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Second Circular

Welcome from the Congress President

Dear Ornithologists from everywhere in the world:

The 24th International Ornithological Congress will be held in the beautiful Hanseatic city of Hamburg, Germany, from 13 to 19 August 2006. The Congress is organised under the auspices of the German Ornithologists’ Society and the Institute of Avian Research “Vogelwarte Helgoland”. In a world that is changing at an unprecedented rate, this Congress will be an unique opportunity to report on state of the art progress in the many disciplines for which birds are ideal study models. As Ernst Mayr put it many years ago, birds are a spring board for discovering the unknown, a remark which will be confirmed once again in the many scientific lines of research that make ornithology in the front line of progress in many aspects of biological sciences.
The Scientific Program Committee has done a wonderful job in putting together a promising program including ten plenary talks and forty-eight symposia with a new system allowing any interested ornithologist to apply as a speaker in a symposium of his or her choice. There will be also many Round Table Discussions and contributed papers (both oral and poster presentations), as well as several special evenings. A German evening will feature landmarks of the outstanding contribution of German scientists to ornithology. Events on two other evenings will address problems of conservation in a complementary way from both theoretical and practical viewpoints. The first will be a Presidential Forum entitled “Conservation in practice”. It will be jointly organised by the President of the International Ornithological Congress and the Director and Chief Executive of BirdLife International. The forum will address some key points on themes related to ornithology and conservation. The second will be a panel discussion organised by the Director of the Alfred Toepfer Academy of Nature Conservation in Germany. Needless to say, such events are especially timely and of paramount importance in our world where the biodiversity crisis makes ornithologists more concerned than ever about issues dealing with the scientific bases of conservation and how to put science into practice.
Besides the scientific aspect of the Congress, time and facilities will be provided for exchanges, discussions among colleagues and friends, and just fun. The Congress Centrum of Hamburg is an exceptionally beautiful venue, with all modern facilities and a diversity of hotels, restaurants and lovely public gardens in the vicinity, not to say anything on the many museums and cultural events in the city of Hamburg. The Secretary General of the Congress and Local Committee have designed many enjoyable non scientific events, including pre- and post-congress excursions in many parts of Europe, from the North Cape to the shores of the Mediterranean, as well as various cultural tours in Germany.
Register as soon as you can and send in an abstract of your contribution to this Congress. It promises to be an outstanding event in your life as an ornithologist.
Looking forward to meeting you in Hamburg,

Jacques Blondel
President, 24th International Ornithological Congress

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General Congress Information

Venue

Congress Centre Hamburg (CCH) http://www.cch.de

Dates

August 13 – 19, 2006


Congress Language

The working language of the Congress will be English.

Registration Fees

Delegate registration fee includes access to the full program, a volume of the abstracts, a printed copy of the proceedings, a CD-ROM, and access to the opening ceremony and reception. The registration fee for accompanying persons covers access to the opening ceremony and reception, and access to the Accompanying Persons’ program.

Financial aid

Two forms of financial aid will be offered: reduced registration fees and travel and accommodation assistance. Reduced registration fees will be available for a limited number of special-case international delegates, based on financial need and contribution to the Congress. Travel and accommodation assistance will be available to a few participants in addition, based primarily on financial need and contribution to the Congress. Applications for subsidies and reduced registration fee must be sent to the Secretary General, preferably by using the online form at http://www.i-o-c.org before December 31, 2005.
Donations towards helping delegates from developing countries and transitional economies are gratefully accepted and will be acknowledged in the conference publications.

Congress fees

Early Registration (until Jan. 08, 2006) Euro 375
Standard Registration (until May 31, 2006) Euro 450
Late Registration (from June 1, 2006) Euro 550
Reduced Registration Euro 200
Accompanying Person Euro 100

Important Note:

No oral contribution will be included in the Scientific Program unless the early registration fee has been paid by the author by December 31, 2005.
No poster contribution will be included in the Scientific Program unless the registration fee has been paid by the author by May 31, 2006.

Cancellation

All cancellations of registration must be in writing to the Congress Secretariat. Cancellation with 70% refunding will be accepted until 31 May 2006 (date of receipt by the congress secretariat), 50% will be refunded until 31 July 2006, thereafter no refunding. Refunds will be made after 1 September 2006.
All cancellations of hotel bookings must be in writing to the Congress Secretariat. Cancellations will be charged with EUR 15,00 per room. Cancellations later than 28 July 2006 can be charged with up to 90% of the room rate. All costs arising due to cancellations or changes in booking or No Shows shall be borne by the participant.

Please pre-register online at http://www.i-o-c.org.

Critical Dates

Submission of Abstracts
July 1, 2005 Submission of abstracts for contributed papers and proposals for RTDs
December 31, 2005 Submission of request for Special Interest Group meetings
October 30, 2005 Delegates will be informed of acceptance of their abstract.

Registration
December 31, 2005 Early Registration closes
May 31, 1 2006 Standard Registration closes

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Scientific Program

For the structure of the program see http://www.i-o-c.org.
The Scientific Program will comprise 10 plenary lectures and 48 symposia, as well as contributed papers (oral and poster), round-table discussions (RTDs), discussion forum, and Special Interest Group meetings.
Plenary Lectures are keynote addresses by outstanding ornithologists.
Symposia are aimed at the general ornithologist and will provide the widest-possible coverage of current ornithological investigation studies. Each symposium will feature five papers, two of them invited by the conveners.
Contributed Papers (oral or poster) will cover unpublished original research or new syntheses.
Oral contributions will be selected by a review panel of the Scientific Program Committee from the abstracts submitted.
Round-Table Discussions (RTDs) are a forum for discussion on specialist topics, covering new scientific findings, and new directions in a particular field, methods, techniques and hypotheses.
Special Interest Groups may arrange to meet during the Congress. Request for such meetings should be sent to the Congress Secretariat (e-mail: info@i-o-c.org).


Plenary Lectures

Elizabeth Adkins-Regan, USA
Hormones and the development of sex differences in behavior
Jaques Blondel, France
Presidential address
Coping with habitat patchiness: the story of Mediterranean blue tits
Scott Edwards, USA
Genomics and ornithology
Jeremy Greenwood, UK
Citizens, Science and Bird Conservation
Erich D. Jarvis, USA
Learned birdsong and the neurobiology of human language
Don Merton, New Zealand
The kakapo: some highlights & lessons from 5 decades of applied conservation
Morne du Plessis, South Africa
Cooperative breeding
Theunis Piersma, The Netherlands
Using the power of comparison to explain habitat use and migration strategies of waders worldwide
Sarah Wanless, UK
Climate change and North Sea seabirds
Wolfgang Wiltschko, Germany
Magnetoreception in birds: a compass in the eye and a magnetometer in the beak


Symposia

The following 48 symposia were selected:
1 Avian personalities
  Conveners: Claudio Carere, Belgium; Irene M. Pepperberg, USA
2 New insights into the sense of smell in birds: from foraging behaviour to individual recognition
  Conveners: Francesco Bonadonna, France; Gabrielle Nevitt, USA
3 Emerging issues in cooperative breeding research
  Conveners: Jeff Walters, USA; Jan Komdeur, The Netherlands
4 Male and female contributions to biparental care
  Conveners: Keith Hamer, UK; Douglas Mock, USA
5 Flexibility in mating signals and mate choice: ultimate and proximate bases
   Conveners: Keith Sockman, USA; Elizabeth MacDougall-Shackleton, Canada
6 Information and power: how are conflicts at the nest resolved?
   Conveners: Rebecca Kilner, UK; Hugh Drummond, Mexico
7 Responses of birds to (over)fishing
   Conveners: Bruno Ens, The Netherlands; Bob Furness, UK
8 Birds as Indicators of Environmental Change
   Conveners: David Noble, UK; Michel Louette, Belgium
9 New tools and concepts in avian conservation genetics
   Conveners: Gernot Segelbacher, Germany; Jacob Höglund, Sweden
10 The status of the House Sparrow Passer domesticus in the urban environment
   Conveners: Jenny De Laet, Belgium; J. Denis Summers-Smith, UK
11 The effectiveness of agri-environment schemes for farmland birds
   Conveners: Juliet Vickery, UK; David Kleijn, The Netherlands
12 Avian conservation in the tropics: a global perspective
   Conveners: Kimberly Smith, USA; Navjot Sodhi, Singapore
13 Detecting ecological traps: avian and human perspectives
   Conveners: Marc-André Villard, Canada; Tomas Pärt, Sweden
14 The effect of climate change on avian population dynamics
   Conveners: Marcel E.Visser, The Netherlands ; Marcel M. Lambrechts, France
15 Birds and their use of varied landscapes: insights for integrated conservation planning
   Conveners: Richard Loyn, Australia; Lucia Severinghaus, Taiwan
16 Demographic mechanisms of population changes at large spatial scales
   Conveners: Fernando Spina, Italy; Stephen Baillie, UK
17 From trend analysis to population alert
   Conveners: Mark Rehfisch, UK; Ruud Foppen, The Netherlands
18 Integrated ecological studies of diseases and parasites in birds
   Conveners: André Dhondt, USA; Heinz Richner, Switzerland
19 Macroecology
   Conveners: Carsten Rahbek, Denmark; Katrin Böhning-Gaese, Germany
20 Ecological plasticity in birds: mechanisms and consequences
   Conveners: Claudia Mettke-Hofmann, Germany; Russell Greenberg, USA
21 Bird-microbe interactions: competition, commensalism and co-evolution
   Conveners: Edward Burtt, USA; Philipp Heeb, Switzerland
22 The process of natal recruitment in long-lived birds
   Conveners: Peter H. Becker, Germany; Stuart Bradley, Australia
23 Natural holes: the missing dimension in understanding hole-nester ecology
   Conveners: Tomasz Wesolowski, Poland; Kathy Martin, Canada
24 The physiology of life histories: comparing tropical and temperate zone birds
   Conveners: Martin Wikelski, USA; Jeff Brawn, USA
25 Advances in molecular systematics and phylogeography of neotropical birds
   Conveners: Cristina Miyaki, Brazil; John Bates, USA
26 New approaches, new data, and new findings in avian phylogenetics at and above the ordinal level
   Conveners: Shannon Hackett, USA; Gerald Mayr, Germany
27 Molecular systematics and evolution
   Conveners: Dorit Liebers, Germany; Allan J. Baker, Canada
28 Dispersal and gene flow in populations: linking molecular methods to direct observations
   Conveners: Arie J. van Noordwijk, The Netherlands; Erkki Korpimäki, Finland
29 Causes of geographic variation in avian life-histories
   Conveners: Wesley Hochachka, USA; Francisco Pulido, Germany
30 MHC in birds: genomic organization and evolutionary importance
   Conveners: Ralph Tiedemann, Germany; Helena Westerdahl, Sweden
31 Magnetic orientation and magnetoreception
   Conveners: Roswitha Wiltschko, Germany; Susanne Åkesson, Sweden
32 Understanding the causes of recent changes in migratory behaviour
   Conveners: Timothy Coppack, Germany; Charles M. Francis, Canada
33 Migratory connectivity: biological significance and modern techniques
   Conveners: Frank Moore, USA; Franz Bairlein, Germany
34 Endocrine bases of reproduction: mechanisms and diversity
   Conveners: Pierre Deviche, USA; Alistair Dawson, UK
35 Neuroendocrine control of behaviour
   Conveners: Stefan Leitner, UK; Wolfgang Goymann, Germany
36 Coping with seasonal challenges: the role and regulation of moult
   Conveners: Barbara Helm, Germany ;Les Underhill, South Africa
37 Vision and its function
   Conveners: Graham Martin, UK; Luz Marina Rojas, Venezuela
38 Comparative avian immunology, from poultry to passerine
   Conveners: Lynn Martin, USA; Dennis Hasselquist, Sweden
39 Evolution of color ornaments
  Conveners: Rauno Alatalo, Finland; Staffan Andersson, Sweden
40 Behaviour and physiology of under-water foraging in diving birds
   Conveners: Patrick Butler, UK; Akiko Kato, Japan
41 Circadian rhythms and photoperiodism
   Conveners: Vinod Kumar, India; Shizufumi Ebihara, Japan
42 Bioacoustics: pure and applied aspects
   Conveners: Peter McGregor, UK; Georg Klump, Germany
43 Avian senescence
   Conveners: Pat Monaghan, UK; Carol Vleck, USA
44 Climate change and life history
  Conveners: NN
45 What 'animal models' can tell ornithologists about the genetics of wild populations
   Conveners: Erik Postma, The Netherlands; Anne Charmantier, UK
46 Brains and birdsong
   Conveners: Erich Jarvis, USA; Constance Scharff, Germany
47 How do birds sense the earth's magnetic field? Magnetoreception mechanisms in birds
   Conveners: Henrik Mouritsen, Germany; Thorsten Ritz, USA
48 Special symposium honouring Ebo Gwinner
   Conveners: Michaela Hau, USA; John Wingfield, USA


Special Events

Evening August 14, 2006
German Evening - Ornithology in and from Germany
Evening August 16, 2006
Presidential Forum - Science meets conservation

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Call for Contributed Papers and Round-Table Discussions

All abstracts, whether for plenary lectures, symposium contributions, contributed papers, or RTDs must be submitted online at http://www.i-o-c.org: (closed by now!)

Deadline July 1, 2005

Delegates will be informed of acceptance of their abstract by Oct 30, 2005.
Final inclusion of any contribution in the congress program and abstract booklet is contingent on payment in full of the conference registration fee and a commitment to attend the conference.

Note:
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT MORE THAN ONE ABSTRACT FOR AN ORAL CONTRIBUTION. IF YOU ARE ALREADY A SYMPOSIUM OR PLENARY SPEAKER, DO NOT CONTRIBUTE AN ABSTRACT FOR AN ORAL PAPER.
HOWEVER, AUTHORS OF PLENARIES, SYMPOSIUM PAPERS, ORAL PAPERS OR POSTERS MAY ALSO PROPOSE A ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION AND DO A POSTER.
DELEGATES MAY CONTRIBUTE ONLY ONE POSTER AS FIRST AUTHOR.

Abstracts will be reviewed by members of the Scientific Program Committee. They will be edited and minor revisions may be made in style, grammar, wording and spelling, if needed. If more extensive revision is required, authors will be contacted.

Contributed papers:

Contributions on any topic in all fields of ornithology are called for. There are 3 categories:
1. oral paper to be considered for symposium;
2. standard oral paper;
3. poster.

Category 1. Oral paper to be considered for symposium.
New for this meeting!
Symposia will consist of 2 keynote speakers (already chosen) and 3 oral papers chosen from the abstracts for contributed papers. These oral papers will be 15 min long plus 3 min for questions.
If you wish your oral contribution to be considered for inclusion in a symposium, you must enter the symposium number in the appropriate box on the online form.

If your abstract is not chosen for a symposium, it will automatically be considered for a standard oral paper. Hence, you must also check the subject area box (see below, under subject areas).

Categories 2 and 3. Standard oral paper or poster
Standard oral papers will be 12 min talk plus 3 min for questions. If your abstract is not accepted for an oral presentation it will automatically be considered for a poster.

Subject areas:
- Behavioural ecology
- Evolutionary biology
- Behaviour
- Community and Landscape ecology
- Macroecology
- Population and Individual ecology
- Population genetics
- Migration and orientation
- Nutrition, foraging and energetics
- Physiology
- Morphology, ecomorphology, developmental biology, evo-devo
- Systematics, biogeography and paleontology
- Landscape and community conservation
- Species and population conservation
- Other subjects

Round Table Discussions:
Any group or individual may submit an abstract for a round table discussion. These are intended as a forum for discussion and should not contain long oral presentations by organizers: a few brief introductory comments to set the stage and a list of discussion questions or issues are sufficient. The abstract should contain a statement of purpose and a list of issues to be discussed. Round table discussions will be accepted provided they do not overlap substantially in content and subject to room availability. They will be held in the evenings and will last 2 hours. After the meeting, organizers will be asked to prepare a 2-3 page report on the goals of their RTD.

Offline submission
If you cannot submit online, you may submit abstracts for orals and posters via email to:
ioc06submit@biology.ualberta.ca, RTDs to jacques.blondel@cefe.cnrs.fr

Please follow the format of the example below:

Contribution type: oral in symposium/standard oral/poster/RTD
Symposium #: if applicable; see list in circular
Subject area: see list in circular

The breeding biology of the House Sparrow in Canada and Germany.
Susan Harper1, and Franz Bairlein2
1Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada; 2 Institute of Avian Research, An der Vogelwarte 21, D-26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Email of first author: sharper@ualberta.ca
Abstract:

Abstracts must be in one paragraph and be limited to 2000 characters (including spaces, about 250 words). Use the metric system for measurements. Please do not use figures, tables, complex equations, or special mathematical symbols.

Abstract Volume
All abstracts submitted in due time and with appropriate full registration fee paid will be included in the Abstract Volume, which will be distributed at the Congress.

Proceedings
Proceedings will be published after the Congress. They will be published as supplements to the Journal of Ornithology (http://springerlink.metapress.com/link.asp?id=110831). It will contain the full texts of plenary lectures in a printed issue, and all symposium papers in an online supplement. A CD-ROM of the proceedings and the abstracts of oral and poster contribution papers and RTD reports may also be included. Instructions for preparing full papers will appear in the Third Circular, and will be sent to the authors as well.

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Social Program

An Opening Reception will be held at the Congress Center Hamburg at 19:00 on August 13, 2006.
A Congress Banquet will be held at the Congress Center Hamburg at 19:00 on August 19, 2006. Tickets must be booked at registration.


Tours

Birding and nature tours will be offered before, during and after the Congress.

Pre- and post-Congress Tours

A list of prospective tours is available at http://www.birdnet.de/ioc/.

Mid-congress Tours

There will be a number of mid-congress excursions to the wider surroundings of Hamburg, including the Wadden Sea, the island of Helgoland, the Lueneburg Heath, and the Harz mountains.
More details in the Third Circular.

Early Morning Bird Walks

Early morning bird walks (ca 1.5 hours) around the venue and in the wider city of Hamburg will be organized by local ornithologists.

Cultural Tours

There is a wide array of possibilities for local cultural tours offered by Hamburg Tourism (http://www.hamburg-tourism.de).

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Accommodation

Accommodation is operated by
HCH - Hamburg Congress & Hotelservice, INTERPLAN AG, St. Petersburger Str. 1, 20355 Hamburg, Tel.: +49(0)40/32 50 92 30, Fax: +49/(0)40/32 50 92 44, e-mail: IOC2006@interplan.de;
http://www.interplan.de. Hotel prices will be: Price category A: EUR 130 – 150; B: EUR 115 – 130; C: EUR 90 – 95; D: EUR 78 – 88; E: EUR 58 – 75.
Please note that at present bookings for individual persons cannot be accepted. Booking will be open from summer 2005 onwards.
If you may aim group reservation of hotel accommodation, please send your request for group reservation to IOC2006@interplan.de for groups up to 10 people and more.
In addition to hotel rooms, accommodation at student guest houses and private rooms will be offered for participants from developing countries and transitional economies.

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Travel

There are flights to and from Hamburg from over 50 countries, with 38 direct destinations. From most world capitals Hamburg is reached with only one stop via Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London Heathrow, Munich, Paris, Vienna, or Zurich.
For flight information see also http://www.hamburg-airport.de.
Hamburg is linked to most European capitals and many cities by trains and coaches. Details at http://www.hamburg-tourism.de and German Rail http://www.bahn.de.
The CCH is located in the center of Hamburg and next to Dammtor Railway Station. Local travel is best by using the Rapid Transit Rail System (see http://www.hvv.com).

Passports and Visa

Passports, valid for at least six months from the entry into Germany, and entry visas are required to visit Germany except EU-citizens. For details see http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/en/willkommen/einreisebestimmungen/liste_html, or consult the nearest German diplomatic mission. Congress participants should first register with the appropriate registration fee, and second contact the Congress Secretariat (info@i-o-c.org) which will then send a formal invitation upon request. You should apply for a visa at least two month before departure for Germany.

Climate

Hamburg is located in the temperate zone. The average temperature in mid August is 16.8 degrees Celsius, but daily temperature could be up to 30 degrees Celsius or as low as 10 degrees Celsius, and it could be rainy with a monthly average of 82 mm precipitation at on average 12 days.

Liabilities

The Congress Organizers cannot accept responsibility for personal accidents or damage to any personal property of Congress participants and accompanying persons. It is advisable to arrange for personal insurance for the duration of the Congress and any pre- and post-Congress trips.

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Contacts

Congress Officers

President
Jacques Blondel (France) e-mail: jacques.blondel@cefe.cnrs.fr
Vice-President
John Wingfield (USA) e-mail: jwingfie@u.washington.edu
Honorary President
Jiro Kikkawa (Australia) e-mail: jkikkawa@zoology.uq.edu.au
Permanent Secretary of the IOC
Dominique G. Homberger (USA) e-mail: zodhomb@lsu.edu
Secretary-General of the 24th International Ornithological Congress
Franz Bairlein (Germany) e-mail: franz.bairlein@ifv.terramare.de

Scientific Program Committee

Chair: Susan Hannon (Canada) e-mail: IOC2006@biology.ualberta.ca
Gregory F. Ball (USA) e-mail: gball@jhu.edu
Vinod Kumar (India) e-mail: drvkumar@sancharnet.in
Kate Lessells (The Netherlands) e-mail: lessells@cto.nioo.knaw.nl
Charles Mlingwa (Tanzania) e-mail: tawiri@habari.co.tz
Patricia Monaghan (UK) e-mail: P.Monaghan@bio.gla.ac.uk
Frank Moore, (USA) e-mail: Frank.Moore@usm.edu
Christina Myiaki (Brazil) e-mail: cymiyaki@usp.br
Richard Schodde (Australia) e-mail: RichardSchodde@aol.com
Lucia Severinghaus (Taiwan–China) e-mail: zolls@gate.sinica.edu.tw

Ex-Officio members of the Scientific Programme Committee

Dominique Homberger (USA) e-mail: zodhomb@lsu.edu
Franz Bairlein (Germany) e-mail: franz.bairlein@ifv.terramare.de
Jacques Blondel (France) e-mail: jacques.blondel@cefe.cnrs.fr
Fernando Spina (Italy) e-mail: fernando.spina@infs.it

Members from the local organising committee

Peter H. Becker (vice Secretary-General, Germany) e-mail: peter.becker@ifv.terramare.de
Katrin Böhning-Gaese (Germany e-mail: boehning@oekologie.biologie.uni-mainz.de
Georg Klump (Germany) e-mail: georg.klump@uni-oldenburg.de

Congress Secretariat

Homepage: http://www.i-o-c.org
For information: info@i-o-c.org
Fax +49 4421 968955 , Tel. +49 4421 96890
Mailing Address:
IOC 2006, Institute of Avian Research, An der Vogelwarte 21, 26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
 

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