Tereza is a behavioural ecologist, focusing her research on songbird vocalisation and bird territorial behaviour. She is particularly interested in spatial variation in birdsong, the factors that affect it as well as in the functions of specific song structures. Her model bird species include in particular pipits, nightingales and bluethroats, and yellowhammers. She had a key role in establishing the citizen science project on yellowhammer dialects in the Czech Republic.
Adam is an aquatic ecologist by training, whose main model organisms are freshwater crustaceans but he got later involved in various additional ecological and evolutionary projects. Having been a partner of Tereza for almost two decades, research of bird behaviour and vocalization became one of his “extended marital duties”. He is skilled in fieldwork including birdsong recording, data processing, and frequently serves as the “devil’s advocate” when preparing projects or drafting publications.
After finishing his MSc. thesis on behavioural ecology, his focus shifted to invasion ecology (especially of mammals and birds). He got involved in setting up the website for the citizen science project on yellowhammer dialects in the Czech Republic thanks to his experience with webdesign. Soon he realised that research of birdsong dialects and invasion ecology may have more in common than it seems... and the project focusing on populations introduced to New Zealand is the result.
Hana Kahounová, PhD student
Her master's thesis (defended at the Department of Zoology) focused on the effect of melanin-based coloration and commensalism on behavior. Her PhD study will focus on geographic variation and functions of specific structures of the Tree Pipit song.
Hana Kyliánková, master student
Her master thesis focuses on the stability of boundaries of yellowhammer dialects. The other part is dedicated to rare dialects of yellowhammers, which were found during the project 'Dialect of Czech Yellowhammers'. She is also in her second year of additional pedagogical study at Charles University.
Javier Oñate Casado, PhD student
Javi is from Spain. He has previously worked on songbird bioacoustics with the Hawaii elepaio (Chasiempis sandwichensis). He studied how males respond to conspecific songs in a playback study conducted at a small geographical scale. His PhD project explores the evolution and geographic variation of bird songs in islands and mainland systems using sister pipit species as models. He is particularly interested in the behavioral ecology of different taxa as well as bioacoustics and anthropogenic impacts on wildlife behavior.
Tereza Kubíkova, master student
Tereza recently completed her BSc thesis in our group, a review describing the function of female song, focusing mainly on temperate species. As part of her MSc thesis, she has contributed to the project of our PhD student, Javier Oñate, by assisting in the recording of Tawny Pipit songs in the field. Tereza will continue to work closely with Javier, and in addition to the Tawny Pipit, her project will also explore the song of its sister species, the Berthelot's Pipit.
Dimitris Tsioutsiourigas, master student
Dimitris studied Forestry at the International Hellenic University of Greece (BSc), throughout the last year he participated in different conservation programs such as: Passive Acoustic Monitoring for Illegal hunting of Balkan chamois in Mt. Oeta, the monitoring of wolf populations in Greece, the monitoring of dormice populations in the Rhodope mountains, and one minor Passive Acoustic project for the ecology of Eurasian nightjar. For his MSc thesis, he will be working on the individuality in songs of Water and Meadow pipits in Krkonose mountain (by using IAM), as well as the acoustic ecology of Western Capercaillie in Rhodope mountains (by using PAM). Furthermore, he will continue in full-scale the Nightjar project by using the crossover of IAM and PAM methods.
Minkyung Kwak, PhD student
Min is from South Korea and has a BSc in Bioengineering and an MSc in Ecology. Her master's thesis was on the sexual preference of American bullfrogs for mating calls. She worked on analysing and adapting call characteristics for a playback experiment, gaining field and bioacoustic experience in the process. Min joined the group for her PhD in 2024, focusing on song variation in the Yellowhammer and its relationship to geographic boundaries, building on the lab's well-established dialect study. She will use IAM and PAM for the project, evaluating and developing acoustic methods in collaboration with a PhD network of members from across the EU. Her main research interests are bioacoustics and conservation ecology, but she is always open to new possibilities.
Succesfully defended
Belfu Çetinkaya
Belfu graduated at Middle East Technical University in 2020 in Ankara. For her master thesis, she focused on the cultural evolution of Tree Pipits songs at temporal (year-to-decade) as well as geographical scale. Her research is part of a larger project studying the cultural evolution of songs in species with various song complexities. She successfully defended her MSc thesis in September 2023.
Dr. Lucie Diblíková
Her master thesis focused on geographical distribution of yellowhammer dialects in the Czech Republic. She became a key person of the project 'Dialects of Czech Yellowhammers', being responsible for sound analysis as well as communication with volunteers. She is skilled in vector graphics and the characteristic design of yellowhammer project is her work. She successfully defended her PhD thesis in March 2023.
Lily Carolin Helmbold
Carolin got in touch with bioacoustics during her bachelor's thesis in Freiburg, Germany. For her master's thesis (at the Institute for Environmental Studies) she focused on the use of individual acoustic monitoring to study endangered species and the geographical variability of songs with the Meadow pipit as her model species. She successfully defended her MSc thesis in January 2023.
Jan Kouřil
For his master's study, he monitored yellowhammers in order to explore the variability in the first syllable of the song of this species which is individually unique. He successfully defended his MSc thesis in January 2023.
Dr. Abel Souriau
Originally from France, Abel has successfully defended his PhD with us in October 2020. He took on the challenge to study the song of two of the most famous European songsters: the Common and the Thrush Nightingales, known for their complex and melodious singing. From the first focus on the curious song copying happening between these species, he extended his PhD project to topics such as the geographical variation of song, or the rather unstudied singing behaviour at the bird’s wintering grounds. His research interests range across behaviour and evolution across various groups, for which bioacoustic brings a fascinating angle of study.
Monika Kočárková Nečasová
Monika successfully defended her master's thesis in 2021. She was a key person in the project "Deer voices", which aimed to map the distribution of hybrids between native red deer and invasive sikas by recordings of their vocalisation. Quite conveniently she was studying in parallel Operation and Game management at the Czech University of Life Sciences too.
Ondřej Belfín
Ondra found interest in bioacoustics already during the first year of high school when he started studying the song variability and singing activity of the Red-breasted Flycatcher as part of high school science project competition. He successfully defended his bachelor thesis on low-amplitude songs in Passerines.
Hana Kubátová
Her master thesis focused on the effect of a dummy on passerine behavior in playback experiments. Her model species were chiffchaffs and yellowhammers.
