Beatrix Butnicu 🦆🪻
LightNews LightNews
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Beatrix Butnicu 🦆🪻
@beatrixbird.bsky.social
100 followers 250 following 110 posts
Autistic autism researcher
PhD student at The University of Sheffield
Laser-focused on cool things: monotropism, neurodiversity paradigm, birds & video games
Multiply neurodivergent & disabled #DisabledPride
She/they
Views my own
Posts Replies Media Videos
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Brucks, D., Krasheninnikova, A., von Bayern, A. M. P., & Bugnyar, T. (2020). Parrots voluntarily help each other to obtain food rewards. Current Biology, 30(2), 292–297.e5. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
Alt text: Two African grey parrots sit in adjacent metal cages. One has a pile of metal rings, the other has a single walnut. Between them is a small hole in the divider. The image illustrates a study where parrots passed rings through the hole so their partners could trade them for treats. Post text: Scientists taught African grey parrots to swap metal rings for treats. Then they paired birds so one had ten rings and the other had none. The ring-rich parrots started passing rings through a hole so partners could “buy” walnuts — even with no reward for themselves.
October 31, 2025 at 2:34 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
This adorable story shows how an experiment can seem to work but measure the wrong thing! A child tested if bird seeds grow birds, and birds appeared, confirming the idea. But the seeds *attracted* birds. In science that’s a threat to construct validity, and it happens to the best of scientists!
Screenshot of a tweet from user @_grimm (@ExileGrimm). It reads: “What’s the dumbest beliefs you had as a child? When I was 4–5 I swore that bird seeds grew birds, thus the name. When my parents asked me to prove it to them, I planted a pile of bird seeds. The next day there were loads of birds where I planted the seeds, showing I was right.”
October 31, 2025 at 10:40 AM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Beauty is in the eye of the monotropic unicorn. #monotropism
Pink smiling unicorn t-shirt with real sunglasses hanging as if under its eyes, curly purple hair strands and a multi colour polka dot scarf. The unicorn is my embodied metaphor for Monotropism, the horn (attention tunnel) coming out of the prefrontal cortex and converving into a singular point of focus, which often feels ike magic.
October 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Hummingbird Hawk Moth in my garden this morning!
September 30, 2025 at 7:40 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
#glimmer I love these little raindrops.
Copper-coloured leaves with lots of little raindrops on them.
September 18, 2025 at 12:08 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
#glimmer my work kitchen has a beautiful bird tray and I'm so happy
Dish rack where a big white tray with colourful bird prints is sitting
September 17, 2025 at 9:02 AM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Am I the Asshole? (Poem)
Am I the Asshole? Am I the disease? Am I killing myself softly, or thornily, for lack of a better world? Am I the world? No longer a fool, but a tired old hermit that's seen too much, that's seen enough? Am I the immune system? Too much when not needed; Not enough in the hour that counts? Am I a ticking time bomb? Succumb to my disease, my demon in the doorway? Take out my own allies When I feel as alone with them as with my foes? Am I the asshole? The same hurt, misguided person that makes hurt, misguided people; The bitter reactionary I fight today? Am I the lesson I cannot teach? The hurt I want to spare the ones who are outliers even to outliers carried in my marrow, breaking through my tongue. Not a truth the libraries could hold but one I live before I learn. @ Beatrix Butnicu, 2025
September 5, 2025 at 11:58 AM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Judgement
Judgement Tiny tears Make up an ocean And I hate Going to the beach. Give me a mountain and I’ll move it. Give me anything but the sea. How do I sail through foggy waters? How do I walk the plank in a storm? How do we fix a cracked foundation? How do we stay? How do we stay afloat? “You’ll stay, because I said so.” “You’ll stay, because girls don’t rock the boat.” “You’ll stay, even if I have to make you.” “You’ll stay." And that’s all she wrote. “I don’t want to stay in the basement.” “I don’t want to be muted and maimed.” “I don’t want to sit at an empty table.” “I don’t want to be covered and ashamed.” “Shame is a child,” said the Lady. “To muffle and to mould." The girl raised her teapot. “Treat me like a murderer, and I’ll murder you cold.” @ Beatrix Butnicu, 2025
September 3, 2025 at 6:42 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
A Teapot and A Poem
A teapot and a poem. What a lovely way to pass the time. Loud cries. Loud claps. They sear through me like the crack of a thousand whips. Loud claps. Loud cries. The world is too much. I am not enough. Then I become too much And the world is not enough. Alone. Naked. Cold. Don’t leave me here! Don’t look! But don’t leave me! Alone. Naked… I am here, child. I am here. For you. Take up as much space as you need In me. BALLOON! My soul is immense. I am nothing and everything. I am nowhere and everywhere. I am here with you. A teapot and a poem. What a lovely way to pass the time with you. @ Beatrix Butnicu, 2025
September 3, 2025 at 6:40 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
#glimmer #glimmer Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before
Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without the costume
That I wore
(Leonard Cohen - Going Home)
Old English headstone with angel bas relief surrounded by autumnal rainy nature.
August 27, 2025 at 5:05 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
"When autistic people are absorbed in their interests, alone or in the company of others who share them, that is when they feel autistically, magically alive" - NeuroClastic

neuroclastic.com/a-productive...
Autistic person with sensory armour like headphones and golf cap standing peacefully with eyes closed and a smile against an old English brick wall. Above her head is a natural bouquet of bellflowers growing out of the wall. Used as metaphor for neurodivergent mental health and cognitive flourishing.
August 20, 2025 at 11:04 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
A couple of days ago I returned to my previous school, Hallam University, to help staff bring the best out of their autistic students. It was a cathartic experience. My partner, Darren, helped me navigate the environment. We make a great team.
Beatrix in a modern goth Victorian outfit in front of Sheffield Hallam University. Beatrix with sunglasses, black hat and long purple hair and her partner Darren, with sunglasses and medium light brown hair. Beatrix presenting about monotropism through a whimsically colourful slide where the cockatoo gets the rainbow-coloired attention tunnel spotlight because it's the most interesting "actor" on stage while everyone else gets tuned out in a blur. Beatrix presents a slide on accessibility solutions in the realm of autistic attention.
July 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
This moment needs Instrument of Surrender by Sea Power.

open.spotify.com/track/1PQW0o...
Top of bookcase with a brachiosaurus toy and some fake plants. A rectangular window-shaped light creeps through on the wall on top of the bookcase encasing a big verdant shadow of the plants.
July 10, 2025 at 2:57 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Runner up at the TUoS School of Psychology PG Conference. Not bad. I was quite stressed in this picture, but talking about attention tunnels put me in my attention tunnel.
Beatrix in a lecture hall at the speaker station wearing sensory armour and a black galaxy shirt with the intro slide behind her saying Can I Have Your Attention: Developing an Experimental Measure of Monotropism. There's a big painted eye graphic with a pink heart in the pupil that gives birth to a rainbow beam of light in the dark. This is meant to show the interest-baded attention tunnel in Monotropism.
July 10, 2025 at 2:10 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Love these things
Window view of red Valerians Red Valerians and a butterfly Red Valerians and a bee
June 20, 2025 at 10:34 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Monotropism @ Cafe Autistique, Manchester, 2025. Had so much fun with this one.
June 16, 2025 at 8:29 AM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Support monotropic minds by reducing sensory intensity in our environments.
4 panel comic. A school child is overwhelmed by the bell ringing, the background chatter and the scraping noises students make. His head is full of all this noise and can't focus on the math teacher's instructions. The last panel says, "it's not defiance, it's sensory overload". Below the comic says, "Some kids experience sensory overload in noisy environments. They're not ignoring you - they're overwhelmed. Calm, quiet, and understanding can help them feel safe."
June 8, 2025 at 4:29 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Severely sensitive autism researcher (me) explains monotropism & sensory issues while doing a magic trick. (Warning: loud parrots)
June 7, 2025 at 10:13 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Gave a talk about neuro-accessibility at the Sheffield Autism Festival on 17th April 2025. It was a privilege and I'm super glad people resonated. Q&A became a long and insightful brave-space.
April 28, 2025 at 11:47 AM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Today I had the privilege to talk about my special interest for a whole hour to a cool audience courtesy of the national CONNECT dental researchers network.
Image depicts a first slide containing the title of the presentation: Neuroinclusion in Employment, Higher Education & Research.
February 26, 2025 at 10:18 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
January 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Wait, I have just the response to this article
January 11, 2025 at 3:04 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
My tiny mushroom from Peak District 🍄.

If you see this post something orange.
January 10, 2025 at 8:42 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
My tiny mushroom from Peak District, UK
January 10, 2025 at 8:32 PM
beatrixbird.bsky.social
Flax No More - Dove Dust
#birbs #pigeons #faithnomore #rock
January 10, 2025 at 7:54 PM