Hans Winkler Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology, A Title Climate change and birds in Austria Abstract We currently witness a period of significant global climate change. Recent studies suggest that climate change may drive a quarter of land animals and plants extinct. After starting with some basics of climate and large scale weather systems, I will give a brief survey of the results of the literature on climate change and birds. The focus of the talk will be on the particular Austrian situation, and on some pertaining past and ongoing studies. The first question I will address is whether we have data that demonstrate that climate change already affects birds in Austria. Although the data generally are not satisfactory for several reasons that will be discussed in detail, the answer to this question is affirmative. The causes for changes in arrival and departure dates of long distance migrants are complex and difficult to generalize above the species level. Even within species we have evidence that birds in different parts of Austria behave differently. The most difficult part of any such investigation is to relate bird distributions and long term survival of populations to climate change. I will show this with some examples and try to guesstimate the future of Austria’s avifauna. Parts of the studies presented here were/are supported by the Austrian Ministry for the Environment and were carried out in collaboration with the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) and BirdLife Austria. For CV, research interests & projects see http://www.oeaw.ac.at/klivv/en/persons/winkler.html Selected recent publications Scheifinger, H., H. Winkler & E. Koch (2005): Results of a first look into the Austrian animal phenological records. Meteorol. Z. 14(2): 1-7. Scheifinger, H., E. Koch & H. Winkler (2007): Erste Ergebnisse einer Analyse vogelphänologischer Beobachtungen der Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik 1951-1999 in Österreich. promet 33: 52-55. Institution address Prof. Dr. Hans Winkler Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology, Austrian Academy of Sciences Tel: 0043 1 515 81-2722 fax. 0043 1 515 81 2800 h.winkler@klivv.oeaw.ac.at http://www.oeaw.ac.at/klivv/en/persons/winkler.html