The Birdquest Team

Miguel Aguilar

Miguel is based in Mexico City, where he studied biology at the National University of Mexico (UNAM). He was interested in the natural world from a young age, especially reptiles and dinosaurs. It was during his time at university that he found a renewed interest in modern dinosaurs, being part of the university’s birding club; […]

Dáni Balla

Dáni (short for Dániel) Balla lives in Balmazújváros, Hungary with his partner Annamária. Growing up in a nearby city, he moved closer to the Hortobágy National Park to have better chances for birding every day in the great Hungarian grasslands. Dáni picked up birding as a child which later set his path in life. He […]

Eustace Barnes

Eustace Barnes lives in Yorkshire, England with his partner Diana and son Jasper. A professional ornithologist and artist, specializing in the Neotropics, Eustace developed an interest in birds and wildlife art at an early age. He began birding on the North Kent Marshes and nearby France before heading off to Spain and Turkey as a […]

Mark Beaman

Mark Beaman lives in Lancashire, England with his partner Inger and is Managing Director and owner of Birdquest. He created Sunbird in 1978 and subsequently went on to found Birdquest in 1981. Mark has travelled to every continent in search of birds, led a huge number of birding tours along the way, in dozens of countries, and has a worldwide interest in every aspect of birding.

Nik Borrow

Nik Borrow lives in Norfolk, England. As well as being a Birdquest Senior Leader, Nik was a significant illustrator of our much-missed paper brochures. His formal Fine Art training was undertaken at Wimbledon School of Art, where he subsequently taught art for some years. Always a keen birdwatcher, his two main interests finally merged when […]

Daniel Branch

Daniel Branch lives in Paris with his girlfriend Laura, although at heart he remains a proud Yorkshireman, having been born and raised in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax. He continues to love returning to this part of the world whenever the opportunity arises and exploring the local sites where he had so many of […]

Juan Carlos Calvachi

Juan Carlos Calvachi lives near Quito and is widely regarded as the finest Ecuadorian bird guide, with truly remarkable field skills, including very extensive knowledge of vocalizations. He graduated from Cenestur University, Quito in 2006 with a degree in Technology and Tourism and is one of the few bird guides in Ecuador with a guiding […]

Jigmet Dadul

Jigmet Dadul lives in Leh, Ladakh and is the world’s foremost Snow Leopard guide. A native Ladakhi, Jigmet has explored the wilderness that is Ladakh for many years and has built up an extraordinary and unsurpassed knowledge of the Snow Leopard and its habits, so much so that he has been able to start guiding […]

Sean Dilrosun

Sean Dilrosun was born and raised in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, where he lives with his partner Gini and son Don. His first employment was as an engineer in a recording studio, whilst playing the guitar in various local bands. In 1992 he started guiding general tours all over Suriname, especially in the far […]

Matt Eade

Matt Eade is originally from Sussex, where he spent many years birding his coastal patch in and near Seaford, but now lives in the Scottish Highlands, where he works as an ecologist, along with his partner, Emily. Having travelled extensively already, setting foot on all seven continents, nowadays he frequently birds locally to his home […]

Trevor Ellery

Trevor Ellery is originally from Hampshire in the United Kingdom, but Trevor has spent extensive periods living in Israel, Ecuador and Colombia. In Colombia, he has been a resident for long periods since 2008. He is, of course, a fluent Spanish speaker. Trevor has spent much of those years exploring the length and breadth of […]

Dave Farrow

Dave Farrow lives in Norwich, England with his Japanese partner Kumiko. Dave has a special love of Asia, where his field experience now amounts to many years in total. Dave has travelled very extensively indeed in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China (including Tibet), Taiwan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and large parts of Indonesia.

Leo Garrigues

Leo (Leonardo) lives in Guadalupe in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, with his partner Karol. A birder since the age of six, Leo has been accumulating natural history experience all his life. After studying Biology and Forest Engineering at the National University in Costa Rica, Leo has been guiding birding and natural history tours […]

Michael Greenshields

Michael Greenshields spent his childhood in rural South Australia and spent family holidays in all areas of regional and outback Australia. He now loves to take his young family around Australia instilling the same interest in nature into his children. His passion for the flora and fauna of Australia is evident to everyone. His introduction […]

Phil Hansbro

Phil Hansbro lives in New South Wales, Australia with his partner Nic and dog Gazza. He is originally from Yorkshire and grew up making birding notes from the age of seven, birding at Fairburn Ings and Flamborough Head. He was very active on the UK birding scene before moving to Australia in his mid-20s after […]

Hannu Jännes

Hannu Jännes lives near Helsinki, Finland with his partner Jutta and sons Paavo and Aleksi. Hannu works as a freelance ornithologist and sound recordist, as well as a bird guide. Before starting to lead bird tours in the mid-1980s, he spent four breeding seasons travelling all over the country collecting data on the abundance and […]

Diedert Koppenol

Diedert Koppenol now lives in Lancashire, England and is a Travel Manager with Birdquest. Diedert also has an important role on our social media side and leads some of our tours. He originally hails from the Netherlands, where he was living in Utrecht before moving to the United Kingdom. Diedert has been birding since he […]

Jhonathan Miranda

Based in Caracas, Venezuela, Jhonathan Miranda is a biologist from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), specialising in ecology with a deep focus on birds. His interest in the natural world was sparked at a young age, initially drawn to dinosaurs, botany, and mammalogy. However, during his university years, he discovered that birds were the […]

Simon Mitchell

Simon lives in Canterbury, England. He is a lifelong birder who grew up watching the wetlands and reservoirs of South Yorkshire. Simon has a wealth of birding experience and has worked as a bird tour leader on six continents. He has birded extensively in the countries of eastern and southern Africa (from Ethiopia south to […]

Pete Morris

Pete Morris lives in Lancashire, England with his wife Nina and sons Jack and Josh. When not acting as a Birdquest tour leader, Pete works in the Birdquest office and on the Birdquest tour programme. He has been birdwatching for as long as he can remember, growing up on the North Kent Marshes and at […]

Rob Morris

Rob grew up birding in Kent in the UK, but has been based in Brisbane, Queensland, since 2007, where he has gained a comprehensive knowledge of Australia’s avifauna. Growing up in a birding family, Rob has been birding for as long as he can remember. Rob’s birding passion grew to new heights when studying for […]

János Oláh

János Oláh lives in Debrecen, Hungary with his partner Gabriella and daughter Enikö. A keen birder from the age of 10, János (pronounced ‘Yanosh’) speaks fluent English (his grasp of idiom is remarkable), has a degree in Ecology from the University of Debrecen and is now doing post-graduate research on the ecology of aquatic birds […]

Chikara Otani

Chikara Otani lives in Tokyo with his wife Mie. Otani has an in-depth knowledge of the flora and fauna of the entire Japanese archipelago and is arguably Japan’s top birding guide. He has worked with Birdquest for decades.

Mark Pearman

Mark Pearman lives with his wife Alejandra and their sons Ian and Luca, spending part of their time in Buenos Aires, Argentina and part in a wilderness area of Entre Ríos province. Born in London, Mark initiated his birding career at the age of nine in the North Kent marshes. After whetting his appetite for […]

Catherine Pendleton

Catherine lives in the Ribble Valley with her husband, children and dogs. With her feet firmly rooted in Lancashire, she provides a constant presence in the office, handling the administration side of Birdquest. After studying and graduating from Chester University, she has been working in hospitality management before helping set up her husband’s engineering business, […]

Sjoerd Radstaak

Sjoerd Radstaak (for English speakers, Sjoerd is pronounced like a cross between ‘short’ and ‘shirt’!) lives in Amersfoort in the Netherlands with his partner and young daughter Pitta – yes, like the bird family! A keen birder from the age of seven, he was initially limited to the Netherlands, but it was not long before […]

Craig Robson

Craig Robson lives in Norwich, England. He has spent many years in the field in Asia (from the Himalayas, China and Japan southwards to Sri Lanka, mainland Southeast Asia and Indonesia), often visiting remote areas that have been only rarely explored in the past. As well as Asia, Craig has also birded extensively in Madagascar, Australasia and North America (including Alaska, Colorado and many other areas).

Nigel Sadler

Nigel lives in Lancashire with his wife Alison and his two sons Aaron and Harry. He has worked at Birdquest since 2013 and is our tour logistics wizard, possessing an extraordinary level of worldwide knowledge. After graduating with a degree in Zoology in 1997 (where he specialised in shark feeding mechanisms in his final year), […]

Yeo Siew Teck

Yeo Siew Teck is one of the top bird tour leaders in his native Sarawak and adjoining Sabah in East Malaysia, and a really great person to enjoy Borneo’s birdlife with. Born and raised in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in Borneo, it was little surprise that Yeo grew up influenced by the natural world. […]

Andrew Stainthorpe

Andrew Stainthorpe is a passionate birder and seasoned wildlife guide from South Africa, with over two decades of experience in the field. A qualified bird ringer (bander) and SKS (Specialised Knowledge & Skills) in dangerous game guiding, Andrew brings a rare combination of technical expertise, deep bush knowledge, and heartfelt enthusiasm to every tour he […]

Brent Stephenson

Brent was born in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, in 1974 and was brought up in Hastings. He was interested in the outdoors and nature at an early age, taking his first photos of birds at about the age of eight and then starting to bird soon after. During a family holiday to the UK in […]

Mark Van Beirs

Mark Van Beirs lives with his partner Kathleen and daughter Caroline near Ghent, Belgium and has guided a truly remarkable number of tours for Birdquest. Born and raised in Ghent, Mark trained as a forester but let his passion for birds distract him from a life spent with trees. He started travelling abroad in search […]

Vincent van der Spek

Vincent van der Spek lives in The Hague, the Netherlands with his partner Keete and their children Mees and Rozemarijn, near an area with the most extensive visible migration in Northwest Europe. He started birding at the age of six and it did not take long before it became a way of life rather than […]

Inger Vandyke

Inger Vandyke lives in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, United Kingdom, with her husband Mark Beaman and is a Director of Birdquest Ltd. Hailing originally from Australia and of Anglo-Dutch ancestry, Inger was brought up on a trawler, fishing the Great Barrier Reef. Her early companions were terns, boobies, sharks and the occasional octopus, setting […]

Mike Watson

Mike Watson lives with his partner Évi and their son Alexander in Lancashire, England. As well as being a regular Birdquest leader, Mike is the Guest Manager for the Birdquest office, where he has also built up an enviable set of skills in airline reservations and ticketing. Mike started birding at an early age in […]