Homepage of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology

Brief Portrait of the Institute

Birds may be the most attractive species in the world - no other group attracts so many devotees and amateur scientists. As day active animals, birds are everywhere - and not only on the pavements or in our gardens, but indeed even in Antarctica or in the middle of the Sahara. For researchers, birds are ideal objects of study for a whole range of fundamental biological questions: birds are distributed throughout the world; they are abundant in species and rich in adaptation. They share their habitats with humans more so than any other animal group, which means they act as important biological indicators.

Birdsong has many similarities to human language. It is therefore an interesting model system for study in that it has strongly been shaped by learning processes. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology not only study the neural basis for learning abilities and memory both in the motor and sensory areas, they are also trying to discover what role hormones play in the gender-specific differentiation of the brain area. As a rule, the "vocal control system" is more developed in the forebrain of singing male birds than in the non-singing females.

In addition, Max Planck scientists investigate the various strategies birds use when choosing a partner and in sending out sexual signals. Next to song, such signals include morphological properties such as body size, colour of plumage, colour of beaks etc. The scientists want to find out why external characteristics as well as behavioural traits differ from individual to individual, and what mechanisms ensure that variety is maintained to such a great extent. Since the maintenance of such traits is associated with individual costs, the former should be translated into an advantage in evolutionary terms for its owner. One fascinating question is therefore what the advantage of individual uniqueness could be.

Flyer of the Institute

Directors at the Institute

Prof. Dr. Manfred Gahr
   Department of Behavioural Neurobiology

Prof. Dr. Bart Kempenaers
   Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics

Prof. Dr. Martin Wikelski
   Department of Migration and Immuno-ecology

History

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