
Latest publications
- 2022 Oecologia 199: 79-90 Sexual differences in phenotypical predictors of floating status: body condition influences male but not female reproductive status in a wild passerine
- 2022 Journal of Avian Biology: e02913 Experimentally impaired female condition does not affect biliverdin-based egg colour
- 2021 MUSEO NACIONAL DE CIENCIAS NATURALES. NUESTRA INVESTIGACIÓN AL ALCANCE DE TU MANO Tapices de sonido: cantos de aves y ruido de fondo
- 2021 Current Zoology 67: 473–479 Snake-like calls in breeding tits
- 2021 European Journal of Wildlife Research 67:68. Influence of growing up in the city or near an airport on the physiological stress of tree sparrow nestlings (Passer montanus)
- 2021 Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9, article 658729 Reproductive strategies change with time in a newly founded colony of spotless starlings (Sturnus unicolor)
- 2021 Malimbus 43: 19-23 Cooperative breeding and possible multiple paternity in the supposedly monogamous White-crowned Robin-Chat Cossypha albicapillus
- 2021 Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 52 Prenatal manipulation of yolk androgen levels does not affect egg coloration or size in a songbird.
- 2021 Journal of Comparative Physiology B 191:195-206 Ontogeny of leukocyte profiles in a wild altricial passerine
- 2020 Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 73: 160. Age-related patterns of yolk androgen deposition consistent with adaptive brood reduction in spotless starlings
Diego Gil
Senior Researcher (MNCN, CSIC)
Research Themes
My research can be framed within the field of behavioural ecology, with a strong emphasis on the physiological mechanisms that are at the base of the adaptive responses of organisms to the environment. My models for this kind of questions are birds, mostly passerines, and apart from the scientific interest they have, I personally enjoy working in the field with them.
I have two main lines of research. On the one hand, my first interest was the study of bird song, why it varies so much between individuals and species, what do birds use it for, how is it designed for transmission in the environment, and how it relates to sexual selection and speciation. My second line of research is the study of maternal effects, particularly the effects of hormones that are transmitted from mother to offspring in the eggs, and that have effects in the development and fitness of the birds.
Curriculum Vitae
My first degree was in Psychology, something that reflects my early interest in behaviour and learning. I was fascinated by bird song from very early on. My first scientific study, on singing patterns of two sympatric treecreeper species, led me to consider interspecific territoriality, and made me realize from very early on the close link of behaviour with ecology and evolution. I did my PhD in the University of St Andrews supervised by Peter Slater on the role of song in sexual selection in the willow warbler. From there on I became interested in how maternal effects could influence development in birds, and that was the main theme of research during my postdocs with Jeff Graves (St. Andrews) and Anders Moller (Paris).
In 2001 I came back to Spain with a Ramón y Cajal fellowship, and in 2008 I obtained a senior scientist position at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC).