New editor | Pierre-Paul Bitton, subject editor for JAB
Warmly welcome to the editorial board of Journal of Avian Biology - Pierre-Paul Bitton!
Pierre-Paul Bitton is a seabird ecologist studying visual communication, coloration and social networks. He is based at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
Read the short interview with Pierre-Paul below and learn more about his research and his interests.
What's your main research focus at the moment?
My lab members and I are focused on understanding social interactions in Atlantic puffins. We study this by investigating the factors that influence the structure of their social network and how individuals recognize one another. We are also trying to answer the question ‘Why are puffin bills colourful?’
Can you describe your research career? Where, what, when?
I completed my BSc and MSc at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada, where I studied the signaling function of iridescent plumage in tree swallows. For my PhD at the University of Windsor, Canada, I conducted behavioural research on trogons at a field site in Costa Rica. My main questions pertained to understanding their anti-predator tail-raising behaviour, and the phenotypic traits that allopatric species attend to when encountering similar heterospecifics. My post-doc took me to the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, where field work in Corsica focused on the interaction between a triplefin and one of its important predator, the scorpionfish. I joined the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2018 where I have since dedicated myself to studying the behaviour of seabirds, mainly Atlantic puffins.
How come that you became a scientist with an interest in birds?
While taking time off between high-school and university I was walking in the forest where I felt very much at peace. Being raised in Montreal I had never considered the opportunities for working outdoors. Wanting to spend more time where I felt good made me explore options. I found a program in Fisheries and Wildlife Management that focused on applied activities and spent the next 3 years learning about animals and plants in the classroom and during extensive field courses. I never looked back!
Enough about work: what do you do when you're not working?
Mostly I spend time with my wife and two kids. We live by the seasons in Newfoundland. In the winter we go sledding and skying, in the summer we enjoy fishing. The best time of the year is the fall when we can go berry and mushroom picking to explore the province. When we get a chance we also love to travel in the country and abroad.
Journal of Avian Biology—who are we?
JOURNAL of AVIAN BIOLOGY: Empirical and Theoretical Research in Ornithology is an Open Access journal owned by the Nordic Society Oikos.
We are a journal for innovative, hypothesis-driven research on the biology of birds, with a particular emphasis on ecological, evolutionary and behavioural studies. We welcome submissions that study avian biology across all levels of ecological organization, from organisms and populations to communities and ecosystems. The journal also welcomes studies that report negative results, provided they are conducted rigorously and are scientifically informative. As a Nordic Society Oikos journal, we advocate research that is fair, openly accessible and reproducible.
Thinking about publishing with us?
Journal of Avian Biology offers a Review Award for early-career researchers.
We value ethical standards in science (EDI, Open Access, waivers, accessible data and code, CRediT)
Check out JAB’s journal metrics and see our Author Guidelines
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