My PhD focused on understanding plumage colour variation in a population of great tits in Bagley Wood, near Oxford. I also instigated collaboration with Prof. Lars Gustafsson and, after graduating, took up a postdoc position with him at Uppsala University to study the quantitative genetics of ornament expression in collared flycatchers. In 2015, I moved to the University of Zurich to join Dr Erik Postma’s study of a modern human population, based on an extensive genealogical archive or residents in the Swiss canton of Glarus. I’ve now switched back to birds, coordinating the long-term study of great tits in Wytham Woods and dabbling in more quantitative genetics.