© Marcel Burkhardt

    Felix Liechti

    Contact

    Felix Liechti
    Felix Liechti (Foto © Archiv Vogelwarte)
    Dr. phil. II Felix Liechti
    Swiss Ornithological Institute
    Seerose 1
    6204 Sempach
    Switzerland

    ++41 41 462 97 82 (Phone)
    ++41 41 462 97 10 (Fax)
    felix.liechti@vogelwarte.ch

    Function

    • researcher
    • head of migration
    • research department

    Expertise

    • radar ornithology
    • bird migration
    • bird flight
    • bird strike mitigation

    Current Projects

    • influence of environmental factors on bird migration
    • migratory connectivity and carry over effects in passerine migrant populations Specific projects:
    • implementation of a European-wide bird migration monitoring by radar
    • implementation of a bird migration warning system with respect to safety in aviation and collision risk mitigation with wind farms.

    Co-operations

    Willem Bouten, Research Group of Computational Geo- Ecology (CGE), IBED, Amsterdam University, The Netherlands.
    Susanne Akesson, Centre for Animal Movement Research, Lund University, Sweden.
    Marcel Klaassen, Centre for Integrative Ecolog. Deakin University, Australia.
    Pavel Zehtindijev, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria.
    Roger Weber, Engineering and Information Technology, Berne University of Applied Science, Switzerland.
    Federal Office of Civil Aviation, Berne, Switzerland.

    CV

    Education  
    1985 – 1991 Doctoral thesis at the university of Basel supervised by Prof. Dr. B. Bruderer (Swiss Ornithological Institute) on the influence of environmental factors on bird migration.
    1979 – 1985 Study of biology at the university of Zurich, main degree Zoology, secondary botany.
    Working life  
    2008 - Lecturer at the University of Basel.
    2008 - Official delegate for the swiss federal office of civil aviation in the international birdstrike committee.
    2007 – 2008 Project management "Weather radars, validations and adaptations" within the ESA (European Space Agency) FlySafe-Initiative.
    2007 Symposium organised on "Radar ornithology - past experiences and future challenges" at the EOU-conference (Vienna).
    since 2007 Head of the bird migration research department at the Swiss ornithological institute
    2002 Participation on ESF-Symposium held at Lund (Sweden) on "Ecology of long-distance movements".
    2000-2004 Co-applicant and coordination of the project "Bird migration across the Sahara", supported by the SNSF. Prospection, pilot project, field work with a mobile radar in the Sahara desert, Mauritania.
    1998 - 2006 Co-ordinator in the department of bird migration at the Swiss Ornithological Institute (Stv. Programmleiter). Co-supervision of several diploma works and doctoral theses in co-operation with the University of Basel and Zurich.
    1996 / 1997 Co-applicant of the SNSF-project (Swiss National Science Foundation) on "Bird migration in the Western Mediterranean". Management and directing work of the radar field station in southern Spain.
    1993 – 1998 Scientific assistant and deputy in the Swiss Bird Radar research team (Swiss Ornithological Institute).
    1993 Stay at University of Lund (S) collaborating with Bird migration research group of Prof. T. Alerstam.
    1991 / 1992 Field work in Israel: Leading a radar stations.
    1991 - 1993 Scientific assistant at the Swiss Ornithological Institute.
    1989 – 1991 Part time job as an IT-instructor.
    1984 – 1989 Part time job at an engineering office, pollution control.

    Publications

    List of publications (last 5 years, peer reviewed journals only)