Behavioral Ecology research group
bergfzp.bsky.social
Behavioral Ecology research group
@bergfzp.bsky.social
Research group at FES, CULS Prague, Czech republic, focusing on #animalbehaviour #breedingbiology #communityecology #landscapeconservation
🇪🇸 New blog: Following Wintering Lapwings to Spain

How do Spanish wintering sites differ from those in France? Do lapwings behave differently in a warmer, more steppe-like landscape?

📖Read our new blog here:
waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20737-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT
February 3, 2026 at 9:30 AM
📡After 3 months of silence, Trinity sent data again. She arrived in France on 30.10. Since then, she has visited the area around Reims, Sézanne, south of Paris, Tours, and made a detour via Bordeaux toward Toulouse 🇫🇷. At each stop, she stayed for 1-2 weeks before moving on.🗺️
January 27, 2026 at 8:19 AM
🇫🇷 Dec 25, Grácie headed to Spain and stopped 60 km from the border 🇪🇸. We expected her to continue south after rest and stay there until February. But on Jan 14 she turned back north and settled again near Tours, where she had spent December and also the entire previous winter.🐦
January 26, 2026 at 7:59 AM
Xixao in France! 🇫🇷
The male woodcock Xixao, tagged in April in the Brdy Mountains, has sent the data again after a long pause 📡. Since Jan 8, he has been in Normandy near Alençon, active at night on fields near woodland 🌙🌲.

🗺️ Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20738-w...
January 19, 2026 at 8:50 AM
🇪🇸 During expedition to Spain we visited the wintering sites of Čalamáda, Yehla and Živa in Castile and León, Cirkulárka, Májka, Hvězda and Oliva in Extremadura 🫒, and Jahoda in Castile–La Mancha 🍓. 📖 More insights coming soon in a new blog! 🗺️
#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT
January 16, 2026 at 10:23 AM
🌾In the CZ, France and across much of Spain, lapwings are most often found in farmland on ploughed fields, stubble and sown crops.
🐂In southwestern Spain (Extremadura), however, they almost exclusively use extensively managed open pastures with grazing sheep, cattle or horses.
January 14, 2026 at 7:18 AM
In Extremadura🇪🇸, we met again with Oliva, a lapwing from Káranice. We have been following her since 2024. This year, she is wintering in pastures surrounded by olive groves🫒 near Belvís de Monroy, where we saw her in a flock of 21 lapwings.🐦‍⬛

Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...
January 13, 2026 at 7:13 AM
🌾 Tierra de Campiñas 🐦
The vast cereal steppes between Valladolid, Salamanca and Ávila form a key habitat for lapwings and steppe birds like Great and Little Bustards.
📍 This was also the last known location of lapwing Živa, and today we observed a flock of 65 lapwings here.
January 12, 2026 at 6:52 AM
🇪🇸🐦 We travelled west of Madrid, where some of our tagged lapwings spend the winter.

🪦Near Aldeaseca, we found the almost undamaged transmitter of the dead male Uherák, with only small holes in the harness. A raptor? Who knows…
January 10, 2026 at 7:49 PM
❄️ Due to freezing temperatures, more lapwings are moving further south 🇪🇸. Oliva (Dec 28) and Živa (Jan 1) have already arrived in Spain from France.

Gracie sent data yesterday after a month of silence!! ...and is heading in the same direction.
Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...
January 6, 2026 at 9:15 AM
🪶 Christmas updates from lapwings and woodcocks 🐦

The male lapwing Lucifer started his migration on Christmas Eve 🎄 and is now west of Dijon 🇫🇷.
Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

The male woodcock Záviš is still staying in the Diamo area near Stráž pod Ralskem 🇨🇿.
January 4, 2026 at 9:47 AM
📖 New blog! 🐣
We look at hand-reared lapwing and plover chicks and how they survive after release. The stories show that young waders can be successfully raised and return to the wild.

👉 Read more on our website: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20737-s...
December 19, 2025 at 7:50 PM
🪶 The memory game with waders! 🃏

We’ve created a memory game with our favourite wader species - both those we study long-term and those we’ve encountered on our trips abroad.

🎄 If you’d like a printed set as a holiday gift, send us a message and pick it up at our faculty.
December 10, 2025 at 8:51 AM
🪶 Yehla is on the move again!

After two weeks staying near the Pyrenees and resting at a local airport ✈️, she finally continued her journey. She flew over Madrid, and now we’re waiting to see where she’ll settle for the winter.

Map 👉 waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/cs/r-20592-p...
December 9, 2025 at 8:55 AM
🇨🇿CZ ONLY
🎥 Popularizujeme vědu pro malé i velké!
Kolegové ze ZOO Brno se objevili v pořadu Terčin zvířecí svět na ČT a vysvětlili, proč do hnízd dáváme umělá vajíčka s dataloggery a co díky nim zjišťujeme o inkubaci.
🎬 Dívejte se zde: www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/12005...
28. listopadu - Terčin zvířecí svět | Česká televize
Zloděj vajíček — Tutorial — Není.. jako..
www.ceskatelevize.cz
December 2, 2025 at 10:13 AM
📊 42nd Meeting of the Ringing Centre Collaborators

👉Martin Sládeček presented his talk
“A Year in the Life of the Northern Lapwing – What GPS Telemetry Revealed.”

🐣He summarized key insights from year-round tracking: breeding success, migration timing, and wintering grounds.
December 1, 2025 at 7:55 AM
🌙🇪🇸 Xena and Hvězda have reached Spain! Yehla is heading the same way but paused before the Pyrenees 🏔️. Most lapwings take the western route, yet some (like Sněhurka) cross the central ridge at nearly 3,000 m. Even over the sea they can climb up to 2,500 m.
#podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT
November 18, 2025 at 11:02 AM
🇪🇸 Seven of our lapwings are now on the Iberian Peninsula! 🐦

After Nerea, Jahoda and Sněhurka have arrived this week. Májka and Cirkulárka are in same flock southwest of Madrid, Wifina has made it all the way down to Gibraltar 🇬🇮, and Čalamáda remains the northernmost of them all.

#fzpczu
November 12, 2025 at 2:42 PM
🐦 Lapwings Drak and Emulze, which had been staying in the same flock, have both taken off, but each in a different direction! 🌍

In the CZ, only Lucifer 😈 remains. Yesterday, he was seen in a flock of 60 lapwings near Hradec Králové.

See map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...
November 7, 2025 at 9:05 AM
🔁 Again and again
How many times did our lapwings nest this year? How successful were they, and how quickly did they re-nest after losing a clutch? 🐣
We explore these questions (and more) in our new blog 👇
waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20737-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT
November 5, 2025 at 8:48 AM
🥚 Egg turning is crucial for embryo development, but its frequency varies widely among birds.

📊 An analysis of 112 species shows that altricial birds turn their eggs more frequently than precocial ones, and that turning frequency decreases with longer incubation periods.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/orni...
October 30, 2025 at 11:43 AM
🐦The first male that started his autumn migration is Uherák, a lapwing from Staré Nechanice. During the breeding season, this male was observed incubating two different nests with two females simultaneously.

📖 Read more about lapwing incubation behaviour: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20737-s...
October 22, 2025 at 7:36 AM
💥 Migration continues..
Fifinka and Quinoa have reached 🇫🇷, while Májka flew even further to 🇪🇸.
Over the weekend, Trinity and Xena also departed 🇨🇿.
So, only six tagged lapwings remain in the Czech Republic.

Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT
October 20, 2025 at 9:01 AM
🍂 Fifinka and Quinoa are currently in Germany, while Sněhurka has made it all the way to France 🇫🇷 and is likely continuing toward Spain later 🇪🇸.
We’re tracking Fifinka (map below) and Sněhurka for the second migration season.
👉 Follow their movements here: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...
October 15, 2025 at 7:59 AM
🪶 These days, we can find lapwings in flocks of tens to hundreds of individuals in fields with low vegetation or in sand pits.
Only 10 tagged lapwings (1/3 of the total number) still remain in the Czech Republic.

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT
October 8, 2025 at 10:10 AM