Visser ME, Anker-Nilssen T, Both C, Dhondt AA, McCleery RH, McMeeking J, Potti J, Røstad OW and Thomson D. 2003. Climate variation and regional gradients in population dynamics of two hole nesting passerines. Proc. R.Soc. Lond. B 270: 2397-2404. Read here (external link)
• Sæther B.-E., S. Engen, A. P. Møller, E. Matthysen, F. Adriaensen, W. Fiedler, A. Leivits, M. M. Lambrechts, M.E. Visser, T. Anker-Nilssen, B. C., A. Dhondt, R. H. McCleery, J. McMeeking, J. Potti, O. W. Røstad, and D. Thomson 2003 Climate variation and regional gradients in population dynamics of two hole nesting passerines. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 270:2397-2404. Read here (external link)
• Visser M.E., F. Adriaensen, J.H. van Balen, J. Blondel, A.A. Dhondt, S. van Dongen, C. du Feu, E.V. Ivankina, A.B. Kerimov, J. de Laet, E. Matthysen, R. McCleery, M. Orell & D.L. Thomson 2003. Variable responses to large-scale climate change in European Parus populations. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 270: 367-372. Read here (external link)

LIST OF HOLE NESTING BIRD CONFERENCES

2022                (6-9 Sept) Ninth International Hole-Nesting Birds Conference in Oxford (UK).

2017                (30 Oct - 2 Nov) Eighth International Hole-Nesting Birds Conference in Trondheim (Norway) – (no proceedings published  – booklet meeting available). See https://www.ntnu.edu/hnb-conference/programme. (external link)

2010                (13-15 July) Sixth International Hole-Nesting Birds Conference in Oxford (UK) – (no proceedings published – program meeting availabe here (external link)).

2007                (7-12 September) Hole-using: adaptations and constraints in Bialowezia (Poland) – (no proceedings published  – booklet meeting available). See http://www.hole-breeding-meeting.ap.siedlce.pl/. (external link)

2004                (1-5 October) Celebrating 50 breeding seasons in Vlieland (NL) – (no proceedings published – booklet meeting available here (external link)).

1991                (22-25 October) Environmental effects on reproductive success in hole-breeding birds in Sempach (CH) - (no proceedings published – program (external link), abstracts (external link) and participant list (external link)).

1989                (3-8 October) NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Demographical, Physiological, Behavioural and Genetical Aspects of Population Biology of Passerine Birds in Evisa, Corsica (France) – (proceedings published as a book: Blondel, J., Gosler, A., Lebreton, J.-D. & McCleery, R. (eds.). Population Biology of Passerine Birds. An integrated Approach. NATO ASI Series G: Ecological Sciences, Vol. 24; incl participant list, information available here (external link)).

1985     Causal and evolutionary aspects of the determination of bird numbers with special reference to hole nesting birds in Wageningen (NL) - (proceedings published in 1987 in Ardea, information available here (external link)).