AHWG Member Bios
Heather Barrett is the Deputy Director at the Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE), a biological field station located on a private reserve in the rainforest of southern Belize. She is the organizer of the World Migratory Bird Day activities on the BFREE Reserve. She has coordinated the monitoring of the Agamia agami colony near the BFREE Reserve. Heather is passionate about education and manages all of BFREE’s educational programs. Much of her energy is dedicated to empowering future conservation leaders through work training, outreach and professional development opportunities. US Address: US for BFREE, 3520 NW 43rd Street, Gainesville, FL 32606, +1-352-231-2772 (Whatsapp). Belize Address: PO Box 129, Punta Gorda Town, Toledo District, Belize, +011-501-628-7556,
Olivier Claessens is an ornithologist living in French Guiana, where he first arrived in 1993 for his PhD thesis on forest bird communities, with the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris). Since 2012 he has been working for GEPOG as a manager of various ornithological projects, mainly long term monitoring programs. He took charge of the Agami Heron study in the Kaw marshes after Anna Stier in 2020. He is also the manager of the citizen science platform Faune-Guyane. GEPOG, 431, route d'Attila-Cabassou, 97354 Rémire-Montjoly (FRANCE – French Guiana), +594-594-294696,
Rob Clay, Ph.D, is the Vice President of the Flyways Program for Manomet Conservation Sciences, and Director of the Executive Office of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. In these roles he supports multiple programs and initiatives of relevance to the conservation of Agami Heron. WHSRN Executive Office, Cerro Cora 993, Asunción, Paraguay, +595-972-911424,
Aidan Colligan is the current on-site manager/director of the Tapiche Reserve, Peru. ,
Clémentine Coûteaux is the director of GEPOG, an NGO studying and protecting birds in French Guiana. She supports all the projects of the NGO as well as the two Nature Reserves it is managing (“Île du Grand Connétable” and “Nouragues”), develops partnerships, and sits in several committees and in the federation of three local nature conservation organizations “Guyane Nature Environnement”. GEPOG, 431, route d'Attila-Cabassou, 97354 Rémire-Montjoly (FRANCE – French Guiana), +594-594-294696,
Jennifer Devillechabrolle has worked in protected areas in French Guiana for 13 years. She was the manager of the National Natural Reserve of Nouragues between 2016 and 2025. Currently, she works for the French Guiana Amazonian Park, as the manager of the department of natural and cultural heritage. Her department enforces scientific and conservation activities of this National Park, including the monitoring of the colony of Agami Herons in the Elahé area. Parc amazonien de Guyane, service PNC, 1 rue de la canne à sucre - 97354 Rémire-Montjoly (FRANCE - French Guiana). +594-694-926982,
Griselda Escalona-Segura completed her degree in Biology (1989) and her degree of Master of Science in Animal Biology (1995) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and her Ph. D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas (1999). She works as a researcher at “El Colegio de la Frontera Sur – Campeche” since 2000, where she teaches conservation biology and ecology. Her research is focused on the ecology of birds and small mammals, but she also developed issues in systematics, biogeography and conservation of natural resources. She has been evaluating nesting patterns of birds, and has spent her efforts for several years in developing diagnostics for the establishment of two state protected areas: Balam-Kú and Balam-Kin, in Campeche, Mexico. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Unidad Campeche, Avenida Rancho Polígono 2-A, Ciudad Industrial, Lerma, 24500 Campeche, Mexico, +52-981-1273720 ext. 2301,
Devon Graham is a tropical ecologist and the president of Project Amazonas, Inc., a non-profit established in 1994 to support conservation, research, education and medical work in the upper Peruvian Amazon, and working exclusively in the Departamento de Loreto. The organization operates three field stations - Madre Selva Biological Station on the Orosa River, Santa Cruz Forest Reserve on the Mazan River, and most recently took over management of the Tapiche Reserve (in late 2022) on the Tapiche River in southern Loreto. Graham is based in Florida where he taught an interdisciplinary Everglades course at Florida International University for 20 years and has hosted numerous academic groups at the field sites in Peru. The Peruvian sister organization, Asociación Civil Proyecto Amazonas is the legal entity in Peru, with offices in Iquitos. 2280 Avenida de la Marina, Punchana, Iquitos, Peru. +1-786-232-2674,
James A. Kushlan is a biologist and conservationist specializing in wetlands and in the biology and conservation of waterbirds. He has published over 250 professional papers and twelve books and has held the posts of senior scientist with the National Park Service, professor of biology and chair of the Center for Water Resources at Texas A&M – Commerce, and professor and chair of Biology at The University of Mississippi, director of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, and research associate at the Smithsonian Institution. He is the founder and chair of the North American Waterbird Conservation Initiative (now Waterbird Conservation for the Americas), founding co-chair of the Heron Specialist Group, and past president of the Waterbird Society and American Ornithologists’ Union. 3692 Grand Ave., #618, Coconut Grove Fl 33133, USA, +1-305-365-0306,
Gabriel Maldonado is an ecotourism engineer and naturalist guide, with a master's degree in Protected Natural Areas and Socio-environmental Studies. He was in charge of the Public Use and Tourism Program of the Yasuni National Park for four years, then he was Field Coordinator of the Technical Support Unit for the Yasuni National Park. He currently works as an Environmental Impact Analyst in this protected area. He is the organizer of the Audubon bird counts of the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve. He carried out the first monitoring of the A. agami colony in the Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Sede del Parque Nacional Yasuní, Ministerio del Ambiente, calle Amazonas y Simón Bolívar, El Coca, provincia de Orellana, Ecuador, +593-062 882500, +593-0960865214,
Cristina Marqués Ferri is a biologist specialized in ecology and conservation. After research experience in evolutionary biology, she decided to redirect her focus towards the conservation of protected areas, always paying particular attention to bridging the gap with the field of scientific research. She now works as a scientific coordinator in the Kaw-Roura National Nature Reserve in French Guiana, home to one of the world's biggest breeding colonies of Agami Herons. Réserve naturelle nationale de Kaw-Roura, 235 Lotissement Copaya 1, 2 rue Courbaril, 97351 Matoury (FRANCE – French Guiana), +594-694-484473,
Steeve Mathieu is a project manager for ornithology at GEPOG, an association studying and protecting birds in French Guiana. He is working on a project about the Blue-backed Manakin and on developing ornithological projects for the association. Specialized in tropical conservation, he worked as a coordinator for the National Action Plan for the Madagascar Pond Heron in Mayotte. His work focused on controlling black rat populations, monitoring the population, and coordinating the network. GEPOG, 431, route d'Attila-Cabassou, 97354 Rémire-Montjoly (FRANCE – French Guiana), +33-789020650,
Luis Gonzalo Morales has taught Ecology and Conservation at Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas since 1978. His research has dealt with general ecology, diet, and feeding behavior of herons, ibises, and other aquatic birds in the Llanos and coastal wetlands of Venezuela as well as chemical contamination and baseline studies of birds in oil-producing natural areas, the relationship between human malaria and deforestation in Venezuelan rainforests, and ecosystem services of cloud forests. His current research is a multivariate analysis of country-wide waterbird assemblages, ecological morphology of herons and ibises, and the National Census of Aquatic. He is member of the Society for Waterbird Biology, the Society for Conservation Biology, the Ecological Society of Venezuela, and the Union of Venezuelan Ornithologists. Instituto de Zoologia Tropical, Fac. Ciencias, Central University of Venezuela, Apartado 47058,1041-A Caracas, Venezuela, +58-2126051424,
Gwenn Quérel has been the curator of the Kaw Roura National Nature Reserve since 2021. This reserve is the third largest in France and contains one of the largest colonies of Agamia agami. Réserve naturelle nationale de Kaw-Roura, 235 Lotissement Copaya 1, 2 rue Courbaril, 97351 Matoury (FRANCE – French Guiana), +594-694-217830,
Carlos Ruiz-Guerra is a Colombian biologist who serves as a researcher in an NGO called CALIDRIS (Association for the study and conservation of waterbirds in Colombia). He has about ten years of experience in research and conservation of birds focusing on shorebirds and herons. He authored and coauthored 13 papers; he currently coordinates a waterbird monitoring program at the Caribbean coast of Colombia and is working on waterbirds and Neotropical migratory birds at the Orinoco basin. CALIDRIS, Carrera 24 Numero 4-20 barrio Miraflores, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, +57-3155342496,
Paulo Silvestro is a biologist and currently serves as the environmental manager in federal protected areas in Brazil through the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, a government institution), specifically in Cabo Orange National Park (Parque Nacional do Cabo Orange). ICMBio, 1126 Leopoldo Machado, Macapá-AP, Brazil, +55 96 98132 5310,
Anna Stier is an ecologist working in habitat conservation and management. She has been a project manager at several NGOs studying and protecting biodiversity and birds, mostly in French Guiana. She managed several projects involving Agami Heron biology and conservation, is lead author of a conservation plan for the species and a past chair of the Agami Heron Working Group. 855 route de Bourda, 97300 Cayenne (FRANCE – French Guiana), +594-594-294696,
Jan van der Winden is an ecologist and a guest researcher at University Groningen. He has more than 20 years of experience in research and consultancy on birds with a specialization in wetland species like terns and herons, tracking studies, nature restoration, field ecology, impact studies of wind turbines, impact assessments and nature legislation. As expert he is affiliated to The Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA). He managed many national and international projects related to Natura 2000 policy such as designation, research and EIA. He has extensive expertise in international research and conservation projects in Greece, Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Russia, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Bonaire, Aruba and French Guiana. Dantelaan 115, 3533 VC Utrecht, The Netherlands, + 31-6-51-428774,
Contacts of Natural Protected Areas which have Agami heron sightings or breeding colonies in their areas and are members of the Agami Heron Working Group: