Animal Migration and Research in Field Ornithology

Abstract

This course introduces students to ornithological field methods with a focus on bird migration. Participants experience bird migration by visiting a ringing station in the Alps and participating in ongoing research activities. They learn about the morphology, physiology, energetics, behavior and evolution of bird migration through short lectures, small field research projects and data analysis.

Objective

Students will be able to: - explain the functions of bird migration and its implications for population dynamics and ecological communities - appreciate the biological and evolutionary determinants of bird migration - identify the more common European migrating bird species - choose the appropriate ornithological field and theoretical methods for a given scientific question - interpret information from different data sources (e.g. observations, mark-recapture, data loggers, tracking methods, blood samples, genetics) and evaluate their representativeness and accuracy

Content

The course consists of lectures, project work and excursions. Lectures: - Ecology and evolution of bird migration - Migration strategies and orientation - Life cycle of birds (breeding, post-fledging, molting, migration, staging) - Morphological and physiological adaptation to flight - Energetics of flight - Current challenges and conservation of migrants Practicals (Excursions and project work): - Introduction of field methods: counting and identifying migrating birds, bird catching and marking, morphological measurements in live birds. - Short research projects in small groups. Students analyse data sets provided by the Swiss Ornithological Institute, or they can formulate their own questions and collect new data. Data is analyzed, interpreted, and results are presented orally.

Resources