1. Ornithology
Ghent University
Master 1 – Biology
February 2012

2. Course Content Part 1: Taxonomy and Biogeography Avian taxonomy
Overview of main orders and families

3. Course Content Part 1: Taxonomy and Biogeography Avian biogeography
Why study biogeography of birds ?
Continental birds
Island birds
Seabirds

4. Course Content Part 2: Distributions and Behaviour Avian distributions
Disjunct ranges
Range dynamics
Crossing barriers

5. Course Content Part 2: Distributions and Behaviour Avian mobility
Avian dispersal
Avian migration

6. Course Content Part 2: Distributions and Behaviour
Tropical ornithology
Why are tropical birds interesting ?
Temperate zone bias
Timing of breeding
Life history traits

7. Course Content

8. Course Content Part 3: Guest seminar
The effect of enemy-release and climate conditions on invasive birds: a regional test using the rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri) as a case study.

9. Course Content Part 3: Guest seminar
Comparative biology of the forest-inhabiting hawks Accipiter spp. in the Democratic Republic of Congo

10. Course Content Part 4: Avian topography, moult, ageing and sexing
Bare parts
Feather characteristics
  Feather types and arrangement
Wing shapes and locomotion
Moult
Function and consequences
  Strategies
Ageing and sexing  
Techniques

11. Course Content
Part 4: Avian topography, moult, ageing and sexing

12. Course Content
Part 4: Avian topography, moult, ageing and sexing

13. Course Content
Part 4: Avian topography, moult, ageing and sexing

14. Course Content
Part 4: Avian topography, moult, ageing and sexing

15. Course Content
Part 4: Avian topography, moult, ageing and sexing

16. Course Content Part 5: Selected topics in ornithology
Species concepts in ornithology
Orientation and navigation
Migration and vagrancy
Moult strategies
Neoteny
Sexual dimorphism
Mixed flocking
Co-operative breeding
Floating
Hybridisation and competition
Invasive species
Avian personalities