We offer students the opportunity to work within our current research projects. Specifically, the students then accompany the doctoral students or post-docs in their specific research projects and take on certain sub-questions. The students are thus intensively integrated into the working group.

Assessing magnetoreception and orientation/navigation-hypotheses in free-flying birds
Navigation abilities of reed warblers in Latvia using the earth's magnetic field (Annika Peter)
Influence of electrosmog on the flight behavior of wheatears on Helgoland (Annika Peter)

The pre-migratory flight behavior in a songbird migrant - spatiotemporal characteristic and potential delayed fitness consequences
Influence of pre-migratory flights on return rates (n.n.)

Effects of offshore wind power development on bird migration in the North and Baltic Seas - avoidance and mitigation measures
Radiotelemetric studies on migratory songbirds (Thiemo Karwinkel & Georg Rüppel)

Are migratory songbirds affected by pesticides?
Studies on the influence of pesticides on the migration behavior and body condition (autumn field work) as well as the breeding biology (spring field work) of Eurasian Skylarks (Wieland Heim)

Invasive plants as habitat for birds
Studies on migrating birds roosting in stands of the Asian knotweed Reynoutria spec. (Wieland Heim)

Project outline "Seabirds - Shipping - Flight reactions" (Dr. Volker Dierschke, DDA)

Studies on the degree of mating of the Ortolan in the district of Uelzen (Heiko Schmaljohann)

Further research focuses are:

• Understanding the ecological and evolutionary function of stopover in migrating birds (Heiko Schmaljohann)
• Control of the onset of nocturnal migration (Heiko Schmaljohann)
• Migration behavior of long- and medium-distance songbird migrants (Heiko Schmaljohann)

If you are aiming for a thesis with existing data, i.e. a pure data analysis thesis, we can develop a suitable research question with you and provide the needed data.

• Evaluations in the above-mentioned projects
• Evaluation of ringing or ornitho.de data
• Evaluation of radiotelemetric data

Students from all disciplines and universities are welcome to approach us at any time with their own research questions and ideas for theses. Together we will then develop a scientifically sound concept for the thesis.

We are also open to supervise external research projects and thesis from other universities or commercial companies that are not primarily linked with a working group at the University of Oldenburg.

Please send inquiries directly to the persons mentioned or Prof. Dr. Heiko Schmaljohann by email.