Vitor Piacentini
@piacentini.bsky.social
Biólogo, ornitólogo, professor @UFMT. Perfil pessoal - Português | English | (tal vez) español (ele/dele)
piacentinilab.com
piacentinilab.com
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
there is nothing - I mean this, nothing - as biologically cool to me as the fact that bird produce coherent plumage patches on their wings by overlapping portions of different feathers
In the early 1980’s, we began preparing separate spread wings to help illustrate features of birds that had never been accurately drawn.
Today our collection of spread wings is the largest in the world, preserving more than 40,000 specimens.
Today our collection of spread wings is the largest in the world, preserving more than 40,000 specimens.
September 1, 2026 at 8:19 PM
there is nothing - I mean this, nothing - as biologically cool to me as the fact that bird produce coherent plumage patches on their wings by overlapping portions of different feathers
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Do you illustrate birds? We are seeking new artists to contribute frontispiece illustrations for The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, and would especially like to highlight artwork made by members of the WOS and our colleagues. Details here!
Call for Bird Illustrators for The Wilson Journal of Ornithology!
Do you illustrate birds? We are looking for frontispiece illustrators for our journal!
wilsonsociety.org
August 18, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Do you illustrate birds? We are seeking new artists to contribute frontispiece illustrations for The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, and would especially like to highlight artwork made by members of the WOS and our colleagues. Details here!
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
So we know AI helped a negligible number of students. But how many did it harm? I've crunched the raw data provided by the lead researcher, and what I've found is that ~9,500 students using AI studied less than even the *least* studious, non-AI using student.
This should shock the conscience.
This should shock the conscience.
August 20, 2026 at 3:16 PM
So we know AI helped a negligible number of students. But how many did it harm? I've crunched the raw data provided by the lead researcher, and what I've found is that ~9,500 students using AI studied less than even the *least* studious, non-AI using student.
This should shock the conscience.
This should shock the conscience.
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
New paper in @bou.org.uk's Ibis: there is still no comprehensive database of bird type specimens. Many major collections have no published type catalogue at all. Where they exist, they're often print-only, partial, or decades out of date. 🧵
August 15, 2026 at 9:24 AM
New paper in @bou.org.uk's Ibis: there is still no comprehensive database of bird type specimens. Many major collections have no published type catalogue at all. Where they exist, they're often print-only, partial, or decades out of date. 🧵
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
We propose a unified, publicly accessible database of avian type specimens, modelled on existing portals for spiders, flies and orthopterans. Better findability = better science, especially for researchers in the Global South.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #ornithology
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #ornithology
Towards a unified publicly accessible database of avian type specimens
Type specimens represent the crucial physical reference for any scientific bird name, but type material is scattered widely across the globe, and there is still no one comprehensive source documentin....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 15, 2026 at 9:24 AM
We propose a unified, publicly accessible database of avian type specimens, modelled on existing portals for spiders, flies and orthopterans. Better findability = better science, especially for researchers in the Global South.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #ornithology
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #ornithology
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Sustained investment in specimen-based taxonomic research is key to moving towards effective conservation.
iucn.org/news/202607/...
iucn.org/news/202607/...
From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums
The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation: a formal acknowledgement that natural history museums,...
iucn.org
July 28, 2026 at 4:39 AM
Sustained investment in specimen-based taxonomic research is key to moving towards effective conservation.
iucn.org/news/202607/...
iucn.org/news/202607/...
Tá cada vez mais difícil agradar os alunos da universidade. Ao menos to tentando direcioná-los para uma vida mais saudável 🤷♂️
😁
😁
July 22, 2026 at 1:04 PM
Tá cada vez mais difícil agradar os alunos da universidade. Ao menos to tentando direcioná-los para uma vida mais saudável 🤷♂️
😁
😁
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10
Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI
rdcu.be
July 13, 2026 at 10:28 AM
Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Madonna was RIGHT THERE IN THE STADIUM!!!! What a missed opportunity
Madonna - Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Official Video)
YouTube video by Madonna
youtu.be
July 20, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Madonna was RIGHT THERE IN THE STADIUM!!!! What a missed opportunity
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
📣 We are hiring a new Communications Specialist! This is a remote, flexible independent contractor role. We're seeking candidates with experience in science communication and familiarity with WordPress, social media tools, etc. Please share widely!
Job Opening: Communications Specialist (Contract)
Are you a science communicator interested in a flexible, remote, part-time role with an ornithological society? Read on!
wilsonsociety.org
July 20, 2026 at 12:01 PM
📣 We are hiring a new Communications Specialist! This is a remote, flexible independent contractor role. We're seeking candidates with experience in science communication and familiarity with WordPress, social media tools, etc. Please share widely!
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Help shape the future of BHL 🌱
As we begin to modernise the BHL platform, we’re inviting BHL users to share their experiences through a 3–5 minute survey. Your responses will directly inform our priorities, identify problems, guide improvements, and shape a better BHL experience: bit.ly/4fpc75D 🧪
As we begin to modernise the BHL platform, we’re inviting BHL users to share their experiences through a 3–5 minute survey. Your responses will directly inform our priorities, identify problems, guide improvements, and shape a better BHL experience: bit.ly/4fpc75D 🧪
BHL User Experience
BHL is beginning a major modernisation of its platform. We’d like users to help shape what comes next. This 3–5 minute survey asks about how you use BHL and the improvements you’d like to see.
Your r...
bit.ly
July 16, 2026 at 2:28 PM
Help shape the future of BHL 🌱
As we begin to modernise the BHL platform, we’re inviting BHL users to share their experiences through a 3–5 minute survey. Your responses will directly inform our priorities, identify problems, guide improvements, and shape a better BHL experience: bit.ly/4fpc75D 🧪
As we begin to modernise the BHL platform, we’re inviting BHL users to share their experiences through a 3–5 minute survey. Your responses will directly inform our priorities, identify problems, guide improvements, and shape a better BHL experience: bit.ly/4fpc75D 🧪
My perfectionism does not align totally with dr. Maddison’s (as predicted in the text itself). But this piece is a very good one. Fully recommended.
😁
😁
Scientific fashions, perfectionisms, and the value of traditional morphological taxonomy. #evolbio #philsci 🧪
waynemaddison.wordpress.com/2026/07/16/s...
waynemaddison.wordpress.com/2026/07/16/s...
Scientific fashions, perfectionisms, and the value of traditional morphological taxonomy
Like any conversation, science goes through wave after wave of fashion. One decade, it will be all the rage to study one type of question, and to shun sloppiness of one kind but tolerate another. A…
waynemaddison.wordpress.com
July 17, 2026 at 1:06 PM
My perfectionism does not align totally with dr. Maddison’s (as predicted in the text itself). But this piece is a very good one. Fully recommended.
😁
😁
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
🚨 Exciting news! The Swiss Ornithological Institute is starting a collaborative program that offers multi-sensor geolocators and analytical support for bird migration research, focusing on underrepresented species & regions. Interested? geopressure.org/GeoCollabForm/ Please share!
July 6, 2026 at 7:36 AM
🚨 Exciting news! The Swiss Ornithological Institute is starting a collaborative program that offers multi-sensor geolocators and analytical support for bird migration research, focusing on underrepresented species & regions. Interested? geopressure.org/GeoCollabForm/ Please share!
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Excited to share the (modest) results of our monitoring of bird-building collisions at Rice University, along with the hot and probably ill-informed takes of an evolutionary biologist dabbling into conservation for the first time!!! With huge thanks to...
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Natural history models of bird–building collisions
ecoevorxiv.org
June 25, 2026 at 1:50 PM
Excited to share the (modest) results of our monitoring of bird-building collisions at Rice University, along with the hot and probably ill-informed takes of an evolutionary biologist dabbling into conservation for the first time!!! With huge thanks to...
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Nice work.
And the authors included Wikiaves — great! ❤️
And the authors included Wikiaves — great! ❤️
From the current WJO issue: Leucism in a family group and a review of color aberrations in Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia). #ornithology doi.org/10.1080/1559...
June 17, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Nice work.
And the authors included Wikiaves — great! ❤️
And the authors included Wikiaves — great! ❤️
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
An Ecuadorian biologist is accused of scientific misconduct, inflating species counts, mishandling animals, entering reserves without permission and potentially complicating the development of lifesaving snake antivenoms. For more than a year, I investigated him for @science.org:
Did this scientist go too far trying to save Ecuador’s wildlife?
Alejandro Arteaga’s efforts to identify and protect tropical reptiles and amphibians have entangled him in controversy
www.science.org
May 18, 2026 at 4:17 PM
An Ecuadorian biologist is accused of scientific misconduct, inflating species counts, mishandling animals, entering reserves without permission and potentially complicating the development of lifesaving snake antivenoms. For more than a year, I investigated him for @science.org:
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Colony managers know it
The literature ignores it! Many seabirds are young - juvenile, immature, subadult, prebreeder - and we know v little about them!
Here's our paper on why you should care about young seabirds for conservation!
W/ @ejgnam2.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/fee....
The literature ignores it! Many seabirds are young - juvenile, immature, subadult, prebreeder - and we know v little about them!
Here's our paper on why you should care about young seabirds for conservation!
W/ @ejgnam2.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/fee....
May 12, 2026 at 12:30 PM
Colony managers know it
The literature ignores it! Many seabirds are young - juvenile, immature, subadult, prebreeder - and we know v little about them!
Here's our paper on why you should care about young seabirds for conservation!
W/ @ejgnam2.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/fee....
The literature ignores it! Many seabirds are young - juvenile, immature, subadult, prebreeder - and we know v little about them!
Here's our paper on why you should care about young seabirds for conservation!
W/ @ejgnam2.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/fee....
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
I still love the theory a Year 6 child proposed to me that David Attenborough is actually God and he got fed up with people not noticing the amazing things he'd created, so he made documentaries to show off.
May 8, 2026 at 7:14 PM
I still love the theory a Year 6 child proposed to me that David Attenborough is actually God and he got fed up with people not noticing the amazing things he'd created, so he made documentaries to show off.
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
Review of the ecology of Archaeopteryx: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🪶🧪 (📷NICE PaleoVisLab studio & Samantha Clark)
April 21, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Review of the ecology of Archaeopteryx: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🪶🧪 (📷NICE PaleoVisLab studio & Samantha Clark)
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
🧵 1/3
@adriftlab.bsky.social has never had government funding. What we have had - for nearly two decades - is a small group of deeply committed people, long-term datasets, and a community who makes it possible.
Our website now celebrates that out loud. 🔗 adriftlab.org
@adriftlab.bsky.social has never had government funding. What we have had - for nearly two decades - is a small group of deeply committed people, long-term datasets, and a community who makes it possible.
Our website now celebrates that out loud. 🔗 adriftlab.org
Marine Plastic & Seabird Research | Adrift Lab
Adrift Lab is a research group focused on seabirds and marine plastics research. Our mission is to use insights gathered from our long-term research to inform marine and waste policy, and to drive pos...
adriftlab.org
April 19, 2026 at 1:01 PM
🧵 1/3
@adriftlab.bsky.social has never had government funding. What we have had - for nearly two decades - is a small group of deeply committed people, long-term datasets, and a community who makes it possible.
Our website now celebrates that out loud. 🔗 adriftlab.org
@adriftlab.bsky.social has never had government funding. What we have had - for nearly two decades - is a small group of deeply committed people, long-term datasets, and a community who makes it possible.
Our website now celebrates that out loud. 🔗 adriftlab.org
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
A new paper I'm on is out today! Led by Stanley Somogyi, we suggest that ancestrally variable characters stabilized independently in different bird lineages, causing distantly related groups to retain similar traits and creating headaches for bird systematists. www.cell.com/current-biol... 🪶🧪
April 15, 2026 at 4:45 PM
A new paper I'm on is out today! Led by Stanley Somogyi, we suggest that ancestrally variable characters stabilized independently in different bird lineages, causing distantly related groups to retain similar traits and creating headaches for bird systematists. www.cell.com/current-biol... 🪶🧪
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
As our university is undergoing restructuring, its partnership with the natural history museum where I work, the Academy of Natural Sciences, is in jeopardy. If you value the involvement of science museums in the community, please consider checking out this petition. c.org/Db5WKdZSQ8
Have you seen this petition yet?
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University needs your support!
c.org
April 6, 2026 at 7:31 PM
As our university is undergoing restructuring, its partnership with the natural history museum where I work, the Academy of Natural Sciences, is in jeopardy. If you value the involvement of science museums in the community, please consider checking out this petition. c.org/Db5WKdZSQ8
Reposted by Vitor Piacentini
The Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1812 — over 200 years ago — and it's been underfunded ever since. At a time like this when NSF budgets are being slashed and the museum is receiving little institutional support from Drexel, we deeply appreciate you spreading the word: c.org/Rkpyfx9HRN
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University needs your support!
Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?
c.org
April 4, 2026 at 3:39 PM
The Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1812 — over 200 years ago — and it's been underfunded ever since. At a time like this when NSF budgets are being slashed and the museum is receiving little institutional support from Drexel, we deeply appreciate you spreading the word: c.org/Rkpyfx9HRN
Funny fact: most people ignore that every photo/video of an ET with 4 members, 2 eyes etc. is a proof in itself that it is fake. We have four 3-part limbs etc. because we are tetrapods. Believing in such ETs means Tiktaalik & allies could travel to other planets ~400 mya!
April 3, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Funny fact: most people ignore that every photo/video of an ET with 4 members, 2 eyes etc. is a proof in itself that it is fake. We have four 3-part limbs etc. because we are tetrapods. Believing in such ETs means Tiktaalik & allies could travel to other planets ~400 mya!
We need to correct (and further improve) the maps for two sister South American thrushes: Hauxwell’s and Cocoa.
Dear bird recordists: please pay attention to calls, too - they allow species recognition way better than songs in this case (and in thrushes and maybe Oscines in general?)
#ornithology
Dear bird recordists: please pay attention to calls, too - they allow species recognition way better than songs in this case (and in thrushes and maybe Oscines in general?)
#ornithology
🚨New paper alert🚨
Proud to share the first paper by my student Nathália Victória.
We show that plumage pattern of Turdus hauxwelli and T. fumigatus converge in central Amazonia, but that is not intergradation. Voice allows clear segregation between the 2 spp.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Proud to share the first paper by my student Nathália Victória.
We show that plumage pattern of Turdus hauxwelli and T. fumigatus converge in central Amazonia, but that is not intergradation. Voice allows clear segregation between the 2 spp.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Taxonomic signal in the calls of Turdus hauxwelli and T. fumigatus (Passeriformes: Turdidae) challenges the intergradation hypothesis and refines their distribution - Ornithology Research
Ornithology Research - Diagnosing cryptic species has long posed a challenge in ornithology. However, advances in vocal and molecular analyses have significantly enhanced species recognition. In...
link.springer.com
March 24, 2026 at 1:29 AM
We need to correct (and further improve) the maps for two sister South American thrushes: Hauxwell’s and Cocoa.
Dear bird recordists: please pay attention to calls, too - they allow species recognition way better than songs in this case (and in thrushes and maybe Oscines in general?)
#ornithology
Dear bird recordists: please pay attention to calls, too - they allow species recognition way better than songs in this case (and in thrushes and maybe Oscines in general?)
#ornithology