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 five continents. He has birded extensively in Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, all over eastern Asia, including the Malaysian part of Borneo and Indonesia, and in Australia, Europe, the USA and Guatemala, as well as widely in South America in both the Andes and Amazonia.

He has a particular affinity for Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Indonesia. In Borneo alone, he spent 4 years conducting his PhD fieldwork, researching how to lessen the impact of oil palm expansion on bird communities. During this time, he also organised an expedition to Kalimantan, where he co-discovered the endemic Meratus Blue Flycatcher and Meratus White-eye, which he and collaborators formally described in 2022.

Since earning his PhD, Simon’s academic research has ranged from community ecology studies to asking what is to be done to protect biodiversity and avert ecological collapse. When not undertaking guiding, survey work or research, he acts as a trustee for the Burnet Heritage Trust, which works to restore Yorkshire’s flatlands for wildlife.