MARK AYRE lives on the southern South Island of New Zealand and has been a keen birder for most of his life. He is originally from the UK, where we worked as a warden on various bird reserves. Mark is very active in the local Royal Forest and Bird Protection Societies and is particularly invloved in the conservation management of the endangered Mohua (Yellowhead). When not taking bird tours or being involved in conservation work, Mark is invlolved with a yacht charter business. He has been leading bird tours for Mark Hanger of NatureQuest, New Zealand for many years and has led our tour for the past  11 years.

MARTIN BENADIE was born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa, where his keen interest in birds began. After completing his degree in Financial Management he decided to follow his passion for birds. Martin has been involved in the avi-tourism industry since 2000, beginning as a local bird guide in the Nylsvlei Wetland Reserve (a RAMSAR Site) in South Africa moving to co-manage a private lodge in a large conservancy adjoining the Kruger National Park. He now consults as a specialist birding guide and is passionate about locating difficult-to-find species and localised endemics. He is a qualified THETA/FGASA Level 3 and SKS birding guide, resides in Cape Town and is an expert on the Western Cape. He is also an extremely capable African birder, and has led many birding tours in South/Central Africa and Madagascar.

SIMON BOYES  was brought up and learnt his birds in the Cotswolds. He graduated in Classics (helpful for scientific names of birds!) from Oxford University in 1974, and took his Master's Degree in Environmental Conservation in Edinburgh. Before leaving college he had already travelled round Kenyan and Tanzanian game parks, overland to India and round Scandinavia. In 1976 he worked for the RSPB as a summer warden on Fetlar and at Minsmere. In 1977 Ornitholidays invited him to co-lead a tour to the Seychelles, which turned out to be the first of many international tours. Since then he has become one of Ornitholidays' principal leaders and has now led over  300 tours to all seven continents. There can be few bird tour leaders in the world that rival Simon's knowledge of world birds. He is especially interested in bird-song and taxonomy and his other interests include swimming, snorkelling, wildlife gardening, cricket and playing the mandolin. He lives with his family in the Welsh borders.

COLIN BUSHELL is a principal leader for Ornitholidays and has been a birdwatcher for over 30 years. Birding has taken Colin to many different parts of the world & throughout Europe and North Africa, Gambia, Thailand, India and Nepal: but it is the Neotropics that hold a particular fascination for him. Travels over the last decade have taken him to Chile, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia and many trips to his favourite country, Peru. Colin has visited Manu and the north of Peru on many occasions. He is an enthusiastic student of bird vocalisation - a very useful skill in the tropical Americas where bird diversity is immense.

TONIA COCHRAN moved to Tasmania from Melbourne, Victoria in 1988, where she took up residence at Inala a 500 acre private nature reserve on Bruny Island, Tasmania. She has a wide range of experience in Australian fauna and flora, and has led a varied professional biological career. She has a BSc and a doctorate in Zoology and was involved in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic research from 1985 to 1996 as a marine biologist. She is the Managing Director of Inala Nature Tours, a travel company based in Tasmania, Australia that specialises in birding and natural history tours of Australia. Tonia has led wildlife tours since 1994 and is also involved with the conservation of threatened species and is a wildlife carer in her spare time, rehabilitating injured and orphaned wildlife. She is also a member of the National Recovery teams for two endangered birds, the Forty-spotted Pardalote and the Wedge-tailed Eagle, and is also heavily involved with other threatened bird programmes. She led the Ornitholidays tour to Tasmania in 2011.

TREVOR CODLIN  is an ecological consultant and is one of the leading exponents of digiscoping - using a telescope to take digital photos. During the past few years he has led a number of tours within Europe and was a very popular leader on our recent spring tours to Spain and Turkey.

RICHARD COOMBER  has been associated with Ornitholidays for over 40 years as in 1968, as a young bank clerk on the Isles of Scilly, he showed Lawrence Holloway and one of our early groups to the islands an Upland Sandpiper that he had discovered on St. Mary's. By 1974 he had given up banking to run a guesthouse on the Isle of Mull, where in 1976 he hosted our first tour to the island. On moving back to the south in the 1980s he joined the Ornitholidays team and has now led over 240 tours covering all seven continents, visiting over 50 countries watching birds and wildlife. He is a past winner of the Dusk to Dawn section of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and willingly shares his knowledge of digital photography with clients on tour. In addition to birds and photography he is interested in other aspects of wildlife, especially flora, butterflies and moths. When not on tour he gives illustrated talks to RSPB and other groups. He now lives near the New Forest in Hampshire where he is an active member of the Hampshire Moth Group.

ENRIQUE COUVÉ   is an Industrial Design Engineer by profession, but a naturalist at heart and has been birdwatching for more than 40 years. He is extremely knowledgeable about Chilean birds, having travelled from the High Andes in northern Chile to the frozen Antarctic seas. He is extremely skilled in finding and identifying birds in the field. Enrique is also the main author of the forthcoming book entitled Field Guide to the Birds of Chile and also author of Birds of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and Antarctic Peninsula. He is an excellent nature photographer, having one of the most complete photographic collections of Chile's birds and other wildlife. He is a partner and Director of Fantastico Sur and lives in Punta Arenas with his wife Cecilia and their four children.

MARIANA DELPORT  has made a study of the natural history of the Western Cape and is a member of the Cape Bird Club, Tygerberg Bird Club, BirdLife SA, the Botanical Society of SA, the Indigenous Bulb Society of SA and Field Guides' Association of SA.  During her five years as chairperson of the Tygerberg Bird Club she has organised and led many birding outings, most of which ended up as natural history outings as many of her birding friends share her passion for nature.  She says that becoming a qualified cultural and nature guide was the best thing that has happened to her, as nothing makes her more happy than sharing her passion with visitors to South Africa. She has led many of our recent tours to South Africa.

ORLANDO HARASEB is a lead guide and guide trainer with Ultimate Safaris. Before starting as a safari guide he was the Captain of the Namibian National Football Team and is thus a well known personality with lots of friends throughout the country. He then went to work at Hobatere Lodge for several years with Steve Braine who is one of the most knowledgeable best respected birding guides in Namibia, and it was here that Orlando built up the knowledge that allowed him to become a birding guide in his own right. Orlando moved to Ultimate Safaris when in 2005 and has increased his experience as a national guide over that time while also obtaining the qualifications necessary to become a national guide trainer. He now divides his time between leading specialist safaris and offering guide training through the prestigious Namibian Academy of Tourism and Hospitality of which he is Board vice Chairman.

MARTIN HROUZEK studied zoology at the Brno's Masarky University. His overall knowledge of the animal and plants of his local area is outstanding. He has been leading tours for over 10 years, his command of English is excellent and he has been a great asset on our European tours.

ANDY JONES is now resident in Iceland but was previously a warden on Skomer Island, a ranger with the Pembrokeshire National Park, the RSPB's senior investigator officer and a Wildlife Trust director. A trained geologist he guides wildlife holidays all over the world. He regularly writes, lectures and broadcasts on wildlife and conservation topics and has proved to be a very popular leader on our Iceland holidays.

NIGEL JONES  is the Managing Director of Ornitholidays. His interest in birds and natural history led to a degree in Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia, then to employment as Assistant Warden on Fair Isle in the Shetlands and as an ornithologist working in the Camargue, France. Subsequent posts in teaching and research have finally culminated in his position running Ornitholidays since 1990. He  has has travelled extensively to all seven continents in search of birds. His interest in other aspects of natural history has been reflected in his establishing Quest for Nature, an internet based operation which offers general tours for wildlife.

DAVID KUHN lives on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. He has been leading wildlife tours for over 30 years, with an interest in birds stemming from his youth in rural California. He began his leading career in his beloved Sierra Nevada, he has since led trips to other parts of North America as well as Guatemala, Costa Rica and Fiji, and has travelled widely in the Neotropics. Drawn to Hawaii's endemic avifauna, he moved to Kokee on Kauai in 1989 and has since been guiding visiting birders throughout the Hawaiian archipelago. David is an avid sound recordist with a special focus on vocalizations of the forest endemics and the mountain-nesting seabirds. His Hawaiian birding tours are influenced by his active interest in conservation and environmental education and he co-led our 2010 tour in Hawaii.

ROGER LAWRENCE has been a passionate birder for all of his life. For over 40 years he has birdwatched in East Kent and has been a member of the Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory since the early 1960's. Roger has been chairman of the Observatory and has ringed birds for over 30 years. Before retiring as Deputy Head of a London Secondary School, he taught geography and geology for 36 years. His birdwatching experience extends from the United States and Venezuela to Iceland, West Africa, India, Thailand and most of Europe. He is also interested in ecology and is a keen gardener and botanist. He now lives in Sandwich, Kent.

LEON MARAIS  was born and raised in South Africa and is a THETA/FGASA (Level 3) Specialist Guide. He studied for a Postgraduate Degree at the University of Natal and then began his guiding career in the safari industry, spending around six years guiding at various game reserves in South Africa, where he developed a special fondness for African mammals and the predators in particular. He was introduced to the pleasures of birdwatching by his grandfather and has been looking at birds through binoculars since he was but knee-high to a Marabou Stork.

FRANK McCLINTOCK  was born in Africa and educated in England. He emigrated to Portugal over 20 years ago and bought some scrubland and a few ruins overlooking a vast, man-made lake. He has turned this property into Paradise in Portugal, a guest lodge, which, in addition to a view to die for, offers excellent eco-friendly accommodation. He has always had a passion for nature and has been a professional bird guide for over 10 years.

ROBERT NTAKOR was born and raised on a farm surrounded by rainforest near Kakum National Park in Ghana. He has spent almost all his life exploring the forest and has a passion for Ghanas wildlife and in particular its birds. Robert, and many of his brothers, are now the chief bird guides in Ghana. He has a great knowledge of his country and this, coupled with his amazing ability to identify every song and call of all the birds of Ghana, makes him a great guide to have in his native country. Robert has led all of the previous  Ornitholidays tours to Ghana.

GABOR ORBAN  became interested in birding whilst a young boy and later widened his interests to botany, geology and zoology. During the 80's and 90's he led several tours firstly in Hungary, then in other Eastern European countries and Western Europe as well. He lived and worked for years in the US criss-crossing the continent several times. He became a licensed professional birdwatching and nature guide, and since 2006 he has spent six months every year in Latin America and six months in Eastern Europe. He leads birding, nature, cultural, butterfly and photographic tours worldwide. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge of nature and the culture of different countries and his hobbies include nature and wildlife photography, birding and travelling to hidden places. He has visited Ethiopia on  four occasions and Belarus numerous times.

BERT PALTHE is a long-standing registered guide and has many years of experience, both in tourism and wildlife conservation. After qualifying as a specialist in Nature Conservation, he went on to manage exclusive game reserves in the previous Eastern and Northern Transvaal. He is now a full time tour leader based in Cape Town. Bert has a passionate interest in wildlife, birds and nature conservation, and genuinely enjoys sharing his wealth of knowledge with others. He has led our Natural History tours to the Cape region for the past few years and he has proved very popular with our groups.

LUKE PATERSON's interest in birds has developed over many years after camping trips around the state of Victoria with his family triggered off his passion for these winged beauties. After completing his studies of Natural Resource Management in Bendigo, he moved to Broome, where he worked as an Assistant Warden at the Broome Bird Observatory. Luke led bird watching tours around the magnificent Roebuck Bay and surrounding environments, where he also assisted in the capturing and research of various bird species involving mist and cannon netting. From Broome he moved to Darwin and has been working throughout the top end for more than eight years, His passion for birds has only got stronger through the years. Luke has the necessary Kakadu permits and is accredited with Birds Australia. 

MITKO PETRAKIEV is a Bulgarian who has a passion for the outdoor life. He has led many walking and bird tours, and his knowledge of the geography, geology, and natural history adds immensely to each holiday where he is the guide. He has co-led our previous Turkey tours

PAUL ROGERS  has had a life-long interest in natural history, which is underlined by his qualifications in Ecology and Animal Behaviour gained at London University. He is a principal leader for Ornitholidays and has led over 210 tours. He now has the privilege of living at Shorelands on Anglesey, the former home of wildlife artist Charles Tunnicliffe. He is widely travelled in Europe, North America and Africa and lectures on ornithology, ecology and all aspects of natural history.

GABOR SIMAY has been interested in birds and nature conservation since his first years in primary school. During his studies at the University of Debrecen he deepened his knowledge on birds, carried out research on ground-nesting birds of the Hortobagy National Park, spending most of his time in the field. His favourite area is the Bihar Plain and the Hortobagy. In 2008 he started to work for the Hortobagy National Park as a full time warden in the Bihar Plain area. He is also a member of the Hungarian Rarity Committee. He frequently visits other parts of Hungary as well as many sites of the Carpathian Basin to study birds. As a keen birdwatcher and photographer, he has visited several different Western Palearctic countries (e.g. Turkey, Spain, Egypt, Jordan), as well as Namibia, Mexico, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and India. He speaks perfect English and some German.

MANO THARMALINGHAM is a naturalist who was amongst the first Malaysians to venture into nature tourism and has actively pursued a career in this field. Mano has travelled extensively within Peninsula Malaysia and Sabah, Borneo and the surrounding regions in search of birds and is particularly interested in their vocalisations. He is a life member of the Malaysian Nature Society and is actively involved with the society's bird study group, participating in several field trips. He is a director of Kingfisher Tours has been leading bird watching and natural history tours throughout the country since 1977.

UTHAI TREESUCON  is undoubtedly the most experienced Thai birdwatcher. His knowledge of bird song and his use of tapes has helped our previous groups see many elusive species. He has led hundreds of birdwatching tours in his native Thailand in addition to the many tours he has led to Vietnam.

DAVID WALSH  lives in Suffolk and has been a keen birdwatcher for most of his life. Over the last few years he has led many tours to Europe, Africa and North America. His other interests include butterflies and dragonflies. David has proved very popular with Ornitholidays clients on the tours he recently led to Morocco, Corsica, Camargue and the Canary Islands. He has travelled widely in Asia and the countries he has visited include China, Tibet, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

DEEPAL WARAKAGODA  is one of Sri Lanka's top birdwatching tour guides and the author of the new Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka. He will be happy to show us all of the country's endemic birds on our tour. He has been the leader on our last seven holidays to Sri Lanka.

STEVE WEST first started birding on his walks to and from school when he was a seven year old schoolboy in Hampshire, England. He had his first taste of foreign birding in Spain in 1983 with the UEA bird club while studying for his degree in Ecology at the University of East Anglia. Further foreign trips led him around different parts of Europe before he settled in Spain in 1988. Steve has combined teaching, translating and conducting bird surveys with leading bird tours around Spain since 1996. Fluent in both Spanish and Catalan, he is also the author of two books, Where the birds are in northeast Spain and  Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains. He has been leading Ornitholidays' tours to Spain since 2011.

MIKE WITHERICK  is one of Ornitholidays' principal leaders, having taken early retirement from the University of Southampton, where he lectured on geography. Although particularly interested in the avifauna of the Western Palearctic, his record of leading over  200 tours has taken him to all seven continents. He served for 10 years on the Council of the RSPB and also completed a two-year term on the Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council. When not leading tours for Ornitholidays, he writes college textbooks.