Bird Migration

Satellite-based Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for tracking migratory birds year-round are still too heavy for most passerines. Therefore, more lightweight alternatives have been developed: light-level and...

The Swiss Ornithological Institute has been investigating bird migration by radar for more than 50 years, addressing both fundamental and applied research questions. The institute continues to be at the fore...

Diet metabarcoding is a powerful tool that enables researchers to study bird diets in depth. Starting off from bird droppings (called faecal samples) collected in the field, we move to the laboratory. There,...

Most birds migrate at night, invisible from the ground. The number of birds in the air can change a lot from night to night, mostly depending on the weather. Birds avoid flying in rain or strong winds, but w...