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2026-04-03T12:32:31+02:00

Dominika Winiarska left our lab in 2024 with PhD (with honours) but still papers from her thesis are doing their job :)
Winiarska D, Budka M, Perez-Granados C, Osiejuk TS (2024) Passive acoustic monitoring of endangered endemic Afromontane tropical species: a case study with two turacos. African Journal of Ecology 62:e13280. DOI: 10.1111/aje.13280

10th Marcin Antczak Award for Adriana Cibik Holoskova

2025-10-18T19:21:28+02:00

The 10th Marcin Antczak Award for the most inspiring ornithological papers published in 2024 in a peer-reviewed journal by a young scientist from Poland, the Czech Republic, or Slovakia goes to Adriana Cíbik Hološková from the Faculty of Science at Charles University, who is originally from Slovakia.

The International Board of Marcin Antczak Award appointed by the Dean of the Faculty of Biology of Adam Mickiewicz University, decided that the most inspiring ornithological papers of the last year are:

Hološková A, Cíbik J, Reif J (2024) Why do open-farmland specialist birds prefer small fields? The evaluation of mechanisms using a cross-border study. Global Ecology and Conservation 56:e03327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03327

Hološková A, Kadlec T, Reif J (2024) Synergic effects of vegetation structure and food supply underlie higher abundance of a farmland specialist bird in organic than in conventional arable fields. Global Ecology and Conservation 51:e02912.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02912

Hološková A, Reif J (2024) Factors shaping insectivorous farmland bird abundance in intensively cultivated arable fields: Insights through the former Iron Curtain. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 360:108772.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2023.108772

Adriana Cíbik Hološková’s research has brought new perspectives by focusing on Slovakia, where farmland is dominated by exceptionally large fields – a legacy of agricultural collectivisation. This unique context, distinct from the small-scale mosaic landscapes of Western Europe, offers crucial insights into the drivers of farmland bird declines. Her studies showed that in such oversized fields, the suitability of crops and vegetation structure, rather than food supply alone, determines breeding success of species like the Yellow Wagtail. She also demonstrated that organic farming, even within vast monocultures, supports higher Skylark abundance through richer invertebrate communities and more favourable vegetation. A cross-border comparison with Austria revealed that small, diverse fields consistently host more Skylarks, underlining the importance of crop diversity and landscape heterogeneity. By exposing the ecological risks of large-scale fields, her work directly informs debates on the Common Agricultural Policy in Slovakia, underpinning proposals for buffer strips, crop diversification, and measures tailored to Central and Eastern European farming systems.

Dr. Adriana Cíbik Hološková is an ornithologist specialising in the agroecology and conservation of farmland birds in Central and Eastern Europe. She earned her PhD in Environmental Science at Charles University in Prague as part of the prestigious STARS programme, focusing on the factors driving changes in farmland bird populations in intensively cultivated landscapes. Besides her research, she is actively involved in policy work as a member of the BirdLife Europe Agriculture Task Force. Nationally, she works within the Slovak Ornithological Society/BirdLife Slovakia on agricultural policy, advocating for biodiversity-friendly reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy and the inclusion of farmland conservation targets. She has also taken part in several international and national conservation projects, including the LIFE Steppe on Border initiative, which aims at habitat restoration for steppe birds. Through this blend of research, policy, and conservation efforts, she helps link ecological science with practical solutions for sustainable agriculture.

Initially, the International Board of the Marcin Antczak Award screened over six hundred papers and, after an initial selection, considered 19 individuals and their articles published last year. The process took over three months, and by the end, we had considered, in addition to the awarded Dr. Adriana Cíbik Hološková, the Board also wishes to recognise Dominika Winiarska from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, for her papers on passive acoustic monitoring in European and African birds, published in Ecological Indicators, Scientific Reports, Emu, and the African Journal of Ecology; and Ondrej Fišer from the University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic, for his experimental study on how manipulated body size of potential predators affects nest predator recognition by potential targets, breeding red-backed shrikes, published in Animal Behaviour.

MARCIN ANTCZAK AWARD FOR THE MOST INSPIRING ORNITHOLOGICAL PAPER PUBLISHED IN 2024

The Marcin Antczak Award is given annually for an outstanding and inspiring ornithological paper(s) published in the previous year in a peer-reviewed journal. The prize is aimed at young ornithologists from Poland, the Czech Republic, or Slovakia, or from any other country if the research underlying the paper was conducted in one of these countries. Candidates can be amateurs or pre-doctoral researchers, or individuals who obtained their doctoral degree within the last seven years. For the benefit of nominees, maternity, paternity, or illness leaves are recognised, with the principle that such leaves can extend the age limit by a minimum of one year. The ideas presented in the awarded paper must be strongly related to the field of ornithology; studies on challenging and charismatic species (or topics) will be favoured. The nominee must be the sole author, or the leading (the first and corresponding) author of a multi-author paper and should have played a prominent role in shaping the publication.
This award comes with a diploma, a unique, hand-made silver shrike badge, as well as a cash prize. The awarded Author must agree to give a lecture in Poznań (Poland); the inviting institution will cover costs. Details about the award will be published in Acta Ornithologica.

Between 2024 and 2028, the International Board of the Marcin Antczak Award consists of Dr Peter Adamík (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic), Dr Thorsten J.S. Balsby (Aarhus University, Denmark), Prof. Tomasz S. Osiejuk (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland), Prof. Svein Dale (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway), Dr Martin Korňan (Technical University in Zvolen, Slovakia), Prof. Tomasz D. Mazgajski (Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw), Prof. Piotr Minias (University of Łódź, Poland), Prof. Jiří Reif (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic), Dr Katerina Sam (Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice), Dr Jakub Szymkowiak (Forest Biology Center, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland), Dr Michal Šulc (Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno), Prof. Piotr Tryjanowski (University of Life Sciences in Poznań, Poland / Institute of Advanced Study TUM, Garching, Germany & Chair of Ecoclimatology, TUM, Freising, Germany), and Prof. Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas (University of Gdańsk, Poland).

Current information about the Award can be found at https://www.behaecol.web.amu.edu.pl/MAA/

On behalf of the Board,
Tomasz S. Osiejuk

Fast and extremely precise singer

2025-07-31T12:26:51+02:00

Paper entitled "Rhythmic coordination in rapid duets of little crakes: cooperative signalling without shared experience" and published by Jan Jedlikowski and Paweł Ręk (from our lab) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences attracts media attention (see here). We have some of the fastest duet singers in the country.

Details in the paper:
Jedlikowski J, Ręk P(2025) Rhythmic coordination in rapid duets of little crakes: cooperative signalling without shared experience. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292(2051):20251100. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2025.1100

Research, teaching and finally...vacation!!!

2025-07-06T20:52:02+02:00

The exceptionally long season of fieldwork is nearly over. Department staff and students conducted research in Poland, Uganda, and Australia. Finally, at the very end, we still participated in exceptional teaching activities. Pawel Szymanski organised a Tropical Biology Course for our students in Ghana (Mole and Kakum National Parks), Tomasz Osiejuk taught bioacoustics to Ghanaian students (also in Mole NP, as part of Erasmus+), and Michal Budka conducted similar Erasmus+ classes for students from Madagascar at Université d'Antananarivo.

EARTH, ENVIRONMENT and ECOLOGY TOP 100 of 2024

2025-03-10T19:28:21+01:00

Published 1 year ago paper Winiarska D, Szymański P, Osiejuk TS (2024) Detection ranges of forest bird vocalisations: guidelines for passive acoustic monitoring. Scientific Reports 14: 894. DOI 10.1038/s41598-024-51297-z was just mentioned among EARTH, ENVIRONMENT and ECOLOGY TOP 100 of 2024

Wildlife Acoustics grant for our student

2025-01-20T19:56:49+01:00

Marcin Winiarek, a student of Michał Budka, has received a grant from Wildlife Acoustics to study 'Soundscape as an Indicator of Forest Recovery'. Congrats Marcin!

20 Anniversary of Department of Behavioural Ecology

2025-01-04T11:49:04+01:00

As you know, the ability to focus on a longer text is becoming a thing of the past. Therefore, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Behavioural Ecology, I will give you an overview of how the scientific history of the Department has developed and what our most important achievements are in the most abbreviated way possible.

The Department was founded on the initiative of Tomasz Osiejuk and Piotr Tryjanowski, precisely on December 1, 2004, so papers with our affiliation began to appear in 2005. Undoubtedly, our good spirit then was the then Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Andrzej Lesicki, who bet on the young and the mouthy. Piotr was mainly involved in bird ecology, and at the time, he was most interested in birds of the agricultural landscape, the impact of climate change on birds. On the other hand, I worked on birds but used them mainly as a model for understanding sound communication in animals. Hence, during this first period, our first doctoral students and we studied various aspects of bird ecology and their behaviour in the context of communication or response to environmental change.

Thanks to several grants and doctoral students (Kasia Łosak, Michał Skierczyński, Paweł Ręk, Michał Budka, Paweł Szymański), we were able to describe sound communication well and test many detailed hypotheses for two model species, the song learning ortolan bunting, and the non-learners, the corncrake. One of the most significant achievements was demonstrating the conventional nature of communication in the corncrake. When Piotr left the Department to take up the position of head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Life Sciences, practically all research effort was placed on bird bioacoustics. Another novelty, initiated by Marcin Antczak, the first assistant professor at the Department, hired after his doctorate was done in České Budějovice, was the start of research in the tropics, specifically in the mountains of Cameroon.

Since 2007, we have conducted research every year, first in Cameroon (2007-17) and then in many other countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, and Mozambique. This has resulted in publications on duetting bird songs, year-round vocal activities of selected species, and ecoacoustics. Recently, many articles have dealt with various aspects of encoding identity or species affiliation in selected tropical bird species. Around the same time, another strand of research was initiated by Pawel Ręk, after defending his doctorate. While doing a postdoc in Australia, he took up the study of multimodal (audio-visual) communication, and in doing so, he used self-built biorobots. This is one of the least researched aspects of animal communication, and Pawel's work brings significant discoveries here. Michal Budka, on the other hand, has been consistently moving in the direction of ecoacoustics for some time, with projects from the boreal zone to the equatorial zone, dealing with biodiversity and competition for acoustic space. For almost 10 years, the Department has also employed Magda Herdegen-Radwan, who focuses on the evolution of behaviour, and her primary research model is the guppy. Her research deals with learning and sexual selection, as well as animal personality. The latest to join the Department's current membership is Pawel Szymanski, who has participated in three consecutive projects in Africa. As undoubtedly the most field-trained figure in the Department, he has contributed significantly to a number of our avian studies; of the most interesting ones, we can mention the paper, honoured by the editors of Ibis, on the effect of wind turbine noise on the skylark’s song, based on a natural experiment underway during the construction of a wind farm.

In summary, 13 employees have passed through the department, but the core of the team was usually 4-5 people. It was impossible to devote more space to all of them, so I focused mainly on what we found in the research streams that we continue. During these 20 years, we have promoted 17 doctoral students from Poland, the UK and France; another five (including one from Italy) are expected to complete their dissertations in 1-2 years. We have hosted over a dozen interns, primarily doctoral students, from the Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain, Slovakia, Turkey and France. We have completed over a dozen projects, funded mainly by NCN, NCBiR, and other foundations. We are unique in this part of the World focused strictly on bio- and ecoacoustics, which is reflected in the courses we teach.

What does it look like in numbers?

We published between 8 and 24 articles per year, resulting in a total of about 272 articles that were cited 5739 times. We were diverse, as we published in 123 different journals, including such top journals as Nature, Science Advances, Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America, Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences or Nature Ecology And Evolution, or Biology Letters. At the beginning we were focused on different aspects of behavioural ecology and ecology, we published mainly in ecological and behavioural journals as Ecological Indicators, Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Applied Ecology, and on the other hand, Animal Behaviour, Behavioural Ecology, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, Ethology, Behaviour, Behavioural Processes etc. As we were focused mainly on birds, we published many papers in ornithological journals, almost all you may find in Clarivate or Scopus databases, including those from the top like Auk (today Ornithology), Journal of Avian Biology, Ibis, Journal of Ornithology etc. We have also published several books or chapters on bird biology, agricultural areas or selected bird species such as the charismatic white stork, as well as chapter in textbooks on bird monitoring methods or bioacoustics.

Why is it worth coming to us if you are a student? A significant part of our research involves direct work in environments where natural interactions between animals are still observed, in settings such as tropical forests, savannas, or even small biodiversity oases within the agricultural landscapes of Europe. These experiences truly allow you to feel what nature is really like.

Tomasz Osiejuk

Aquatic Warbler paper...

2024-10-24T21:22:55+02:00

finally in formatted version!

Dominika Winiarska PhD defence - Thursday 24/10/2024 10:30

2024-10-20T19:25:42+02:00

Only a few days left for Dominika Winiarska's PhD defense. The dissertation entitled "The effectiveness of bird species detection in passive acoustic monitoring" (or in Polish "Skuteczność wykrywania ptaków w pasywnym monitoringu akustycznym") .

Defence will be hybrid; you may come to our Faculty or listen to it via MS Teams.

More details here:

https://biologia.amu.edu.pl/wydarzenia/obrony-rozpraw-doktorskich/publiczna-obrona-rozprawy-doktorskiej-mgr-dominiki-winiarskiej

Ceremony of presentation of th 9th Marcin Antczak Award - 9th of October 2024

2024-09-24T20:29:12+02:00

We are pleased to announce that the ceremony for the 9th Marczin Antczak Award, will be held on October 9, 2024 in the Ground Floor Hall (colegium Biologicum) at 12:00.

We invite everyone to listen to the laureate's lecture titled "An unforeseen ecological chain in tree cavities".

Kasia Kwiatkowska has won ASAB prize for a paper published in Animal Behaviour

2024-09-19T12:45:09+02:00

Katarzyna Kwiatkowska has won a prize (2k£) in the early-career category for a paper entitled 'Can an acoustic communication network be used for spatial orientation?' published in Animal Behaviour. The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour gives such prizes each year. The paper was part of Kasia's PhD dissertation, and she was supervised by Paweł Ręk. Congratulations both to Kasia and her supervisor.

Gosia Niśkiewicz PhD defence - Monday 23/09/2024 11:00

2024-09-18T20:09:27+02:00

Only few days left for Małgorzata Niskiśkiewicz PhD defense. The dissertation entitled "Coding species and individual information in the song of African wood doves (Turtur sp.)" was one of the logistically hardest (COVID) research we have conducted during our history.

More details here:
https://biologia.amu.edu.pl/wydarzenia/obrony-rozpraw-doktorskich/publiczna-obrona-rozprawy-doktorskiej-mgr-malgorzaty-niskiewicz

Photo credit: Mathieu Mahamoud-Issa

Dominika presented talk at Cornell Lab of Ornithology

2024-09-18T16:38:11+02:00

Today Dominka Winiarska had lecture at Cornell. Invitation from Ben Goittesman below. Her talk was recorder so you may see it later.

Hi everyone,

Our next BioacousTalks is tomorrow, September 18th, from 11 AM – 12 PM ET with Dominika Winiarska, who will present her work on measuring acoustic detection ranges and implications for study design and analysis.

Zoom Link: https://cornell.zoom.us/j/94632241116?pwd=86tC0YbenW1ce0ufIeohgpenEobbdd.1 (passcode is 451311)

Here is the rundown of Dominika's presentation:

This talk addresses the technical aspects of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM), focusing on general bird detectability in forests and how researchers can adjust their study design accordingly. It also highlights how different data processing methods—listening to recordings, visual analysis of spectrograms, and automated analysis using BirdNET—can affect detection distances and thus research results.

About Dominika:

“My research focuses on various aspects of passive acoustic monitoring, including assessing its effectiveness regarding detection distances and detection methods. I also work on comparing traditional monitoring methods with acoustic approaches to capture comprehensive data on bird communities. Currently, I am awaiting the defense of my doctoral thesis.”

Another cool bioacoustics series this week:

WildLabs is hosting a Virtual Meetup on Bioacoustics Data Analysis and AI this week, featuring Justin Kitzes, Stefan Kahl, Kate Jones, and Sarab Sethi. It will be from 2-3.30 pm UTC. Click here to register.

All the best,

Ben

The lates issue of Ethology with our emerald-spotted wood-dove on the cover

2024-09-16T16:37:16+02:00

The latest portion of Gosia Niśkiewicz's PhD dissertation has been published in the Ethology journal. Today, our research subject, the emerald spotted wood-dove, was featured in the volume of the issue along with Gosia's paper. The photo was captured during fieldwork in Lake Mburo National Park (Uganda) by T. S. Osiejuk.