Dr. Vera Brust

Being a behavioural biologist, my core interest lies in studying the causes and consequences of individual differences within non-human animal populations. So far, I worked on aspects of animal cognition, personality, life-history and evolution in different species, including birds from zebra finches to common ravens. Currently, my main research focuses on investigating individual decisions for migration routes of small song birds along the German North-Sea coast line. Species differences, as well as variation in individual state and behaviour, may influence route setting as well as extrinsic factors like weather conditions. One additional aspect worth studying is the emergence of offshore-windparks in the German Bight and its influence on song bird migration. For more details on this project with the short title BIRDMOVE, please see the page of my research group.