About the Author(s)

Fernando Medrano has had a lifelong interest in wildlife and entered the world of birding at 18 years old when he started his career as an engineer at Universidad de Chile. Here, he became involved in the Laboratorio de Ecologia y Vida Silvestre (LEVS), and practiced bird monitoring techniques in different habitats throughout Chile, including temperate rainforests, wetlands and the Atacama Desert, including work with the Critically Endangered Chilean Woodstar (Eulidia yarrellii). In this same University, he continued to do a MSc in Evolutionary Biology, where he explored the drivers of songbirds' clutch size variability. Throughout his career, he has been involved in the Chilean NGO "Red de Observadores de Aves y Vida Silvestre de Chile" (ROC), working actively in projects of seabird and waterbird monitoring and conservation, managing the Chilean eBird portal since 2015, being part of the editorial committee of the Chilean journal "La Chiricoca" and designing a network of shorebird protection. In this NGO, he also led the first Chilean Breeding Bird Atlas (the very first using eBird as the main data source, and the first in continental South America). Fernando also was part of the discovery of the first breeding colonies for Markham's Storm-Petrel (Hydrobates markhami), Ringed Storm-Petrel (Hydrobates hornbyi) and Elliot's Storm-Petrel (Oceanites gracilis) in the Atacama Desert. In 2019 he moved to Catalunya, where he has collaborated in tracking and sampling shearwaters, petrels, tropicbirds, and storm-petrels in Mexico, Spain, and Cabo Verde during his PhD with the Seabird Ecology Lab of the Universitat de Barcelona. Fernando is interested in finding novel approaches for studying the natural history of birds (especially threatened and little-known species), and has published several scientific and divulgation articles (all of them available freely in Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fernando_Medrano). He has also been at the forefront of bird conservation and has influenced the light pollution regulation in Chile, and the protection of colonies of storm-petrels and Peruvian tern in the Atacama Desert. His contact e-mail is fernandomedranomartinez@gmail.com.