Executive Committee
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President
The honourary president of the MLSG is Professor Ian Newton FRS. Ian Newton is one of the most respected ornithologists in the world with an astonishing publication list of important original papers, reviews and books on migration and migratory birds, as well as on many other aspects of population ecology.
Chair
I’m a field biologist interested in migration and wintering ecology, with special interest in unravelling how birds can adapt their behaviour when environments rapidly change. Since 2011, I work at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) to follow Pied flycatchers across Europe and now mostly in Africa (e.g. Comoé research station). The MLSG allows me to further stimulate conservation and cooperative research, and capacity building in West Africa.
Deputy chair
I work at the Konrad-Lorenz Institute of Ethology in Vienna, Austria. My research is focused on several aspects of bird migration, particularly on the ecophysiology of desert stopovers in European-African passerines. I have study sites in Morocco, Italy and Austria, and I am the scientific coordinator of bird ringing in Austria. See more about myself at: https://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/konrad-lorenz-institute-of-ethology/about-us/our-team/scientists/maggini-ivan/
Master Treasurer
I am Professor of Biology at St Andrews University and have been studying migrants in Africa since 1994. My main interests are determining the factors determining the density, distribution and migratory connectivity of Palearctic migrants in West Africa and particularly how they survive in anthropogenic and degraded habitats. I am heavily involved in capacity building for conservation in West Africa, managing and teaching at the AP Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI) in Nigeria since 2001.
Treasurer Apprentice
I am a behavioural ecologist and ornithologist interested in dispersal, life history strategies and migration. I have great passion for small passerine nestbox population studies and wildly overambitious experiments. At the moment I am doing my PhD at the University of Groningen studying between-population differences in annual schedules and the trade-offs of long-distance dispersal through experimental dispersal.
Treasurer Support
Supporting Senior
I work as a Senior Conservation Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science where I lead on science work aimed at understanding the causes of decline of many Afro-Palaearctic migrants. I manage field projects studying several declining species in the UK and Western Africa. Much of this work links populations and demographic patterns with tracking data.
Conference Organizer
I am a passionate ecologist and bird ringer working on population trends and migration routes of Eastern Palaearctic landbirds. Most of my research is based in Russia, where I have started the Amur Bird Project in 2011. At the moment I am finishing my PhD at the Institute of Landscape Ecology, Münster University.
Outreach & Social Media
My main focus is the study of the annual cycle of an alpine long-distance migrant. Within my PhD project at the University of Turin, Italy, I aim to elucidate the phenology and wintering locations of a population breeding in the Piedmontese Alps, and importantly will link this information to breeding demography and nesting habitat.
Outreach & Social Media
I am a PhD student in biology based in Ankara, Turkey. I have been a nature-lover all my life and my love for birds is an evergrowing one. My current research interests are functional ecology of birds, avian community ecology, conservation of endangered avifauna and following bird movements using weather radars. If you are interested in any of these topics and need a collaborator in Turkey, you can contact me on Twitter: @bio_kaan
Outreach & Social Media
I am an aspiring ornithologist (yuhina08), trained in macroecology, biogeography and phylogeography. I am curious about how come we don’t see all kinds of birds everywhere, especially long-distance migrants since they fly so well! This is part of what I am trying to investigate during my PhD at CMEC (University of Copenhagen) by linking dispersal, migration, colonization and species diversity, with field work site in the Himalayas, where I track Phylloscopus occipitalis.
International Networking
I currently serve as the Conservation Programmes Coordinator (Africa) for BirdLife International. In this role, I support programmes focused on sites (Important Bird Areas, Key Biodiversity Areas, site monitoring) and forests (restoration, value chain, participatory forest management), as well as flyways work primarily along the East Atlantic and the East Africa flyways.
International networking
I am a conservation biologist whose main interests are in bird, mammal and forest conservation worldwide. Since 2007 I run my own NGO Quercus Sonora, aimed at protecting Atlantic forests and their biodiversity. As a postdoc researcher with the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP) I develop several conservation projects in West Africa, including Afro-Palearctic migrant birds. I am very concerned about capacity building in West Africa, by empowering local people to do conservation.
Conservation Officer
Sam did his PhD at the University of St Andrews. His PhD which involved a lot of fieldwork across several habitats in Nigeria investigated some prevailing hypotheses about the factors influencing the distribution and density of Palearctic migrants in the Afrotropics. Since completing his PhD in 2015, Sam returned and has been working at the A.P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI) in Jos, Nigeria as a Research & Teaching Fellow. More recently, Sam has also been managing the Nigeria Bird Atlas Project (NiBAP) – a citizen science project seeking to promote public participation in updating information about the distribution and natural history of birds and biodiversity in Nigeria. Sam will like to see improved capacity for the conservation of Afro-Palearctic migrants as well as Afrotropical resident birds in Africa and enjoys contributing to the capacity building work at APLORI.
International Networing
I am an ecologist. My main research area is the conservation ecology of birds of grasslands and farmlands, especially the European roller (Coracias garrulus). I mostly focus on the habitat and landscape level factors affecting the breeding populations and on the development of effective, evidence-based conservation measures. I am also curious about modelling changes of the breeding distribution range as well as the dispersal and migration strategies of rollers.
Conference Support
I am a researcher at the Swiss Ornithological Institute where my research is mainly focused on migration ecology of songbirds in the context of full annual cycles. I am particularly interested in the concept of migratory connectivity from a spatio‐temporal viewpoint, links between different annual phases, and interactions between migrants and the environment. To study these questions, my work combines geolocators tracking with and a multitude of other research techniques.
Conference Support
I am a conservation ecologist working for the Dutch Montagu’s Harrier Foundation (www.grauwekiekendief.nl) in the Netherlands. My main interest is research on farmland birds, especially the Montagu’s Harrier, and the implementation of evidence-based conservation measures. I am interested in migration and wintering ecology and a full annual-cycle approach in research and conservation.
Website admin
I am an all round ornithologist whos'e core passion is song bird (Willow Warblers in particular) life history. At the moment and for the foreseeable future I am working to understand genetics of bird migration as a PhD student at Lund University.