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This collaboration provides a first look at how avian visual acuity and sensitivity have evolved in concert with nest architecture strategies. Using existing databases on eye size, nest construction behavior, and traits related to the color of eggs and nestling gapes for over 1600 species of Passerine birds, our results point toward the evolution of
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We spent a great month visiting our study system in the Chachapoyas region of northern Peru, meeting lots of local collaborators and laying the groundwork for new questions. We started the trip by participating in the annual Global Big Day as part of a group of park rangers from the Bosque de Proteccion Alto Mayo.
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Three MSc students at Uni Bern recently completed their MSc theses that I supervised when I was a postdoc in the Conservation Biology group. Laetitia Studer worked on the final year of the Hoopoe post-fledgling project, specifically studying their movement behavior and habitat use. Serena Poloni studied the impact of vineyard protection nets on avian
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I have a new paper in Journal of Animal Ecology that examines the ecological correlates of eye size for 1/3 of the global aquatic avifauna (~450 species). One of the most amazing findings related to underwater pursuit divers (like auks and penguins). Species that dove to greater depths where light attenuates to < 1% had
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Rico Felder presented his final results from his MSc studying the survival and habitat selection of fledgling European Hoopoes in Valais. He has been working on this project for two years now, collecting survival and movement data on over 60 young Hoopoes across a total of 6 months of fieldwork. This was a huge task
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Four of my students presented MSc and BSc thesis projects at the annual Biology conference sponsored by the Swiss Biological Society, this year hosted by ETH Zürich. Rico (MSc) and Lisa (BSc) presented results on post-fledging survival, movements, and behavior of the European Hoopoe. Lucy presented her MSc results on the effects of anthropogenic disturbance
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We have new research published in Functional Ecology that demonstrates how flight mechanics and visual systems drive dispersal limitation of tropical bird communities living in isolated forest fragments. We first used experimental release trials to show that species with low aspect ratio wings, high wing loading and large eyes are less able to cross a
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Fall brings not just the start of a new academic semester but also the end of the field season for our projects. Rico finished a second long field season for his MSc, radio-tracking fledgling Hoopoes around the orchards and vineyards in Valais to see how long they survive, where they move, and what types of
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The Green-and-Black Fruiteater (Pipreola riefferii) is one of the emblematic species of the Andean cloud forest. Nicolas Mamani-Cabana, who worked as a field assistant on our research for three years, led the analysis and writing of this new paper published in Ornitologia Neotropical. Using radio tracking data that he helped collect, he analyzed the home
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Our applied conservation research on managing tropical montane forest bird communities in agricultural landscapes is now published in Conservation Biology. We provide precise recommendations for retaining habitat features in tropical countrysides and how they support the retention of avian biodiversity. We also conduced a pan-Andean analysis of species-specific sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance for 800+ Andean
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Animal Functional Ecology & Conservation 