Professor Pablo Corcuera studied Biology at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa Campus. Rather than being interested in the Krebs cycle, he entered the career under the influence of books by Jack London, Jules Verne, and Salgari.

His social service was at the Museum of Natural History, where he remodeled the biological diversity room. At the Museum, he became interested in birds. He later completed a diploma in Natural Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh. Upon returning to Mexico, he became a professor at the Iztapalapa Campus, where he has worked since 1985.

In 1989 he started a master's degree at Durham University in England. His thesis was on liniphiid spiders and statistical applications to better understand species distribution and community structure. Fieldwork was in the dramatic landscape of the North Pennines of England. Like spiders, birds have the advantage that they can be counted relatively easily. They can also be observed in the field, so it is possible to study their behavior. This is why the two groups have been used to test hypotheses about community assembly and habitat selection. They are also good indicators of disturbance. His doctoral thesis was on bird communities in the dry forests of Jalisco, although the theoretical part and the statistical management of the information were done in Durham.

He is currently studying the influence of vegetation, food availability, and land use on species distribution with a functional approach. This perspective has close applications to conservation biology. Professor Corcuera is interested in spiders in arid zones and the influence of predators on bird communities in urban parks.

He has directed theses and published articles on behavior and habitat selection, fruit dispersal by birds and behavior of hummingbirds and flycatchers, and functional response in human-modified environments. Besides ecology, he enjoys cooking, reading, and visiting museums in this complicated Mexico City.