NNMK11002U Ornithology

Volume 2013/2014
Education
MSc Programme in Biology
Content

The course aims to provide students with a theoretical and systematic knowledge of ornithology as a basis for continued learning about birds. The students will learn about the methods used in ornithological research and thereby obtain the ability to evaluate ornithological studies. Furthermore, they will obtain competences in communicating about scientific ornithological studies. After the course the students will be well qualified to start Master’s Thesis project within ornithology.

Key areas: Bird biology, including identification and taxonomy, functional morphology, ecology, evolution and behavior.

Learning Outcome
Competencies
Evaluate scientific ornithological papers
Define ornithological questions and devise solutions
Reflect on the solution to ornithological problems and general inference

Skills
Describe ornithological methods and apply a selection of these method Analyse ornithological data sets
Identify most Danish bird species

Knowledge
All extant bird orders
Basic aspects of the ecology, evolution, functional morphology and behaviour of birds
Literature
Graham Scott (2010) Essential Ornithology. Oxford University Press
Knowledge of Danish birds on a level corresponding to the bachelor course Danmarks Fauna – hvirveldyr.
Three weekly one-hour lectures and two-hour tutorials and one weekend field excursion. Lectures and tutorials may be combined. The tutorials include: Field excursions (capture and marking, counts; potentially bioacustics or collection of tissue samples), paper discussions with submission of essays, operational exercises (calculus), identification exercises, and preparation of specimens. Throughout the course, the students will work on their own ornithological project which will be handed in at the end of the course in the form of a scientific paper.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Colloquia
  • 10
  • Exam
  • 1
  • Excursions
  • 20
  • Lectures
  • 10
  • Practical exercises
  • 18
  • Preparation
  • 131
  • Project work
  • 16
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 minutes
Oral examination without preparation time. The oral examination consists of a discussion of a scientific paper and the written report (written report 50 % weight and curriculum 50 % weight). Scope: The examination takes 20 minutes, inclusive grading.
Exam registration requirements
Written report
Aid
Without aids
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
See description