We are pleased to present a very special interview with someone that many of you already know: Alberto Álvarez, a field technician with a great passion for nature and a particular love for birds. In this chat, Alberto will share with us more about his work, his activities in the field and his unwavering passion for birds. Although many of our readers are already familiar with his name, this interview offers a deeper look into the person behind the expert, revealing facets that you may not know.

Hello Alberto, it's a pleasure to have you here today! Many people know you from your activities with birds. Do you work with other animals as well?
I also work with chameleons. I have always liked all animals. When I was little, I watched videos of Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente that my mother recorded for me. From then on, I started to get passionate about animals. I studied biology in Seville and met people with whom I went to the countryside. Then I started to get interested in ringing, one of the things I do most nowadays.

Do you have a favourite place in the province of Cadiz?
I would say the Pinar de la Dehesa de las Yeguas, in Puerto Real. I have been doing many activities there, such as ringing or setting up nest boxes. For me, it is a very special place because it is like a wild haven.
Which is your favourite bird?
The Little Tern, without a doubt! It is a spectacular bird: an elegant traveller, agile, cheerful, always squawking, a wonderful animal really.

Why do you like birds so much?
I have thought about that many times, and I think it is because of their beauty. Birds are some of the most beautiful animals there are. They are also very active animals, and easy to see. Plants are also very beautiful, but they don't attract me as much because they are very passive.
It doesn't have to be a very special bird. Just a Goldfinch eating from a thistle seems like a real spectacle to me.

What has been your most curious experience while ringing?
One day, ringing in the Dehesa de Abajo, in La Puebla del Río, we had set up the nets to ring passerines when a Black Stork that had been flying over the stream descended. It was frightened by our presence and collided with a net and got stuck there. It was the only time in my life that I ringed a Black Stork. On top of that, it was a juvenile.

What is the importance of bird ringing?
Bird ringing provides us with knowledge. If we want to conserve birds and their habitats, we need to have data. What bird ringing does, is to individualise. This is essential to know how a group is doing. This way we can know the trends. Then it is also important that the authorities pay attention to us. There are other methods that are also very useful, of course, for example bird censuses, or applications such as eBird or Observado.

However, there is certain information that can only be provided by ringing, because we can get data of specific individuals and understand the trends of the groups.
What role does technology play in modern ornithology?
Technology has changed ornithology a lot and will continue to change it. From being able to go into the field and mark the individuals that you find with an app, to putting a GPS device on a bird and knowing where it is at every moment, sometimes every second, for several years of its life.

There are often people who think that technology is going to eliminate everything from the past and create something new, but I don't agree. In some way I am a bit against technology, because I think it makes the world uglier and colder. I think that the world of ornithology will reach a point where it will hit a wall. GPS devices on animals provide much more precise and specific information than a ring, but on the other hand they are much more expensive.

There is also an issue that few people take into account: when you do something, you need to practice. Technology will help us, no doubt, but the difference between the cost of a GPS device and a ring is huge. We cannot put a GPS on all birds, because we are not only interested in the use of space, or where they move, where they build their nests or where they feed. We are also interested in things like longevity, how old the birds are in a certain environment and that can be seen with a mark, a ring.
What are the most important ethical considerations to take into account when ringing and studying birds?
That depends on the season and the species. During the breeding season you have to be very careful: handle the birds for as little time as possible. You cannot spend too much time disturbing a female or a chick to avoid nest failure. What we often do when we catch a bird that has just left the nest is to release it where we caught it. Its nest is obviously close to the net. If we release it outside the area where it has been raised, another adult might harm it. Another thing we have to bear in mind is that there are some species that need special treatment, for example Bullfinches, buntings or Greenfinches.

Apart from being a bird ringer, do you work on other issues related to nature?
Yes, I also work with reptiles and fish. This year I started a project with reptiles with my colleague Juanma Ortiz, and I'm loving it. It's a project I did five years ago in the San Fernando Botanical Garden and now we're executing it in the Los Toruños park. It's a census, a bit like ringing, but with chameleons. I put a chip under their skin and that allows us to identify them and map the area. In August we invited families to join us to participate in the activities. The kids love chameleons, because they have something mystical about them.

I have been working with fish for seven years. I work for Atlantida Medioambiente, sampling the Aphanius baeticus, a fish in danger of extinction. We sample every month in the Iro River, between Chiclana and Medina. It is a very small fish and it is losing its habitat. It also has a very small distribution. Aphanius are typical Mediterranean fish, from temporary streams.
I also build nest boxes. I have always liked working with my hands and I think I am quite a perfectionist, I take it very seriously. I buy more and more tools, something that really annoys my partner, because I have a house full of junk. I think it is very nice to create something with your own hands, from nothing, from wood, screws, varnish and four wires, and in the end you help a family of birds to raise their chicks year after year.

What other country would you like to visit to see other bird species?
Without a doubt, Australia. I have always been fascinated by it because it seems different to everything we have here on the Iberian Peninsula. I remember a documentary in which they compared the animals we have here to those there and how they use the same ecological niche, but in a different way. I think it is a very beautiful country.
What message would you like to share with those who are interested in ornithology or bird conservation?
First off, they don't have to be young. It's very common for older people to get into this world and love it. There was a British woman who was one of the best experts on the sexual behaviour of the Dunnock. The woman was widowed and had her typical bird guide and began to pay attention to the birds in her garden. She noticed how the Dunnocks interacted with each other. She saw that there were infidelities, that there were males that copulated with different females. That woman, who was over seventy years old, learned a lot and became one of the best experts on the species.
So I think that any age is a good age to start. What I do think that we need to recover is collectivism. We live in an increasingly individualistic world. The world of ornithology seems a little individualistic at first, because many people go alone to the countryside to watch birds, but without a collective we are nothing.

Mostly because learning alone is much more difficult. When I was fifteen, I liked birds, but I didn't have anyone with the same interest. I would go into the countryside just to see waders and it was very difficult for me to learn like that. It wasn't until I got to university, met a group of people with whom I went out in the field, that I started to grow in ornithology. Nowadays there are many applications that help us, but we humans learn from each other. When you go out into the field a few times, you also realise that birds are really having a hard time. We need organisations that can help to defend these birds and the environment in which they live.

It's a wonderful community, a community where the more you get into it, the more you discover. And you start to realise that there are many things that you don't know. You have to go through it accompanied by other people because that way you will grow a lot more.
Thank you very much, Alberto, see you in the field!
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