Katharina Riebel

Katharina Riebel is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) within Leiden University, specializing in animal behavior, cognition, and vocal learning. Her work bridges evolutionary biology and experimental psychology, focusing on sexual selection and multimodal signaling in birds.

Her research explores how phenotypic plasticity and learning shape mating signals and preferences, with a particular emphasis on

• acoustic communication
• cultural transmission in songbirds
• urban ecological impacts on avian acoustics

. She has contributed to foundational studies in bird song, including temporal variation in song structure and cultural evolution.

Recent work, such as the 2019 publication on Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, examines multimodal percepts in mating signals. Her 2004 Journal of Avian Biology paper quantified trill-flourish dynamics in chaffinch song.

Scientific awards include the Human Frontier Science Program award (2016). She advises PhD candidates like Jiangnan Sun and former advisee Jing Wei.