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Bird Migration

Billions of birds each year travel thousands of kilometres back and forth between breeding and wintering grounds. It is an great challenge to study the biology of these birds of which many weight less than a normal letter and not much is known about what happens after they leave northern breeding grounds. We use a plethora of methods, including the most advanced tracking including satellite and conventional radio telemetry as well as lightloggers (geolocators). Many long-distance migrant species are decreasing and a new research project focuses on overwintering biology on West Africa winter grounds. Global change requires speciel attention. Because birds er relatively well known, they are ideal for studying effects of climate change. For example we have shown that migrants arrive one week earlier in Denmark compared to thirty years ago. The ultimate reasons are still the subject of considerable debate and we have a strong interest in improving our ability to forecast effects on birds.

Global migrations:

ICARUS (International Cooporation of Animal Researchers Using Space); In collaboration with Martin Wikelski, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.

DTUsat: Developing a satellite-tracking system for small, 5g GPS tags.

Tracking cuckoo migrations using 5-g Argos tags; In collaboration with Martin Wikelski

Seasonal distributions and migration routes:

Migration of red-backed shrikes, thrush nightingales, European nightjars, house martins and redstarts using geolocators;

Improving analysis of non-breeding distributions using ring recoveries (EURING atlas);

Effects of climate change:

Phenological changes in migration monitoring data (primarily from Christiansø);

Analyses of ring recoveries

Migrants in Africa:

Winter biology of migrants wintering in Ghana

Navigation

How birds find their way travelling thousands of kilometres is still somewhat of a mystery. Young birds find the species-specific winter grounds that they have never visited before without guidance from experience conspecifics and adults find the same branch in the winter grounds as they used last year. So far orientation mechanisms have mostly been studied in orientation cages, but we combine these methods with tracking individual behaviours to follow the birds travel over longer distances.

The migratory orientation programme:

Orientation of vagrant birds on the Faroe Islands

Navigation in birds and bats

Conservation (and population ecology)

There has been a growing interest in knowledge of the factors regulating populations to be able manage wild populations. Especially for our rarer birds such information has become important but also several of our more common species have decline with little understanding of why. We use tracking and analyses of already existing data. The little owl project is a now finished conservation research project which has resulted in more effective management of the small and declining population of little owls in Denmark.

Rare Danish breeding birds:

The Danish little owl project; Conservation and migration of Montagu's harriers; Peregrine, white-tailed and golden eagles, Mediterranean gull, little tern, Tengmalm's owl

Environmental impact assessment: FEBI Fehmarn Belt EIA

Copenhagen Bird Ringing Centre

Ringing is still one of the most effective methods to study bird biology, especially movement patterns, but not least population parametres as survival and dispersal. Several projects run in connection with the Ringing Centre.

Faroe Island migration atlas

Constant Effort Site ringing: Standardised capture effort throughout the breeding season allows the possibility to monitor survival and reproduction in addition to population changes and thus get a better understanding of what causes changes in populations.

Spread of bird-borne diseases: Avian flu surveillance in Denmark

Monitoring (Skagen and Christians Island)

Wild bird recovery stations