Termine der Exkursion:
Da zur Zeit noch nicht absehbar ist, ob die Exkursion zu dem Zeitpunkt stattfinden kann, gelten die Termine nur unter Vorbehalt. Sollte die Exkursion nach Helgoland zu dem Zeitpunkt nicht möglich sein, wird die Exkursion entweder verschoben oder es werden individuelle Ersatz-Exkursionen in Berlin und Umgebung organisiert.

Zusätzliche Modulinfos: Modulbeschreibung der Modulvariante Ökologie und Evolution der Vögel close

Inhalte:
The main focus of this course is on topics in evolution, ecology and biology of birds with a special emphasis on bird migration and its underlying mechanisms. Students will be provided with the theoretical background in ecology and evolution of birds and bird migration. Further, students will be enabled to critically read and present published data and learn to develop, design, test and analyse small field studies which will be conducted during an excursion to the island of Helgoland. The course finishes with an introduction of metadata anylses, extracted from common literature.

Qualifikationsziele:
The students will develop detailed ideas on scientific topics in ecology and evolution with a main focus on bird biology including bird migration. The course will provide knowledge in planning, conducting and anaylsing field studies. Participants of this course will learn how to search and critically read scientific literature, how to prepare a presentation and how to present ideas, hypotheses and results of respective experiments. Further, the students will learn how to write a scientific paper and get insights into the analyses of metadata.

Vorlesung:
1. External and internal morphological features of birds
This lecture will cover the special features of bird enabling them to active flight and their adaptations to this particular "life style".
2. The sensory world of birds
This lecture will cover the sense of birds and their special adaptations.
3. Bird migration and the underlying neuronal mechanisms
This lecture will deal with all aspects of bird migration including the underlying neuronal and genetic mechanisms.
4. Introducing metadata analysis and how to write a report
This lecture will deal with analysing metadata and explain how a report is written.


Seminar:
Each student will be required to present a short oral communication on an original scientific publication on bird biology. A list of relevant original scientific publications will disseminated among participants in advance of this course.

Praktikum:
Development, planning, conducting analyses of field studies: experimental design, data collection, biology of birds, statistical analyses. close

Lovette, I.J. and Fitzpatrick, J.W. (eds.) (2016) Handbook of Bird Biology, Wiley Blackwell, 3rd edition. Bertolt, P. (2017) Vogelzug, Verlag wbg Academic, 7. Auflage For the excursion one of the many bird guide books close