Snowfinches – alpinists in a warming world

Christian Schano

Snowfinches are highly specialised, cold-adapted birds, inhabiting alpine landscapes above 2000 meter. Due to warming temperatures, and particularly, disproportionate warming in alpine environments, snowfinches are currently threatened by climate change. The Swiss Ornithological Institute therefore studies the challenges snowfinches face by investigating aspects of their breeding and winter ecology, behaviour, population dynamics and survival. Christian Schano spent five years studying snowfinches in the Swiss Alps and gives insight into some of these aspects, including (1) their special relation to snowy habitats, (2) how loggers taught us about their surprising sleeping habits in winter, (3) the importance of nest-orientation early in the breeding season and (4), why males and females might have different strategies to feed their offspring.

10.55 - 11.20 uur, Schouwburgzaal