Tour Leaders
Alexander Alvarado
Alex grew up in Copan Ruinas on the western part of Honduras. He first became interested in birds when working for the Hotel Posada Real de Copan but his passion was really sparked by a spell working closely with wild and rehabilitated birds at Macaw Mountain, a bird park and nature reserve outside of Copan. Over the years Alex took part in guiding and tourism training courses and began leading groups all over the country. He is now among the top guides recommended by the Honduras Institute of Tourism, thanks to his pursuit of excellence and his vast experience of leading birding groups. Alex is a past President of the Honduran Ornithological Association and co-organiser of the Honduras Birding for Conservation Tour. He is currently the co-owner of Natural Selections Nature Tours and leads birding groups to Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Colombia and Nicaragua.
Dr Svetlana Ashby
Svetlana was born in Russia but lived in Kazakhstan for many years where she led scientific research in wildlife biology and was a lecturer in environmental studies at the State Agricultural University in Almaty. She has birded widely around the world including Russia and other former Soviet Union countries. She has extensive knowledge of all aspects of Kazakhstan’s natural history and culture.
Vaughan Ashby
Vaughan became interested in birds in the early 1960s and started birding seriously in the mid 1970s. He founded Birdfinders in 1993 running tours for local RSPB groups and in 1996, after 24 years working as an assistant bank manager, turned it into a full time occupation. He has since travelled extensively around the world and has led over 200 tours to every continent on earth. He is former treasurer of Portland Bird Observatory and former Dorset Bird Report editor.
Suchit Basnet
Suchit was born in the eastern Terai of Nepal and worked as a full time naturalist in the Royal Chitwan National Park for five years during which time he accumulated an invaluable knowledge of its flora and fauna. He started work as a full time wildlife leader in 1994 and his great enthusiasm, cheerful and friendly disposition, together with exceptional ornithological knowledge has made him a very popular leader of our Nepal tours.
Gustavo Bautista
Gustavo was born and raised in Lima but has been living in Cusco since 2010. His interest in birds began at the age of thirteen when he travelled for the first time to the Peruvian Amazon, where he was amazed by the extraordinary beauty of nature in the Tambopata National Park, Peru. From that moment his interest in nature and birding grew and he decided to study ecotourism. He started birding at the age of nineteen at the Pantanos de Villa Wildlife Refuge in Lima, where he carried out his first research into nocturnal bird vocalizations. After finishing his studies he moved to Tambopata, where he started leading bird tours. He also began to undertake volunteer fieldwork for several studies including macaw research, the Bird Census in Lima and Cusco and a project about nocturnal bird behaviour according to the moon phase. Gustavo has worked in Colombia for the NGO Proaves and leads bird tours in Colombia and Peru.
Solomon Berhe
Solomon has been interested in birds since childhood in Tigray province. After gaining a Natural Science degree at Addis Ababa University, he developed experience of Ethiopia’s birds and habitats as he travelled to various parts of the country with his work in the coffee industry. He then began working as a birdguide and 10 years ago, started his own ground agency.
Bill Blake
Originally from south London where he studied and trained as an Industrial Chemist, Bill started birding in his early teens and soon developed a fascination for bird migration. His travels have taken him to every continent, except Antarctica, and to some of the best migration hot-spots in the world. He has travelled extensively on the Indian sub-continent, in Asia and in Africa and has led tours to these areas as well as to Europe and North America.
Tudor Blaj
Tudor is a forest engineer by profession in Romania but now leads birdwatching and wildlife tours on a full-time basis. He is an enthusiastic ornithologist with a keen eye and all-round wildlife ability and has a great love for all aspects of natural history. The Carpathian Mountains are his ‘local patch’. It is an area he knows better than anyone, making him the perfect guide on our tours.
Ricardo Viegas Casarin
Ricardo was born in Dourados, South Mato Grosso state and has been involved in tourism since 1998. As a bird guide, Ricardo has been leading tours in the Cerrado and Pantanal since late 1990s but nowadays his areas have extended to other Mato Grosso’s destinations such as South of Amazon in Alta Floresta. Ricardo is a Brazilian Tourism Board (Embratur) Certified Guide and one of the best birdwatching and natural history guides in Brazil. To achieve that he is always improving his knowledge and techniques by taking courses, and participating of meetings and conferences on the subject. In 2010 Ricardo was invited to teach a course for the state environmental office of Tocantins state (NATURATINS), to teach natural history guiding, bird watching guiding and wildlife photography guiding for the technical workers as a biologists, zoologists and guides. Always giving lectures at the tour guide courses and to the technical federal school in Cuiabá, also at the UEMS, The stadual university of Mato Grosso do Sul state. He has a great experience guiding wildlife photographers bringing the best spots and angles. He is coauthor of the book, MANUAL DO GUIA DE TURISMO EM AREA NATURAL ((Editora entrelinhas, 2011) with Leila Cunha. Ricardo lives in Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso state, with his wife and two children.
Richard Chen
Born and raised in Taiwan, Richard has been a nature lover since he was a child. After receiving his Master of Science degree from RPI, New York, he returned to Taiwan, where, in 2000, he joined the Wild Bird Society of Taipei as a volunteer interpreter to lead birding trips and to introduce more people to birdwatching. He has run many scheduled tours for overseas birding companies and tailor-made custom tours for individuals.
Ryan Chenery
Born and raised in beautiful Barbados, the always-smiling and self-professed bird-crazy Ryan, first worked as Chief Naturalist at the largest wetland on the island, before taking on a field research role in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest and later in the Ecuadorian Amazon. After being swept off his feet by a Yorkshire Lass, he immigrated to the UK where he worked as an officer for RSPB at Bempton Cliffs and later as Parks Officer at North York Moors National Park. Ultimately though, the lure of the islands called him and his new family back home to the Caribbean, where for the last several years he has specialised in leading a range of multi-island birding tours throughout this idyllic and varied region.
Lee Kok Chung
Lee Kok Chung has travelled extensively within Malaysia, including Borneo and the surrounding regions, in search of birds and has turned birdwatching from a hobby when he was young into being a professional bird guide for the past 10 years. He is multilingual speaking fluent English, Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese and has led groups from many countries. Lee has a nature guide license from the Ministry of Tourism and is a member of Malaysia Nature Society.
Leio De Souza
Leio is from Goa and is a founding partner of Backwoods Camp, a birding lodge in Goa’s Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary. A self-taught naturalist and keen bird photographer, Leio is a professional bird tour leader with extensive knowledge of India’s natural history having guided bird tours for individuals, groups and tour companies in Goa and throughout India for almost 20 years. Together with his English wife Jennifer, Leio is founder of and principal tour leader for India Nature Tours which handles the ground arrangements for Birdfinders' tours.
Nara Duong
Nara is the senior bird guide of our ground agents. He started in conservation work in 2007 and since then has led many birding groups for all the major worldwide bird tour companies as well as many individual ‘target-birders’. He loves exploring new places, meeting people and taking them to see his nature and culture and enjoys finding all the birds that his groups want to see. Nara is excellent at birdsong identification and, can identify almost all the species by their call. He strongly believes that the only way to change the behaviour of villagers towards wildlife and the habitat is by providing them with an alternative livelihood and actively pursues this way forward.
Silverio Duri
Silverio was born in the rainforests of Peru and comes from the Ese-Eja indigenous community on the Tambopata River where he has spent most of his life. He has worked for many years as a rainforest natural history guide in the Tambopata-Candamo National Park and has specialized in leading bird tours for the last few years. He has the eyes and ears of a true native of the rainforests and is incredibly adept at spotting quietly sitting birds. He has broadened his horizons and is now one of our top bird tour leaders in Manu and Machu Picchu and North Peru. He is reknowned for his fieldcraft and knowledge of all aspects of rainforest ecology.
Elmer Escoto
Elmer was born in Honduras and raised in the countryside. It was there, at the edge of the Honduran rain forest, that his intimate knowledge of nature and birds was born. He began working at The Lodge at Pico Bonito in 1999, constructing trails and clearing vegetation. Within a few years, his enthusiasm, patience, natural teaching abilities, and love of nature saw him promoted to The Lodge’s guide staff. Elmer applied himself, learned to speak English and eagerly began to devour every birding and nature field guide he could find. Along the way, he received extensive guiding and interpretive training from a number of organizations and The Lodge itself. Today, with nearly 10 years’ experience leading international birding clients over much of Honduras, Elmer is perhaps The Lodge’s most well-known and requested birding guide.
Andy Foster
Andy Foster owns and manages Serra dos Tucanos, a birders lodge based in the Atlantic rainforest of southeast Brazil. Now in its 11th year, Andy set up the lodge together with his wife Cristina back in 2002 in this endemic-rich area! Andy previously worked at a nature reserve on the south coast of England and was responsible for bird and botanical surveys. In 1995 he made his first visit to Brazil, after which he was hooked on the Neotropics! He was responsible for helping with the establishment of a local wetland reserve and conservation NGO based in the State of Rio de Janeiro. From there he went on to establish Serra dos Tucanos lodge and begun to guide birding tours within the local area. Having now spent over 10 years birding within the Tres Picos State Park where Serra dos Tucanos Lodge is located, Andy knows the local area extremely well, and has spent numerous hours in the field guiding birding trips and sharing his knowledge of the local birds with many guests!
Neil Gartshore
Neil worked in the conservation field for 23 years – National Trust (Farne Islands), Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology (Sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands) and the RSPB (including 15 years at Arne in Dorset). Freelance since 2006, he carries out ecological survey work, leads birdwatching trips, runs Calluna Books (specialising in second hand natural history titles) and is now the editor and publisher of The Birdwatcher’s Yearbook. He is a former Dorset County Bird Recorder/Chairman of the Dorset Bird Club and has travelled regularly on birding trips, particularly to Spain, Lesvos, South Africa and Japan.
Dimiter Georgiev
Dimiter has been working on conservation projects for over 25 years, 18 of which have been spent monitoring wintering geese around the Black Sea. Dimiter has been interested in birds since 1975 and has led birdwatching and natural history tours in Bulgaria since 1992.
Gerard Gorman
English by birth, Gerard has lived abroad for many years and is regarded as an expert on birds in Eastern Europe, where he has led over 500 tours. He is the author of several books, including Where to Watch Birds in Eastern Europe, The Birds of Hungary and Central & Eastern European Wildlife. His main interest is in woodpeckers and is also author of Woodpeckers of Europe, the monographs The Black Woodpecker and The Wryneck and the acclaimed Woodpeckers of the World – The Complete Guide.
Nicky Icarangal
Nicky is Birding Adventure Philippines’ President and lead bird guide. Nicky has had extensive experience leading birding trips for private individuals and groups as well as for tour operators. A veteran birder himself, Nicky knows his birds. He is recognized for his talent for spotting birds and patience in calling in elusive endemics such as pittas, shamas and tailorbirds. His experience in leading tours, his keenness as a birder and his easy-going nature has made Nicky very popular with both his local and foreign clients.
Solomon Jallow
Solomon is a Gambian national who has an extensive knowledge of the birds, sites and people of his country. He is president of the West African Bird Study Association and organises Habitat Africa, a group of the best birdguides in The Gambia. Solomon’s enthusiasm for birds and his easy-going nature cannot fail to make an impression on you.
Luis Ku
Luis was born in Yucatan and studied in the University of Yucatan. He worked for 17 years in the Botanical Garden Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marin of Puerto Morelos and is a specialist birding guide, the most-experienced and qualified in the Yucatan Peninsula. Luis has spent the last 20 years searching for the best places to find birds around the Yucatan Peninsula and regularly guides birders in the field.
Saman Kumara
Saman is a very hard-working naturalist and always has a smile on his face. He has been working as a wildlife guide since 1999 at Udawalawe, Yala and Bundala National Parks and has many years of experience. This experience in the national parks and rainforests has made him excellent in spotting and finding the difficult and rare species in all terrains. Saman has actively participated in and contributed on many research programmes and has also assisted BBC for a documentary programme on Elephants.
Przemysław Kunysz
Przemysław works in the Polish Forestry Department and has been involved in many conservation schemes including those for Ural Owls and Wolves. Przemek’s knowledge of the sites and birds of Poland is excellent. He has led Birdfinders' tours to Poland for the past ten years.
Christopher Kwesiga
Christopher was born and still lives in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda, famous for its Mountain Gorillas and Albertine Rift endemic birds; not a bad place to live! Since working as a bursar at a school (his original profession was an accountant), Christopher then followed his true calling in life and has spent the past 17 years guiding bird and wildlife tours throughout Uganda and Rwanda. He leads tours for a number of other birdwatching and general wildlife companies and, in 2020, discovered a new bird for Uganda, Golden-naped Weaver in Semliki National Park. This is an endangered species previously only found in the Democratic Republic of Congo and thought to possibly be extinct as there had been no records since 2006; we shall of course, be looking for it on our tours!
Jorge Luna
Jorge has been guiding for 10 years in his native region of Pichincha, the capital of which of course is Quito, also the capital of Ecuador. Encouraged by his family, Jorge started guiding soon after leaving school and he speaks fluent English. As well as birding, his other passion is painting.
Neil MacLeod
Neil is rated as one of the top wildlife guides in Namibia. Neil has expanded his phenomenal birding knowledge to include wildlife, plants and almost everything else to do with nature. Working with people is second nature to him and he sets high standards for birding and wildlife tours to create memories that are never to be forgotten. Neil’s intimate local knowledge ensures that his groups always find the birds and other wildlife. He is also the author of An expert’s guide to finding the animals in Etosha.
Paul Mensah
Paul is an excellent birding and wildlife tour leader and has led many tours for international companies and private groups. He has an amazing ability to spot species in the most difficult habitat and also knows all birds by song/call. A very popular leader with clients, his professional attitude, logistical excellence and personable and social character are complemented by his calm leading style, enthusiasm and love of his work. Paul lives near Kakum National Park and is always in the field researching species and new locations to find them.
Xavier Muñoz-Contreras
Xavier is a conservationist by heart and is Neblina Forests founder, owner and guide by profession. He has been working as Board Member and been mentor for both AVES & CONSERVACION (previously known as CECIA) and the Jocotoco Foundation. Guiding in Ecuador since 1997, Xavier nowadays also guides birding trips to Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana and Peru and is always looking for new destinations in the neotropics.
Eduardo Navarro
Eduardo, or Lalo, was born in Santiago, but grew up in Punta Arenas, in Chilean Patagonia. Surrounded by wilderness, it was simply impossible for these landscapes not to awaken a curiosity for exploration in him. He studied veterinary sciences in Santiago, where he created the first student group that brought together people with a passion for nature, remaining active until this day. At university he participated in conservations in Bolivia, the Altiplano, and Chilean Patagonia, awakening in him an interest in traveling and getting to know other cultures and always with binoculars around his neck, searching for new birds. Lalo lived in Australia for a year and a half, and helped with migratory bird surveys around Sydney. Four years ago he joined Albatross Birding, leading tours from Chile's northern border to the windy Tierra del Fuego in Patagonia.
Nguyen Thanh Nhan
Nhan is a former national park guide at Bach Ma National Park in Central Vietnam where he worked for ten years up until 2010. Nowadays Nhan guides birders from around the world on tours through Vietnam, enthusiastically sharing his local knowledge of the region’s fauna, flora and culture with them. Nhan lives with his family near Hue in Central Vietnam.
Camilo Orjuela
Camilo was born in Vista Hermosa where he grew up amongst the jungles and mountains. His love for nature began when he was very young thanks to his father, who was a farmer just like the rest of his family. After serving in the air force, Camilo went to the Orinoquia and the Amazon region in 2013, where he has been cultivating his passion for birds and the conservation of their habitats. This region is one of the most important hydrographic freshwater zone in the world and is known as Estrella Fluvial de Inirida. He is currently a professional tour guide focused not only on birds from Inirida, but also around the whole Colombian Amazon/Orinoco basin. Thanks to his passion he has helped many people to discover this region and enjoy the little known birds, but some of the most exotic ones, in the country. He has contributed to the sustainable development of the region by incentivising the indigenous communities and the local populations of the region to conserve birds and their ecosystems. In addition to nature, Camilo loves electronic music and farming and likes to spend time in the cattle stockyards when he visits his family.
Ko Pan
Ko Pan is a very well-known conservationist and ornithologist and from Kalaw in Myanmar and has taken part in various research projects together with international conservation agencies since the early 2000s. He worked on the Birdlife International Gurney’s Pitta rediscovery project in 2003 and after that started working as a freelance bird guide. He is the major contributor for the preservation of the Cold Water Reservoir (which is the main birding site in Kalaw) by raising concerns with the authority and is also passionately promoting bird watching activities by training locals to become bird guides.
Wichyanan L. Patthanakij
Wichyanan (Jay) is a member of Thailand’s Bird Records Committee, as well as a regional hotspot and data quality editor of eBird. He has co-led Wings’ Thailand tours in 2008–2009 before pursuing a master’s degree in Biology at Mahidol University. As well as being involved with many conservation projects he has also lead many birding tours.
Ismael 'Nando' Quiroz
Nando is one the most experienced birders in Panama, and has excellent knowledge of Soberanía, Chagres, and Metropolitan National Parks, as well as Darién province. After many years in the field he is familiar no less than 400 bird calls/songs in the country. Nando started birding in 2001 working in Cerro Azul, and for eleven years he guided in a private property owned by the Audubon Society. In 2012 he was hired by Canopy Tower Lodges as one of their senior birding guides and has worked for four years as Hotel Manager of Canopy Camp in the Darien area.
Lalaina Raoelinoro
Lalaina (known as Lala) has been a birding and wildlife guide in Madagascar since 2000 and has closely worked with our ground agents since 2005 so knows all the requirements of birders. He has been visited all the major sites in Madagascar and has worked with a number of different international tour operator both on general wildlife tours and specialist birding. He initially trained in the field of tourism in Antanarivo then trained in the field of wildlife in the Botanical and Zoological garden of Tsimbazaza and is now acknowledged as one of the best birdwatching guides in Madagascar. He speaks fluent English, French and Malagasy.
Anthony Raphael
Anthony is one of Tanzania's top bird guides and has extensively studied the birds of the country's main birding sites with the emphasis on Tanzanian endemics. He graduated from one of Africa's top wildlife colleges (based on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro) with a degree in wildlife management. Combined with his field experience, not only of birds but also all other forms of wildlife, and his love for nature, he has attained a reputation as one of the leading wildlife guides and photographers of the region. In addition to guiding ornithological tours throughout Tanzania and its islands, Anthony also has experience in birding sites in neighboring Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia where he guides bird and general wildlife tours. As a local ornithologist, Anthony's guiding experience ranges from international biology students and researchers, casual tourists, to top bird field guide authors and avian photographers not forgetting world class listers and birders. When not guiding, Anthony is an assistant at the National Natural History Museum of Arusha, participates in training upcoming local bird guides in Arusha, where he lives and updating bird lists for several national parks in Tanzania. He particularly loves the ID challenge of cisticolas and resident warblers.
Colin Richardson
Colin takes particular interest in bird migration in the Middle East. He is on the editorial board of Sandgrouse and was the BirdLife Cyprus Bird Recorder and editor of the Cyprus Bird Report from 2004–2013 and Chairman of the Cyprus Bird Rarities Committee from 2004–2015. He was senior author with Richard Porter of the Birds of Cyprus Helm birdwatching guide published in 2020 and is currently working with Peter Flint in compiling the 3rd edition of The Birds of Cyprus, the country’s avifauna to be published by the BOC. He has written over 95 peer-reviewed papers on Middle East ornithology, was editor of the Emirates Bird Report from 1988–2000 and wrote the standard work of reference The Birds of the United Arab Emirates in 1990. He served as UAE Bird Recorder from 1985–2003 and was chairman of the Emirates Records Committee from 1995–2002. He was a council member of OSME from 2005–2010 and was awarded the Sheikh Mubarak bin Mohammed prize for services to Conservation and Ornithology in the United Arab Emirates in 1995. Colin has led many bird tours in Cyprus, and from 1993 headed Arabia’s first eco-tour company, based in Dubai from where he organised and led dozens of bird tours in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Yemen.
Neil Robertson
Neil spent his early years on his parents’ farm in Kent, and has had a keen interest in wildlife and birds for as long as he can remember. While studying at Nottingham University in the early to mid-seventies, he became involved with the Wash Wader Ringing Group and the next few years found him mist-netting and cannon-netting a wide variety of waders along the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coast. The late 1980s saw the twitching bug take hold and soon Neil was combining work trips with birding in many parts of the UK. Overseas birding took Neil to Florida, Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad & Tobago during the 1990s, and he has since travelled and birded extensively in Europe, North America, South America, South Africa, India, China, Australia and South-east Asia. Neil left the UK to move to New Zealand in 2005 and has spent his time since then guiding in Fiordland, a huge national park in the far south west of New Zealand’s South Island, showing his guests the amazing scenery and wildlife in this very special area.
Raphael Santos
Raphael was born in Curitiba, South Brazil and showed interest in wild animals at an early age. In 2001 he commenced studies on bird communities at university and since then has spent nearly 10 years dedicating his time to bird study and conservation. His experience provides him with the knowledge to guide birding groups around many parts of Brazil, including the Amazon Forest, Pantanal, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Araucaria Forest, Southern Wetlands and Pampas. Last year he co-ordinated the study group and wrote the book Action Plans for Threatened Species in Paraná State and he has also published several scientific articles in specialised magazines in South America and is the co-author of the book Birds of Curitiba: a Records Collection. Raphael has also led groups to other parts of South America including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Uruguay. He is also an environmental consultant and has developed studies for many important companies including Petrobrás, ALL, Renault do Brasil, Eletrosul and Furnas Centrais Elétricas. Rafael also has a good knowledge of neotropical bird songs and has an important collection of rare bird recordings.
Alfredo Scott
Alfredo has a masters degree in Tropical Biology and Ecotourism and has worked in numerous teaching and research projects, including some with The British Natural History Museum. As a professional birding guide, he is member of the Association of Ornithologists of Costa Rica, Union of Ornithologists of Costa Rica and American Birding Association. He has been guiding for 25 years in Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Tropical nature is his passion and his birding trips have included much of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands.
Luis Segura
Of Spanish and Scottish ancestors, Luis’ home land is Patagonia, where he spent most of his life. Luis started to work as a naturalist guide in 1982. Based in Buenos Aires at that time, he joined the Argentine Ornithological Society (AOP) and the Argentine Wildlife Foundation (FVSA), taking several courses on birds, bird watching, marine mammals, flora and geology and he soon started guiding some groups of Argentine birders and naturalists in a variety of National Parks and Nature Reserves within the country. At age 20 Luis led his first group of foreign birders throughout Argentina and ever since he has been working as a tour leader for these kinds of groups. In 1985, Luis was hired by a tour company in Buenos Aires to develop and manage their educational tours department, and this became the first tour companies ever to run scheduled tours to Costanera Sur, the famous wildlife reserve located in the heart of Buenos Aires City; this happened even before it became a reserve! In 1987, Luis decided to move back to his home town Puerto Madryn. Based here, he continued working as an independent tour leader and locally as tour guide specialising in birding and nature tours. In 1997 he started Seebirds, a birding tour company focused on Patagonia. In 2000, together with Miguel Castelino, he founded Birding Argentina/Trogon Tours. Luis has also been involved in many wildlife conservation projects, mainly on shorebirds and seabirds. He has been worked as a volunteer with the Magellanic Penguin project in Punta Tombo for four seasons and was in charge of a rescue station for penguins affected by the off-shore oil spilling in Puerto Madryn in 1991. That same year, Luis helped founding the Austral Ornithological Society, of which he became the first president. Ever since, he has been organising and leading birdwatching tours in Patagonia, encouraging other tour guides and general public to start birding, and so helping to create a bird-sensitive atmosphere in the local community.
James P. Smith
James is a staff leader and has led many tours for us over the past 10 years. James was originally from Yorkshire but now lives in the northeastern US. He leads all of our US tours as well as tours to Gambia, India and Israel, where he still retains his position on the rare birds committee.
Chubzang Tangbi
Chubzang was born and brought up in Trongsa, Central Bhutan. He strongly believes in his country’s environmental protection and has extensive knowledge of his country, its culture, traditions and people. Chubzang began leading birding tours in 2000 and has worked with the International Crane Foundation. Chubzang is now acknowledged as one of Bhutan's top birders. He has travelled widely in the USA, India, Thailand and the UK but returns to Bhutan to lead birding groups and to research for documentary films, photography and editorials. He is a passionate photographer and has exhibited his work in Nature Reserves and Art Centres.
Yeo Siew Tek
Yeo was born in the Malaysian state of Sarawak so it was little surprise that he grew up influenced by the natural world. He has been involved in numerous expeditions to remote areas of the bird-rich island of Borneo which includes Sabah, Kalimantan and Brunei as well as Sarawak and includes the rediscovery of Black Oriole amongst his achievements. Yeo is one of the most experienced licensed bird guides in Malaysia and has been leading birdwatching tours for all the best worldwide birdwatching tour companies since the beginning of the century. He is also a keen conservationist, heavily involved with the Malaysia Nature Society and the Sarawak Forest Department, for whom he surveys the state's National Parks. A Borneo birding tour with Yeo will not only be productive bird-wise, but an all-round nature experience as he enjoys sharing his knowledge with participants.
Luis Eduardo Urueña
Luis is a biologist from the Universidad del Tolima with over 14 years’ experience of birding and conducting scientific research on endangered species in Colombia. For the past four years Luis has worked as a birding guide for a number of international birding companies, an opportunity that has given him valuable experience both in birding and tour logistics and now runs his own ground agency, Manakin Nature Tours. Luis Eduardo won a “Watcher Prize” from the British Petroleum Company Conservation Programme when he worked with the enigmatic Blue-billed Curassow for ProAves Fundation and has also worked with the Smithsonian Institution in the USA.
Toni Uusimäki
Toni lives on the west coast of Finland where he works as an environmental engineer. He started birdwatching in the late 1980s and over the past few years has led a number of birdwatching tours in Finland and Norway including for Birdfinders. The combination of Toni’s knowledge, energy and enthusiasm makes him a very popular leader.
Washington Wachira
Washington was born and raised in the highlands of central Kenya and growing up in the countryside sparked a passion for nature from a young age. His education background is in Environmental Science (BSc.) and Animal Ecology (MSc.). He has been part of many research projects and has led many birding trips and expeditions across East Africa. He previously served as the manager for the Kenya bird map project, is a member of the Bird Committee of the East Africa Natural History Society, is a member of the East African Rarities Committee due to his keen birding skills and also chairperson of the Kenya Herpetofauna working group as well as being a member of the African Primatological Consortium for Conservation. As a dedicated film maker and nature photographer, Washington works with National Geographic on Crowned Eagles.
Vince Ward
Vince is a life-long birder, having grown up in Cape Town (but also lived and birded a while in California). Vince has a degree in biology, and has worked as a seabird scientist and in nature conservation. He leads tours across South Africa, has led over 100 pelagic trips, and his Southern African list is fast approaching 850 species. He’s passionate about sharing his birding knowledge with others, and is involved with the Cape Bird Club youth birding.
Nigel Warren
Nigel works for In Focus and is a well-known figure in the south-west birding scene. His extensive birding experience in the Western Palearctic, North America and Asia, combined with his sense of humour, makes him a popular leader.
