Chapter 2 Introduction

2.1 Course aims

Students will

  • gain a general understanding of migration, its causes and consequences
  • understand the functions of bird migration and its implications for population dynamics and ecological communities
  • apply or get introduced to some frequently used ornithological field methods
  • interpret information from various data sources (e.g. observations, mark-recapture, data loggers, tracking methods, blood samples, genetics) and evaluate their representativeness and accuracy
  • identify the more common European migrating bird species

For the conceptual background, we will cover the following aspects:

  • Morphological and physiological adaptation to flight
  • Life cycle of birds (breeding, post-fledging, molting, migration, staging)
  • Ecology and evolution of bird migration
  • Timing of migration
  • Migration strategies and orientation
  • Global change and migration

For practical and field methods, we will introduce some of the most important field methods:

  • counting and identifying migrating birds,
  • bird catching and marking,
  • morphological and physiological measurements,
  • tracking birds

Student projects are ideally conducted in groups of 2-4 persons. We expect students to choose a project during the first two days of the course (see list of potential projects 12). There are several slots for work on these projects over the course week and we expect students to give a brief (approx. 20 min) presentation on Friday, detailing the ecological question behind the project, the analytical approach chosen, the results obtained and a discussion. Within the student projects, we will introduce and apply important theoretical approaches and analytical methods.

2.2 Course schedule

The course consists of lectures, project work and excursions.

2.2.1 Prepatory days: 2-5 September 2025 at Swiss Ornithological Institute Sempach and ETH Zürich

Travel information
• To Sempach: Travel by train is around 1.5h from Zürich HB (www.sbb.ch). The nearest train station is Sempach-Neuenkirch, from which you can either walk (15-20mins) to the visitor center of the Swiss Ornithological Institute or take a bus to “Sempach Vogelwarte”.

2.2.2 Course day 1: Tuesday, 2 September 2025 in Sempach

Location: Room Schulungsraum Besuchszentrum at the Swiss Ornithological Institute, 6204 Sempach. We will meet at the main entrance of the visitor centre at 10:00.

  • 10:00 - 11:00 Welcome and Introduction

    • Introduction of all
    • Overview of the course aims and content
    • Student expectations from the course
    • What we expect from you and your projects
    • Ask us anything!

  • 11:00 Lecture 1: Introduction to animal migration (SB)

  • 12:00 - 13:00 Lunch break

  • 13:00 - 14:30 Visitor centre (self study)

  • 14:45 - 15:45 Lecture 2: Characteristics of birds and introduction to expected species (FK)

  • 15:45 - 17:00 Overview of student projects and papers to be read (information SB, FK)

2.2.3 Course day 2: Wednesday, 3 September 2025

Location: ETH Zürich, room LEE C 114

  • 9:15 - 12:00 Lecture 3: Modelling bird migration including practicals (SB) and practicals (SB, FK)

  • 13:00 - 13:45 Lecture 4: Methods for studying animal migration (SB)

  • 14:00 - 14:45 Lecture 5: Methods for field ornithology (FK)

  • 15:00 - 17:00 Practical (SB, FK)

    • refreshing working with R (Exercise in Chapter 13)
    • geolocation (Exercise in Chapter 14)
    • estimating migratory connectivity based data of marked animals (Exercise in Chapter 15)

2.2.4 Course day 3: Thursday, 4 September 2025

Location: ETH Zürich, room LEE C 114

  • 9:15 - 10:00 Lecture 6: Timing of migration (SB)

  • 10:15 - 11:00 Lecture 7: Orientation (FK)

  • 11:15 - 12:00 Practical (FK, SB)

    • Analyse timing of arrival or hatching dates using linear regressions (Exercise in Chapter 16)

  • 13:00 - 13:45 Lecture 8: Migration in the life-cycle of a bird (FK)

  • 14:00 - 14:45 Lecture 9: Ecosystem functions, biodiversity consequences, Services & disservices of migrants (SB)

  • Practicals:

  • Survival estimation based on data of marked animals (exercise in Chapter 17)

  • Biodiversity consequences of movements

2.2.5 Course day 4: Friday, 5 September 2025

Location: ETH Zürich, room LEE C 114

  • 9:15 - 10:00: Lecture 10: Climate change and other threats to migrating animals (SB)

  • 10:15 - 11:00: Lecture 11: Climate change and other threats to Swiss breeding birds (FK)

  • 11:15 - 12:15: Exercises and discussion to climate change and threats to migrants (SB, FK)

  • 13:00 – 17:00 Preparation of student projects

    • build groups
    • find study question
    • sketch the project
    • download literature
    • install R-packages

2.2.6 Excursion to Col de Bretolet: Mon-Fri 8-12 September 2025

The schedule of lectures, excursions and project work in Barmaz will be kept flexible as we need to take weather conditions into account and may need to re-adjust.

2.2.7 Course day 5: Monday, 8 September 2024

  • Morning/ early afternoon: Travel to Barmaz (detailed travel suggestions will be provided separately)

  • Afternoon: Bird excursion, species identification

  • Discuss project proposals

  • literature and questions

2.2.8 Course day 6: Tuesday, 9 September 2025

  • Morning: Hike to field station at Col de Bretolet

    • Field methods
    • Data

  • Afternoon

  • Project work

  • Repetition of species identification

2.2.9 Course day 6: Wednesday, 10 September 2025

  • Morning: Hike to field station at Col de Bretolet
    • Field methods
    • Data
  • Afternoon
    • Continue project work
    • Repetition of species identification

2.2.10 Course day 7: Thursday, 11 September 2025

  • Morning: Hike to field station at Col de Bretolet (optional)

  • Continue project work

  • Prepare final presentation

2.2.11 Course day 8: Friday, 12 September 2025

  • Morning
    • Presentations of project work
    • Summary of course & take Home Message (FK & SB)
    • Student feedback
  • Around noon - return home

2.3 Preparations

As a preparation, we ask students to read at one paper and summarize the paper so that you are able to introduce the key messages of these papers to your fellow students (for guidelines to reading and summarizing papers, see Chapter Student’s projects. The specific paper may be chosen to fit the topic of the project work (see also specific recommendations at the project descriptions).

General papers, reviews, synthesis

Specific research papers

References

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Adamík, Peter, Tamara Emmenegger, Martins Briedis, Lars Gustafsson, Ian Henshaw, Miloš Krist, Toni Laaksonen, et al. 2016. “Barrier crossing in small avian migrants: individual tracking reveals prolonged nocturnal flights into the day as a common migratory strategy.” Scientific Reports 6 (1): 21560. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21560 http://www.nature.com/articles/srep21560#supplementary-information.
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