Sunbird Tours

Sunbird Leaders
	Gavin Bieber is a WINGS staff leader who was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia but grew up in British Columbia, Virginia Beach, Great Britain and Denmark. Gavin graduated from the University of Victoria with a degree in Biology and a minor in Environmental Studies. He studied for one year at the University of Southern Mississippi where he collaborated with their Migratory Bird Study Group. While still in university he taught waterfowl, shorebird and passerine identification workshops for the Victoria Natural History Society and led fieldtrips for the university’s ornithology classes. Since graduating, Gavin has worked as a field assistant on a variety of ornithological research projects In addition he conducted point counts for the National Park Service in Arizona and New Mexico and assisted in setting up a riparian bird survey for the University of Arizona. He has traveled extensively through Western Europe, North and West Africa, Bolivia, Peru, Panama, Mexico, the U.S., Canada, and Alaska. Recently his interests have shifted to the neotropics, and he is very excited by the potential offered by his newly constructed tour to Panama.
	Tudor Blaj trained as a forestry engineer with a Master’s Degree in forestry, but after a few years working as a forest manager decided that guiding birdwatching tours around his home country was more fun than managing a couple of thousand hectares of forest. With an in-depth knowledge of his country and its wildlife he has co-lead our Romania tour for more than five years. History is one of his other passions and on the tours he leads for us participants will be offered not only a wealth of information about birds but also some fascinating background to his country.
	Bryan Bland is a Sunbird director who lives in Norfolk, alternating his highly regarded residential birdwatching courses with his overseas tours – a combined total of 1000 so far. He has studied birds in over 50 countries around the world and has been closely involved with the development of our successful 'Birds and Music' and 'Birds and History' tours (reflecting his other passions outside ornithology). Bryan's interest in identification is evinced by the fact that he has served on the records committees of both Norfolk and Scilly and has discovered numerous rarities, including county and country firsts. His papers and reviews have appeared in Birding World and British Birds. A busy lecturer, he is also well known as an illustrator.
	Dan Brown is a Sunbird staff leader and has life-long interest in natural history has led him to becoming a freelance ecologist. Having graduated from the University of East Anglia with an ecology degree Dan remained in Norwich where he now divides his time between undertaking seabird and cetacean surveys in the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay, birding trips abroad and tours for Sunbird. Before University he had already spent four months in the Antarctic, South Georgia and the Falklands and has also travelled widely through South America, India and Africa, as well as his favoured Europe where any form of wildlife is likely to grab his attention. When not nose-to-nose with some creature or other, Dan enjoys anything from illustration and sport, to food, wine and giving talks.
	Rod Cassidy was born in Durban and used to work at the Percy Fitzpatrick Ornithological Institute and Transvaal Museum where he researched birds and mammals. He has travelled extensively in Central America, Southeast Asia, and Antarctica and is a veteran bird tour leader of ten years, having led many bird tours in southern, central and eastern Africa.
	Richard Craik is originally from Chester and arrived in Vietnam in 1992, where he has been working in the tourism industry ever since. Before devoting himself full-time to organising birding tours Richard worked with several well-known travel companies in Vietnam most recently, as director of marketing for Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand for one of the region’s leading tour operators. Richard lives in Ho Chi Minh City with his wife, Lan, daughter Carmen, and a large collection of bird books. Away from birds Richard enjoys a game of tennis, listening to his Velvet Underground records and following the ups and downs of Everton Football Club.
	Fergus Crystal was born in Scotland but has been living abroad for most of his life, working with birds. After a spell in Israel bird ringing and monitoring Griffon Vultures, he worked in Kazakhstan on an Imperial Eagle study, and has recently lived for 4 years in the south of Japan where he studied Copper Pheasant and a range of migratory species in the southern islands. He has a great love for Japan and its birds and returns regularly to the archipelago. Fergus is also designing distribution maps for Helm´s forthcoming Field Guide to Eastern Palearctic Birds.
	Nikolay Dilchev is one of Bulgaria's most active birdwatchers. He runs his own tour company offering professionally organised birdwatching tours in Bulgaria. A graduate of Sofia University, where he specialised in ornithology, he is the author of several environment-related research papers and a founder member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds.
	Jon Dunn has lived much of his life in California, where he became a birder at age eight, an event triggered, he says, by the life-altering appearance of a bright male Hooded Oriole in his garden. Jon has extensive knowledge of the identification and distribution of North American birds, and has published numerous papers in a wide variety of journals. He has also long been interested in Asian avifaunas. Jon has been Chief Consultant/Editor for all six editions of the National Geographic Society’s Field Guide to the Birds of North America, the most recent published in 2011. He is the co-writer and host of the two-video set Large and Small Gulls of North America, as well as co-author (with Kimball Garrett) of Birds of Southern California: Status and Distribution and the Peterson Field Guide to Warblers and (with Steve Howell) to Gulls of the Americas. Jon is a member of the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the ABA Checklist Committee, and has served more than 20 years on the California Bird Records Committee. Beyond birds, Jon has a keen interest in politics, history, and the cinema.
	Trevor Ellery has lived full time in Colombia since 2008. He divides his time between guiding and working on investigation and conservation projects for ProAves. He has spent many months exploring remote areas of Colombia and was instrumental in locating the site of ProAves latest reserve which was set up to protect the endemic Gold-ringed Tanager. More recent adventures have included expeditions into the Eastern and Pacific lowlands, the latter of which located a substantial new population of the Endemic Baudo Oropendola. On the rare occasion that he is not in the field Trevor tries to update his notes for the 1000 plus species he has seen in Colombia and attempts to put his sound-recordings in some kind of order.
	Stuart Elsom lives in Cambridgeshire. His passion for wildlife conservation has seen him serve on several environmental and conservation forums and is a former chairman of his local bird club. Stuart’s lifelong interest in birds and insects has led him to countries within Europe, North Africa, North America, Asia, South Africa, South America and Australasia. Stuart has, however, concentrated on two geographical areas in the last ten years and has spent over five months in the field in both Eastern Europe and North America. While birds are Stuart’s main focus he has always maintained an interest in insects, especially butterflies and moths. Stuart is a keen wildlife photographer too and many images from his UK and world travels can be seen on his website www.stuartelsom.co.uk. His images have also appeared in various birding journals, magazines, CD guides and books, and when not in the field Stuart gives lectures to local wildlife groups and societies.
	Jon Feenstra Raised in the Appalachian ridges of northwestern New Jersey, Jon Feenstra’s playground was the outdoors. He grew up holding a fishing pole and a pair of binoculars. After college he moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles to complete graduate research in physical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. There he became active in Southern California birding: leading field trips, writing articles on bird distribution and local issues, and spending time exploring the diverse and bird-rich area. He finished his Ph.D. and decided to make birding his full-time passion. When not traveling the country or the world, Jon lives in urban Los Angeles and works as a free-lance ecological consultant. He volunteers for the Pasadena and Los Angeles Audubon Societies, has served on the board of directors of Western Field Ornithologists, leads most of Southern California’s pelagic trips, and has contributed to several publications on terrestrial and pelagic bird distribution. During any other time he reads widely, supports the local music scene, and plans his next adventure.
	Brian Finch has lived in Nairobi for eighteen years, from where he leads birdwatching tours to a number of African countries and to Madagascar. Since being based in Kenya he has become one of the most skilful birdwatchers in the region and has added a number of species to the Kenyan list. His wide knowledge of, and great enthusiasm for, birds is apparent to all who travel with him. Bryan is a keen bird sound recordist and is about to publish a CD set of bird recordings from East Africa. He has also recently developed an enthusiastic interest in butterflies.
	David Fisher is a Sunbird director who lives in Sandy, Bedfordshire. For 19 years he was Managing Director of Sunbird, but retired from that position in 2001. David has led more than 150 tours to 30 countries on six continents. He has spent a total of more than three years in the field in South America, two years in Australia and more than a year in Kenya. David is actively involved in a voluntary capacity with various ornithological bodies and is currently vice-Chairman of the British Ornithologists' Club, a council member of the Neotropical Bird Club, Chairman of the East Afican Rarities Committee, Chairman of the Seychelles Birds Records Committee, and a member of the American Birding Association's Listing and Ethics Committee. He also edits the highly regarded Birdwatchers' Guides series of birding site guides. While David's primary focus is birds he is also very interested in mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies, and enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for those groups with the participants on his tours.
	Paul French is a Sunbird leader whose life-long passion for birds and natural history led to him graduating with a degree in wildlife conservation. This was followed by several years of contract work around the length and breadth of Britain, including two years as assistant warden at Fair Isle Bird Observatory, three seasons on Shetland working for the RSPB studying seabirds and breeding waders, and a winter in Cornwall producing an atlas of the county’s Barn Owls. Full time employment soon beckoned, and after six years working for the RSPB as a warden and then habitat restoration advisor, he branched out and became a freelance ornithologist. Travel has always been a big part of Paul’s life, and he has birded extensively in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and East Asia. Paul serves on both the British Birds Rarities Committee and the Lincolnshire Bird Club Rarity Committee, two positions that call for almost as much diplomacy as identification knowledge! As well as birds, he has a great interest in mammals and a developing love of all things creepy and crawly.
	Merid Nega Gabremichael was born in the north of Ethiopia in 1973. He grew up and went to school in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea which was where his passion for natural history in general and birds in particular started. He eventually moved to Kenya where he achieved a Bsc in Zoology at the University of East Africa, using the breaks between terms to travel, visiting many parts of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan. He graduated in 1996, returned to Ethiopia and began to explore the country and its birds in depth, as well as visiting neighbouring Djibouti and Somalia. He soon settled down to do what he does best – show people the birds of Ethiopia, and this has culminated in the recent publication of Where to Watch Birds in Ethiopia which Merid co-authored. When not travelling, Merid lives in Addis with his wife and three boys.
	Paul Goriup has worked in nature conservation for more than 30 years. During this time he was head of the conservation programme of Birdlife International, established the NatureBureau (which provides biodiversity publishing and consultancy services), served as Director of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (a professional recognition body), assisted the formation of the National Avian Research Centre in Abu Dhabi and founded Fieldfare International Ecological Development plc (a company investing in pro-biodiversity projects in Eastern Europe). Since 1990, Paul has worked extensively on nature conservation in the Lower Danube and around the Black Sea for bodies such as the EU, Black Sea Commission and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In addition, he chaired the IUCN Bustard Specialist Group for 18 years and is involved with the Great Bustard reintroduction project on Salisbury Plain. Throughout this time, Paul has been, and remains, a keen birder.
	Natasha Goriup has a BSc in Biology from the University of Odessa. After graduating, she joined the Danube Nature Reserve in Vilkovo where she worked for 13 years as a plant ecologist and site manager. Between 1992 and 1994 she served as Deputy Director and Head of the Science Department, during which period the reserve was declared a transboundary Biosphere Reserve linked with the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in Romania. In 1995, Natasha joined the Nature Conservation Bureau (UK) as a Project Manager, and gained experience of working on biodiversity issues within Ukraine, as well as Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Abu Dhabi (UAE). Between 1997 and 2001, she developed and managed the WWF Partners for Wetlands Project in Ukraine. Natasha is now the Director of Salix ltd (the local agent for Sunbird Tours in Ukraine), based in Odessa. In addition to her knowledge of nature, Natasha will be happy to answer all your questions about Ukrainian culture, history and customs!
	Amanda Holden joined Sunbird in 2008 as a co-leader on the Birds & Music tours. Although her area of expertise is music, she has been an amateur birder for many years. She started out as a professional piano accompanist and taught at the Guildhall School in London, but now works mainly as an opera translator and librettist. She is also the founder-editor of the Penguin Opera Guides. Amanda is now writing the libretto for a new opera scheduled for the Sydney Opera House in 2010.
	Paul Holt is a Sunbird staff leader who lives in Lancashire. His main interests are the species that turn up as British vagrants and the birds of China and the Indian subcontinent. Paul has also travelled extensively in Europe, Asia and throughout North America. He is particularly interested in bird vocalisations, is a keen sound recordist and has been involved with the production of all three of the recent field guides to the Indian subcontinent.
	Steve Howell is a WINGS staff leader, originally from Cardiff, who has spent most of the past 25 years travelling and birding throughout the Americas, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. He has spent about 10 years in the Neotropics and 3 years at sea observing birds and other wildlife throughout the world’s oceans. Steve has been leading WINGS tours for 20 years, particularly in Mexico and Chile, as well as various cruises. He has authored and co-authored several bird books, including A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (1995), and Gulls of the Americas (2007). Now based in California near Point Reyes Bird Observatory, where he is a Research Associate, Steve is working with Will Russell and Ian Lewington on Rare Birds of North America. His interests beyond birds include tequila and chocolate.
	Rich Hoyer is a WINGS staff leader who has an interest in natural history evolved at an early age. He grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, and graduated in 1994 from Oregon State University with bachelor's degrees in Zoology and German. His first professional guiding job during the summers of 1996 and 1997 was as a natural history interpreter on St. Paul Island in Alaska’s Pribilofs, where he guided birding groups, explained the life history of the Northern Fur-Seal to tourists and discovered North America’s first Chinese Pond-Heron. He has been a leader for WINGS since September 1997. Rich has also studied Spanish and recently added Portuguese, honing his language skills at a school in the state of Alagoas, Brazil as well as during a two-month volunteer guiding job at Cristalino Jungle Lodge in Mato Grosso. When leading tours, Rich also enjoys pointing out butterflies, dragonflies and plants, provided of course, there’s a break in the birding. He now lives in Tucson, Arizona.
	Radd Icenoggle’s first lifebird was a Long-billed Curlew in the hayfields of his family’s northwest Montana ranch. At that moment, seven years old, he was hooked, and birding has occupied the biggest part of his life ever since. Along with his passion for birds and birding, Radd has experience in backcountry travel and deep interests in other plants and animals including butterflies and herps. Radd holds a degree in biology with an emphasis on habitat relationships. His thesis explores the effect of slope aspect on Clark’s Nutcracker in southwestern Montana. After college, Radd worked for the US Forest Service as a botanist, bird biologist, and hydrology technician. He is the author of Birds in Place: A Habitat-based Guide to the Birds of the Northern Rockies, illustrated with his own photographs of more than 280 species.
	João Jara was born in Lisbon and studied biology at the Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa, from where he developed his professional career in the pharmaceutical industry as senior manager and director of various multinational companies. With about 30 years of field experience, he knows Portugal and its birds intimately and was a member of the board of SPEA (Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves – Birdlife in Portugal). He was a voting member of the PRC (Portuguese Rarities Committee) from 2005 until 2011 and chairman of the Committee from 2007 until 2011. Author and co-author of articles about birds, João has led many field tours in Portugal and abroad, as well as bird identification courses for SPEA. Besides birds, he has an active special interest in amphibians, reptiles and fish. João is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
	Yann Kolbeinsson lives in Reykjavik and is one of Iceland's leading birders. He has travelled widely in southern France (he is half-French) as well as various localities in North America (Arizona, California, Ohio, Quebec and Florids) and Southern Spain. Yann is particularly interested in wildfowl and waders which make up so much of Iceland's avifauna and is presently working on a M.Sc study on the ecology of Grey and Red-necked Phalaopes in Iceland. When not doing that he enjoys finding rarities and vagrants that stray to Iceland, his first being a Bohemian Waxwing in 1991.
	Victoria Kovshar is a Senior Researcher of the Laboratory of Ornithology at the Kazakhstan State University in Almaty. She has conducted research projects on many aspects of ornithology in Kazakstan. Victoria has travelled widely in her native country in search of birds and was for many years involved with the ringing project at the famous Chokpak ringing station.
	Paul Lehman grew up in the suburbs of New York City, where he started birding at the age of nine. He then moved to California, where he lived for 20 years before moving back to the east coast in 1994 to Cape May, New Jersey, where he resided until returning to southern California in 2008. Formerly a lecturer in geography and environmental studies at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Paul has strong interests in the fields of weather, biogeography, and North American regional geography. He was editor of Birding magazine for nine years, from 1989-1997. He was also chief editor of the recently published ABA/Lane birdfinding guides to North America’s major metropolitan regions and to the Rio Grande Valley, is an associate editor for North American Birds magazine, and has been a principal consultant on many popular field guides, most recently as senior range map researcher and consultant for the new editions of Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds (the North American Eastern, and Western volumes), the National Geographic Society’s Field Guide to the Birds of North America (several editions) and their Complete Birds of North America, the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America, and the two-volume Sibley East and West field guides.
	Ian Lewington is a freelance bird illustrator who lives in Oxfordshire. His illustrations have appeared in many books, notably The Rare Birds of Britain and Europe, The Handbook of Birds of the World, and Birds of the Western Palearctic. Ian is a member of the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee, an identification consultant to Birding World, and a Museum consultant to British Birds. He has been County Bird Recorder for Oxfordshire since 1994. Ian has travelled widely throughout Europe, and to Israel, India, North America, and China.
	James Lidster lives in The Netherlands and has been guiding for Sunbird for over 10 years. After studying Countryside Management at Humberside University he spent a season at Long Point Bird Observatory. Since then he has birded in Israel, Goa, Thailand, Florida, Antarctica and extensively throughout Europe as well as taking three trips to Beidaihe. He currently leads tours to Estonia, The Netherlands, Bulgaria and Morocco while his love of Asia is reflected in his very successful tour to Mongolia. In addition James has found a new obsession with West Africa and leads tours to Gambia and Ghana. James also serves on the British Birds Rarities Committee and is learning more about photography, although he never wants to be a photographer, just a birder with a camera. He is particularly interested in bird identification and migration, and in his spare time he works as an ecologist, spending time performing bird, mammal and reptile surveys.
	Robert Ntakor is the principal tour leader for our Ghanian ground agent, Ashanti Tours. Born and raised on a farm surrounded by rainforest near Kakum National Park Robert has spent almost all his life inside Upper Guinea rainforest. Robert has a genuine passion for wildlife and particularly for birds, and as a child he spent most days deep in the forest watching and studying themand his ability to spot and identify birds by song are unrivalled within Ghana. Now 38 Robert formally worked with the Ghana Wildlife division as a wildlife guide for more than 10 years, holds a diploma in tourism and has many years experience leading birdwatching tours. We are very lucky to have Robert co-leading our tours, he is guide of international standard, a pleasure to be around and will produce an enjoyable and highly productive tour.
	Jake Mohlmann holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Parks and Recreation Management from The Pennsylvania State University, where he was instrumental in forming the university’s first official Student Bird Club. He has worked for New York City’s Museum of Natural History and for Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Science, and made significant contributions to the field work for the most recent edition of the Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas. But a summer in Portal, Arizona, convinced Jake that the Southwest was where he needed to be. After graduating in 2005, Jake, assured of an hourly job with the University of Arizona, packed up his car and hit the road for Tucson. Since then he has worked on projects involving Burrowing Owls at the Salton Sea and counted secretive marsh birds in the lower Colorado River basin. He also spent a summer leading tours on St. Paul Island, isolated in the middle of the Bering Sea, and has worked on the identification and monitoring of endangered species in South Texas and various areas in the Mojave Desert, including the highly endangered Desert Tortoise. Jake and a college friend are the founders of Adventure Birding, for which Jake led tours to destinations from Alaska to southern Mexico while specializing in southeastern Arizona.
	Narca Moore-Craig earned a B.A. in biology from the University of California, Riverside, where she was the first woman to win the Jaeger Award in Field Biology. She was also the first woman president of Western Field Ornithologists, and has served on the Arizona Bird Committee. For more than 20 years Narca has led natural history and birding tours to six continents, including five voyages to Antarctica. Her enthusiasm, passion, and breadth of knowledge are well known to those who’ve joined her tours, as is her delight in sharing adventures afield. Among her many interests as a birder are seabirds and the birds of oceanic islands. Narca is also well known as a wildlife artist and recent books she has illustrated include Raptors of North America, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert, A Birder’s Guide to Southeast Arizona, A Birder’s Guide to the Rio Grande Valley, A Guide to Southern Arizona Bird Nests and Eggs, and A Guide to Birds of the Anza Borrego Desert.
	Killian Mullarney lives in Co. Wexford, Ireland. He is one of Europe's best-known bird-artists, especially since the recent publication of the highly acclaimed Collins Bird Guide which he co-authored with Lars Svensson, Dan Zetterstrom, and the late Peter Grant. His work also features in the latest revised edition of the National Geographic Guide to Birds of North America, as well as in an extensive series of definitive bird stamps for Ireland. Killian is a member of the Irish Rare Birds Committee, an identification consultant to Birding World, and an editorial advisor to Dutch Birding. Some of Killian's work can be seen on: http://www.birdillustrators.co.uk
	Steve Rooke started out his working life studying engineering before escaping to start working as a volunteer for the RSPB, a move that led him to becoming first a contract warden then a full time warden at a variety of reserves around the United Kingdom. After thirteen years he decided to move on, and joined Sunbird as a tour leader, where he was soon leading upwards of ten trips each year. His next move was in 2001 when he took over from David Fisher as Sunbird's Managing Director, although he still leads tours to a variety of destinations including Vietnam, Georgia, Cyprus, Central Asia, South Africa and Ethiopia. He has a wide range of interests outside of birdwatching, not least of which is cooking.
	Will Russell is a Sunbird director who lives in Tucson, Arizona and is the Managing Director of our American associates, WINGS. His ornithological interests are varied and have included several years of teaching at college level and study on questions of identification, distribution and ecology. Will has travelled widely leading many tours over the last thirty-three years.
	David Tipling is a professional wildlife photographer with a passion for birds. His pictures have earned him many awards, they include the documentary award of the European Nature Photographer of the Year for his work on Emperor Penguins and in 2009 the Nature's Best Indigenous Cultures Award for his images of Kazakh Eagle Hunters. He is also author of a number of books including the best selling RSPB Guide to Digital Wildlife Photography and he has recently appeared on the other side of the lens presenting a Wildlife Photography Masterclass DVD. David has led photographic tours for more than ten years and runs regular workshops based near his home in North Norfolk. Away from wildlife photography his interests range from cooking to watching sport and managing a small area of wet woodland in the Norfolk Broads. Examples of his work can be seen on his website www.davidtipling.com
	Antero Topp is a graduate engineer, born in 1952 and a birdwatcher since he was 10 years old. After traditional bird trips in the school years, he developed an interest in ringing and working in bird organisations, particularly bird observatories. After spending long periods at Lågskär, he ended up running a bird observatory at Hanko. He ringed birds at Laajalahti for more than 10 years and acted as the secretary and editor-in-chief of Tringa, the Ornithological Association of the Helsinki Region, and as a member of the Finnish ringing committee. He has made birding trips both privately and as a leader to Antarctica, Argentina, Botswana, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Greece, Holland, Hungary, India, Israel, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Madeira, Norway, Oman, Scotland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tanzania, UAE and Venezuela and is generally recognized as a leading expert on Estonia.
	Edwin Selempo is one of Kenya’s top ornithological guides with an extensive knowledge of the birds of East Africa. Multi-talented, mild and a fascinating guide and raconteur, he is one of the few silver members of the KSPGA. Edwin has led many of Sunbird's Kenya tours over the last decade, during which he has shared his deep knowledge of creatures beyond birds - mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies. Edwin is also an artist and his illustrations and colour plates have been used in a number of books on the birds of Kenya.
	Santiago Villa is a journalist by profession who worked for one of the biggest communication groups in Spain, before founding his own birdwatching tour company, Spainbirds, in 1999. Prior to that Santi worked part time guiding small groups of birders around Extremadura, Andalusia and Pyrenees and was also involved in various environmental education activities such as the Atlas of Nesting Birds in Spain. He is recently published books about the birds of Extremadura, illustrated with his own drawings, and a birdwatching guide to Central Spain.
	Barry Walker M.B.E, was born near Manchester, England and started bird watching at the age of 13. After birding extensively in Europe and the Middle East, Barry switched his attention to the neo-tropics and has extensive birding experience in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, and particularly Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. He has participated in numerous ornithological expeditions and contributed to many scientific and general publications concerning birds in Peru. Living in Cusco, Peru for 25 years, Barry has visited every corner of the country as a trekking guide, natural history guide and specifically as a bird tour leader, and he is the author of the well received book A Field Guide to the Birds of Machu Picchu and the Cuzco area, Peru. Barry is married with a 10 year-old daughter, and with his wife Rosario, is owner of Manu Expeditions a pioneer eco-tour operator in Manu specializing in birding, natural history, horse riding and cultural trips. Barry also occupies the post of British Consul in Cusco, and received an M.B.E in the Queens New Years Honors list 2004.
	Wang Qingyu was born in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, the northern part of the Tibetan Plateau, and now lives in Beijing with her daughter. Qingyu worked in the travel industry for almost 20 years and has operated her own company since 2001. She has been arranging bird watching tours for over a decade and has traveled extensively within China. She now organizes and accompanies all Sunbird tours to the Middle Kingdom, and her skillful handling of our ground arrangements has contributed significantly to the success of these events.
	Deepal Warakagoda lives in Sri Lanka where runs The Bird and Wildlife Team who are our ground agents on the island. Sunbird has been working with Deepal since our very first tour in 1996 and he is one of the most active birdwatchers in Sri Lanka, is joint editor of the Ceylon Bird Club bulletin, and has recently discovered a new species of owl - the first new Sri Lankan bird for 132 years. He has also found numerous 'first records' for Sri Lanka with his latest being Marshall's Iora, which was previously only thought to be found on the Indian mainland.
	James Wolstencroft hails from near Lancaster but he now lives in Arusha, Tanzania. His first East African safari was in 1976 whilst studying at Cambridge; although he didn't come to live here until June 2005. Before that his pursuit of birds had taken him around Europe, across North America by Greyhound bus, into Turkey, Iran, Israel and Arabia, through Russia to her easternmost islands, and to Nepal and the Himalayas. Particularly long periods were spent in India in the 1980s and from 1986 in Indo-China, where a love affair with the Oriental tropics really took hold. He guided his first birding tour to Assam, India in 1988. During the 1990s he lived in Thailand, the Seychelles (working for ICBP/BirdLife), in Ethiopia and for two years in Lao PDR. He spent three years living in southern Spain before moving to Tanzania with his wife, Elsie and their two young sons, where he works as an independent tour guide.
	Chris Wood is one of the leading authorities on bird identification and distribution in North America. He has written and consulted on various books, including both popular literature and scientific literature on North American birds. When not leading tours, Chris works at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where he runs eBird, an online bird checklist project that gathers millions of bird observations to provide real-time information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Chris has served as photo quiz editor for Birding magazine and as editor for the online bird quizzes hosted by the American Birding Association. Chris currently resides in Ithaca, New York.
	Rick Wright lives in Little Falls, NJ, with his wife, Alison Beringer. A native of southeast Nebraska, Rick studied French, German, Philosophy, and Life Sciences at the University of Nebraska before making a detour to Harvard Law School. He took the Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures at Princeton University in 1990, then spent a dozen years as an academic, holding successive appointments as Assistant Professor of German at the University of Illinois, Reader in Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, and Associate Professor of Medieval Studies at Fordham University. Rick served as a department editor at Birding magazine from 2004 to 2008. The Managing Director of WINGS from 2008 to 2010, Rick is a widely published writer, a popular lecturer at birding events, and an enthusiastic tour leader in Europe and North America. His time afield is documented in his blog, Aimophila Adventures.