Curriculum vitae//Research activity (Publications)//Spanish

Current position
 

I am currently working in the Natural History Museum of Barcelona (MCNB) as head of the Chordates Laboratory and curator of its collection. My job is to research and manage the chordates collection of the museum to promote its use in research and exposition (education). My research activity is also associated to the Ornitological Catalan Institute and to the Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology Associate Research Unit, CSIC (MCNB), where I collaborate as associated researcher.

INTERESTS
My research interests are diverse but fully related to bird ecology.

On the one hand, I am focused on behavioural ecology studies. I have been discerning how plumage color can signal different skills through the expression of particular colour-based ornaments and how they interact in contexts of sexual and social selection. My species of study are the Siskin (Carduelis spinus) and the Great Tit (Parus major). Another related subject of my interest is to ascertain how sexual and natural selection can modify the final features of the Magpie nest, which is a post-mating sexual trait (see pictures).

My interests in plumage colouration are not only theoretical but also applied.  I also study the processes of human-related disturbance and global change (urbanisation, population management) and how they affect bird communities and specific species such as the house sparrow (disturbance ecology).

Last, but not least, I am working on Zoological Collection studies. I am collaborating with other curators of the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona to design new technologies that improve the state of conservation of the especimens which belong to the zoological collection. We are developping an incipient research line that is focused in obtaining efficient methodologies for the preparation of  zoological specimens.

In conclusion, I do more things than time allows me to do... (if you research, you know what I am talking about...).

If you want contact me:
Javier Quesada 

Laboratory of chordates
Natural History Museum of Barcelona
Pg. Picasso s/n. 08003 Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain)
Telèfon: + 34 93 256 22 24 
www.museuciencies.bcn.cat
 
jquesadal[AT]bcn.cat
jquesadalara[AT]yahoo.es
[AT]=@