Thank you to everyone who has helped & collaborated on our projects, and @NERCScience, @SuomenAkatemia for funding. Come join us @HiLIFE_helsinki and do life science in the world’s happiest country! (17/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

And social transmission might even lead evolution by facilitating genetic change - we review gene-culture coevolution here: (16/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7.

Social interactions within species do not only influence cuckoo-host coevolution! Our experiments with predators explain evolution of prey defences: reviewed by @L_Hamalainen (15/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7.

Is this all about ecology and plasticity, or are there genetic differences? Our RAD-seq analyses suggest populations are continuous but differentiated by distance & environment: keep watching @bergman_nora & @Katja_Ronka (14/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7.

Next: ‘who moves’ – are social environments similar in cold spots? We’re assaying exploration (developed here: , follow @bergman_nora & @murarigloria (13/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

First: use social information from mobbing to ‘reintroduce’ parasitism risk and test retention and recovery of defences in multiple cold spots. Work in progress, follow @DerykTolman (12/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

How social transmission influences species interactions in ‘hot spots’ is therefore only part of explaining how coevolution works – can behaviours ever be lost? Need to shift focus to reed warbler ‘cold spots’ – requires lots of help! (11/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

To predict change we need geographic mosaic theory = environments vary, producing ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ spots where parasitism (& selection) varies. Gene flow mixes traits, and reversed selection in cold spots keeps coevolution going (10/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

But what happens when environments change? Cuckoos are declining and reed warblers’ breeding range is expanding. No cuckoos = no defences? (9/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

And generates frequency dependent selection on further cuckoo disguises – explaining why cuckoos come in different plumage morphs (8/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

Neighbours’ mobbing calls transmit social information about cuckoos which increases the observing reed warblers’ own mobbing and egg rejection 7-fold #BOU2023 #SESH7 (7/17)

Reed warblers shift to defend by acquiring information from cuckoo encounters & social information. information = benefits of attack > risk of mistakes. We’ve also explored this concept in predator learning & prey defences: (6/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7.

E.g. Reed warblers fine-tune mobbing & egg rejection defences to match local parasitism risk because cuckoos use disguises. Adult cuckoos = hawks, cuckoo eggs = host eggs. See (5/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

Cuckoos & hosts are iconic example of coevolution – see #BOU2022 #AlfredNewtonLecture – our experiments show social information shapes how these species evolve (4/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

But species = populations, populations = individuals, & individuals vary in how they interact and learn from each other. How does social transmission within species influence coevolution? (3/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

Species interactions are a tangled bank: the actions of one species changes the environment of others. If both species exert selection on each other -> coevolution (2/17) #BOU2023 #SESH7

What an honour to kick-off the final session for #BOU2023 on Species interactions and community-level responses! There’s lots of great talks in #SESH7 coming up after my keynote on social behaviour & evolution of species interactions with ⬇️ (1/17)

RT @IBIS_journal: 1/6 #BOU2023 #Sesh3.This is a presentation from our BOU President @juliet_vickery about how BOU works to improve equality….

RT @IBIS_journal: Thank you very much to @janemreid1 for delivering an incredible #AlfredNewtonLecture at #BOU2023! 👏👏 . Jane's lecture was….

Nice to be at #BOU2023 and back on Twitter to promote top science with #birds. Great work comes from communities where we treat each other well - even at tech companies! e.g. @supercell & Finland's largest tax payer 👇