Bird migration

A - Non-breeding season: migratory connectivity und carry-over effects Conditions in the non-breeding habitats can affect reproduction and survival and thus, eventually, determine population dynamics of migrating birds. However, for most species we hardly know anything about the (environmental) conditions in the African wintering areas, how the conditions carry-over to subsequent life-history stages and whether distinct European breeding populations also separate in their African wintering quarters.

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	B - En route: Migration strategies Weather conditions during flight, food availability on intermittent stop-over sites and stochasticity in these factors put a strong pressure on birds to be at the right place at the right time.
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B - En route: Physiology of bird migration During migration birds will go repeatedly through two behavioural and physiological stages: fuelling and the endurance flight. Fuelling is the anabolic phase, during which the birds replenish their fuel stores for flight; flight is the catabolic phase, during which the fuel stores are broken down. Our projects investigated how the energy metabolism adapts to these demands and whether this switch is regulated by the glucocorticoid hormone corticosterone.

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	C - Between the worlds: Modelling bird migration During migration, periods of flight alternate with periods on stop-over sites, where birds accumulate body reserves for the next migratory leg. For a successful completion of migration and timely arrival in the breeding grounds, the choice of high-quality stop-over sites is of utmost importance.
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	D - Radar ornithology To date radar is the only available tool to quantify bird movements during day and night time over large areas and for long time periods. The Swiss Ornithological Institute has 40 years of research experience in measuring temporal and altitudinal patterns of bird migration using radar technique.
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D - Indirect tracking: Geolocator The principle underlying geolocation has been known for a long time. Sailors in medieval times determined the positions of their ships using sunrise and sunset. Similarly, a modern geolocator measures time and intensity of sunlight and saves the data for periods longer than one year. The travels and whereabouts of migrant birds can thus be reconstructed once the data have been downloaded from the device.

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	D - Long-term surveillance of bird migration on Col de Bretolet Each autumn thousands of migrants cross the Col de Bretolet, a pass located in the Swiss Alps. In the year 1958 a ringing program was started to monitor the migration of birds across Switzerland on a long-term basis.
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	D - Moon-watching The majority of migrating birds choose to travel in high altitudes at night. Although their calls can be sometimes heard, many birds pass undetected by bird watchers in the night sky. The observation of travelling birds silhouetted against the (full) moon offers a simple method for estimating bird migration at night.
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	D - Ring re-encounter analysis: R-functions to download Analyses of ring re-encounter data often require non-standard methods. Here, a few functions written for the free statistical software R are presented for free download.
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