We are excited that Yinka Abayomi has joined our team at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. Yinka is a new MasterCard Foundation Scholar, and will be carrying out his MSc research on the occurrence and determinants of pre-rain green-up and its association with the timing of breeding in birds in Zambia’s miombo woodlands, working with Chima and Claire. He joins us from the Federal University of Abeokuta, Nigeria, and brings to the team his expertise in forestry, and an enthusiastic and growing interest in ornithology, and particularly in how climate change affects the timing of annual cycle events in birds.