Researcher based at the Doñana Biological Station, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Sevilla, Spain.
I obtained my PhD in 1989 on parent-offspring communicative interactions in magpies. Then I had two post doctoral fellowships at CSIC (1990-1991) and the Behavioural Ecology Group at the Department of Zoology of the University of Cambridge (UK) (1991-1992) on communicative interactions between brood-parasitic chicks and their hosts. At this time I began to collaborate with Francis S. Tortosa on white stork breeding and behavioural ecology.
I am interested in the evolution of cooperation and conflict in animal societies, particularly avian families. My research topics include parental care, parent-offspring conflict, honest signalling, brood parasitism, broodmate aggression and phylogenetic comparative studies.
I also participated as a consultant (animal behaviour) in the Northern Bald Ibis reintroduction project between 2007 and 2010 (Proyecto Eremita).