Do cities affect the colour of great tits? | The story behind the paper

For today's episode, Ivy is joined by Nicolas Bekka, author of a recently published paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology, "paler within the city: Carotenoid-based colouration covaries negatively with the proportion of impervious surface in great tit (Parus major) territories across Europe". Nicolas tells us how he got into animal ecology, the process of writing the paper, and what's next for him and his research area. You can read the paper here: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.70355 You can read Nicolas' blog here: https://animalecologyinfocus.com/2026/09/25/paler-within-the-city-across-europe-great-tits-parus-major-are-paler-in-more-impervious-neighbourhoods/