Many animal species have made their homes in towns and cities. However, the conditions they encounter there are different than those under which they would live in a natural environment. Henrik Brumm, Jesko Partecke and Bart Kempenaers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and Radolfzell are studying the effects of city living on our native songbirds. In the process, they have discovered some surprising behavioral changes.

What goes on in the heads of zebra finches when the males and females engage in a tête-à-tête?

With the help of a wind tunnel, ornithologists are keen to find out whether migratory birds occasionally sleep with one brain hemisphere during long-distance flights.

Zebra finches exhibit major differences in their mating and sexual behavior – from shy to aggressive. Evolutionary biologists question what advantages such a high degree of individuality can have.

He has every reason to be optimistic: 37-year-old behavioral ecologist Bart Kempenaers has succeeded in making the leap
from head of an independent Junior Research Group to Max
Planck Director.

At the prompting of the Max Planck Institute and a large number of other international scientific organizations, the Charles Darwin Research Station was founded on the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador in 1959.

Scientists at the Max Planck Research Centre for Ornithology are studying aggressive behaviour in stonechats.

The founding of the Rossitten Ornithological Station 100 years ago lent wings to the field of ornithology in Germany. Prof. Peter Berthold outlines
its chequered history.

The birds’ pineal gland has a kind of "memory".