Research Coordinator, Environment and Climate Change Canada

krista.degroot@ec.gc.ca

Krista De Groot is the Research Coordinator for Urban Ecology and Nature-based Solutions in the wildlife research branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada. Krista has 20 years of experience in the public service and over a decade of research experience in the conservation of migratory birds in urban landscapes. Krista’s particular expertise is research on seasonality, species vulnerability, risk factors and mitigation of bird window collisions, a major threat to birds which causes > 1 billion bird deaths a year in North America alone.

Wildlife Research Technician, Environment and Climate Change Canada

ana.morales@ec.gc.ca

Ana completed a Masters of Science at McGill University, where she studied the stopover ecology and moult migration of Swainson’s thrushes in southern Quebec. Her research highlighted the importance of urban greenspaces as migratory stopovers for songbirds during a crucial period of their life cycle such as moult. Ana is a passionate birder and bird bander and in her free time she can be found birding around Montreal or volunteering at the local bird banding station. 

Ph.D., Biology, Concordia University

Val is a landscape ecologist and research software developer interested in ecological modeling and reproducible science. He holds an MSc in Biology from McGill University, where he studied the impacts of land use change on ecological connectivity. His other project experience includes landscape connectivity conservation at the national scale, R package development and maintenance, camera trap data management, fisheries productivity and distance sampling modeling, as well as applications of computer vision. At the Birds & Trees, Val's PhD focuses on enhancing our understanding on using participatory data (like eBird) to better quantify how birds are moving through cities. Val is co-supervised by Dr. Eric Pedersen at Concordia University.

M.Sc., Biology, Concordia University

mackenzieguest2902@gmail.com

Mackenzie is a master student at Concordia University under the co-supervision of Dr. Carly Ziter. Mackenzie is investigating how public and private urban forests in the NDG neighborhood of Montreal support bird diversity and ecosystem services.. She hopes that this project will shed light on what bird species use urban forests, and how this may differ across seasons and management types, to help guide biodiversity friendly management practices.

M.Sc., Biology, Concordia University

Siena is an M.Sc. student co-supervised by Dr. Carly Ziter at Concordia University After working with fish and cows in her undergrad, Siena is eager to explore the world of bird watching! She is exploring the impacts of tree planting initiatives on bird populations, with a focus on the ecosystem services provided by birds. She hopes this project will inform management practices that can better support Montreal's rich and diverse bird community, while improving the lives of city dwellers. 

M.Sc., Wildlife Biology, McGill University

nathanya.goudreau@mail.mcgill.ca

Nathanya completed her BSc Honours at McGill University and is now working on her MSc, co-supervised by Dr. Kyle Elliott. Her research focuses on mapping the migration and wintering areas of Chestnut-sided and Yellow Warblers. She will estimate how urbanized their potential stopover sites and migratory paths are with the help of some of the smallest tags available.

M.Sc., Wildlife Biology, McGill University

Linda completed her undergraduate degree in Zoology at the University of Guelph, where she first experienced the joys of fieldwork and research with birds. Since then, she has worked on multiple different research projects, monitoring populations of birds in the wild. She has always loved wildlife conservation and hopes to help protect wildlife and their habitats, and encourage people to care more about the natural world. She is currently pursuing her MSc at McGill University, under the co-supervision of Dr. Kyle Elliott. Her research will investigate how songbirds use urbanized landscapes during migratory stopovers, which will inform how city parks can be better managed to create suitable habitat for birds.

Honours student, McGill University

Danae is investigating how geolocators affect the survival and behavior of Chestnut-sided Warblers and Yellow Warblers. By attempting to resight and recapture individuals tagged in the previous year, she aims to understand how these birds respond to the tracking devices and their deployment. Her research seeks to improve the use of geolocators to minimize their potential impact on these migratory songbirds. She is co-supervised by Nathanya Goudreau and Kyle Elliott.

Honours student, McGill University

Gabrielle completed a technical degree in Environmental and Wildlife Management at Vanier College and is currently an undergraduate at McGill University in Environmental Biology. Her honours project looks at the breeding success of American Kestrels in relation to adjacent anthropogenic structures. By understanding the elements contributing to their breeding success, she aims to improve the placement of nest boxes in the greater Montreal area to contribute to their conservation.

Honours student - McGill University

Jessica has been part of the Birds and Trees team since 2024, first supporting Mackenzie’s work in private urban greenspaces and then being part of Nathanya’s warbler wrangling team. In the fall on 2025 she started her honours thesis exploring bird richness during both the pre-breeding migratory and the summer breeding seasons as a function of both the trees and shrubs found in urban yards, as well as larger landscape canopy cover variables.