Ted and Hannah Floyd
looking at Juncos.
Harry birding in Europe.
Bill Schmoker and Gray Jay.  Photo by
Chris Wood.
Charles Thornton-Kolbe with
friends Schuyler and Sabine.
Ted Floyd:  Trip Leader Colorado and USA,
Occassional International Trip Host
  • Ted Floyd is the editor of the American Birding
    Association's Birding Magazine and author of the 2008
    edition of the Smithsonian Guide to North American Birds.  
    See the beautiful cover of the new guide to the left.  
  • Ted has led birding trips throughout North America, birded
    around the world, and has led trips to several international
    destinations.
  • Besides being the editor for Birding Magazine and a great
    bird guide, Ted Floyd is the father of Hannah and Andrew.  
    Ted and his daughter hold the only recorded mark for the
    number of species found in the ABA Area for a father and
    child team in the child’s first year of life --- 414 species.  
    Ted, his wife Kei, and Hannah have birded with Hannah’s
    cousins (and now brother Andrew) in groups of birders
    and children in baby backpacks and strollers.  Ted
    believes we should never pass up a birding opportunity
    when we have small children in the household.  We too
    are believers!
  • Ted Floyd started birding when he was thirteen years old.
    The exact date of his conversion was September 21, 1981.
    After college (B.A. in Biology, Princeton University) and
    graduate school (Ph.D. in Ecology, Penn State University),
    he taught biology at several colleges and universities.
    Then he migrated into the nonprofit realm, first heading up
    the Nevada Breeding Bird Atlas for the Great Basin Bird
    Observatory and now serving as editor of Birding, the
    flagship publication of the American Birding Association.
  • Ted's major interests are avian status and distribution, bird
    conservation, and birder education. He also has strong
    secondary interests in entomology, statistics, and general
    ecology. Ted has published more than 100 articles, for
    popular and professional audiences alike.  He is a
    frequent speaker at birding festivals and ornithological
    meetings, and he has led birding trips throughout North
    America.

For more
information, contact
us at
1-888-203-7464 or
by email at
info@PIBird.com.
Bill Schmoker:  Trip Host and Outdoor Instructor for Family  
Trips and One of Most Popular Colorado Field Guides
  • Bill Schmoker is one person who is both an excellent Outdoor  Instructor and
    a skilled Bird Guide.  
  • Bill served as President of the Colorado Field Ornithologists and is also
    Colorado/Wyoming regional editor for North American Birds.
  • Bill teaches middle school science in Boulder, Colorado and is also a first
    time father.  He is a third generation birder, and his photos can be regularly
    seen in Birding Magazine, books and other periodicals.  Bill has lead a
    successful trip to Costa Rica with 14 junior high students (and with no other
    adults). Bill loves science, the outdoors, natural history, wildlife and birding
    (in no particular order) and is anxious to share these opportunities with
    children and enthusiastic adult bird watchers.
  • To learn more about his photographic and bird work, please check out his
    website at www.schmoker.org.  His website now contains over 525 bird
    species!

Charles Thornton-Kolbe:  Partnership for International
Birding Co-Owner and Occasional Trip Host
  • Charles Thornton-Kolbe is the owner of Nestling Tours and an occasional
    trip leader.  He has recently become the Executive Partner of the Partnership
    for International Birding.  
  • After completing graduate work at Harvard, Charles has spent most of his
    twenty year career as a quality management consultant in health, human
    services and education.  For over ten years, his largest client was a Head
    Start program, serving over 2,000 children every school day across ten
    counties throughout Colorado.  Charles has brought his experience in
    education with young and school age children and his management
    consulting skills to Nestling Tours and now the Partnership for International
    Birding.
  • Charles was recently elected the President of Denver Field Ornithologists, a
    volunteer organization providing over 100 field trips throughout Colorado
    each year for over fifty years.  
  • Charles has also been the Coordinator for Audubon's Adopt-an-Important
    Bird Area Project for the Pawnee National Grasslands and is an occasional
    compiler for the Colorado Rare Bird Alert.
  • Charles also remains busy as a father of three children (ages 7, 11 and 14).  
    With the much appreciated support of his wife, he also finds time to go
    birding on a regular basis. He has experience birding in the early morning
    before the children arise, birding while camping, birding while hiking or
    biking, and birding while enjoying the outdoors with children.  Charles is
    birding most of the time while parenting (along with his wife Jennifer) his
    three children all of the time.

Mandi Prout:  Outdoor Instructor
  • Mandi Prout has experience in teaching in classrooms as large as 30
    children (1st to 3rd grade) in urban and rural settings.
  • Though not yet a birder, Mandi enjoys the outdoors on a regular basis
    throughout the year by skiing, hiking, and camping near her home in Garfield
    County in Colorado.
  • She is anxious to apply her Montessori teaching abilities to outdoor
    education.  
Harry Fuller:  Partnership for International
Birding Co-Owner, Trip Leader for
Northern California, Pacific Northwest and
United Kingdom; Host for Several
International Trips
  • Harry Fuller has led numerous professional tours in
    Northern California and the United Kingdom. Harry
    Fuller, is a long-time San Francisco resident and
    birder. He was a founding member of the San
    Francisco Field Ornithologists. In addition Mr. Fuller
    has led dozens of field trips for Golden Gate
    Audubon Society, for the Strybing Arboretum, and for
    the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He is
    also the Northern California tour leader for Island
    Holidays.
  • Mr. Fuller has taught classes on early American
    ornithology at the California Academy of Sciences.  
    Elsewhere on his website (www.towhee.net) you
    can find some of his articles on the history of
    American ornithology with an emphasis on the
    Pacific Coast and San Francisco area.  Also he's
    written and published Now and Then, a history of
    changes in San Francisco's natural habitats and
    wildlife since the earliest written records.
  • Mr. Fuller has also spent considerable time in
    Europe and the United Kingdom.  He's written
    accounts of birding in several countries including
    suggestions that may prove useful to North
    American birders.  His series of pieces on birding in
    major European cities can be found in Winging It,
    the newsletter of the American Birding Association.
  • Harry has raised 3 children, and all of them remain
    birders today. His granddaughter already builds little
    cardboard binoculars in preschool.

Norm Lewis:  Trip Leader for Southeast
Arizona and Colorado; Host for Ecuador in
February 2009 and More in 2010
  • Norm Lewis has guided numerous birding tours
    across North America, including multiple trips to
    Southeast Arizona, Florida, the Rio Grande Valley,
    the Upper Texas Coast, Nebraska and the Platte
    River Valley, North Carolina, New Mexico and
    elsewhere. For thirteen years he has led monthly
    trips across Colorado for the Denver Museum of
    Nature and Science.  Recently, he has hosted a trip
    to Costa Rica and looks forward to guiding his flock
    of loyal bird enthusiasts to other destinations around
    the world.
  • Norm is always good for a quick and tricky
    identification. He is always helpful with a quick
    lesson on the finer points of bird identification in the
    field.
  • Norm is the Past-President of the Colorado Field
    Ornithologists and a Research Associate in the
    Department of Zoology with the Denver Museum of
    Nature and Science.
John Drummond:  Co-Owner of the Partnership for
International Birding & International Trip Host
  • John Drummond could be described as an avid bird watcher as he is
    approaching 6,800 bird species on his world bird list and has birded in 28
    countries, covering 6 continents.
  • John has been a leader, co-leader or has advanced a number of international
    trips covering Australia, Bolivia, Jamaica, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and
    Uganda.
  • I believe John keeps upwards of field marks for over 6,000 species in his
    head.  When birding with John, you will find that he is spotting constantly and
    finds birds through holes in thick vegetation which you may have missed. He
    may not be a local guide, but he is a handy resource on any birding trip.
  • John has been birding for nearly sixty years and has been planning and
    plotting bird trips to every corner of the globe during most of his adult life.
  • John has a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Southampton University,
    England, has extensive field experience on a number of bird studies, and has
    spoken to a number of Audubon and other ornithological groups.
John Drummond (to the left) with clean pants and clean shaven; Lelis Navarrette (in the middle
with my scope), and Charles Thornton-Kolbe (with blue jeans with mud after falling while seeing
a second Antpitta species in 15 mintues time) with other bird watching companions.
Learn More about our Trip Leaders and Staff!
Lelis Navarrete:  Top Bird Guide and Key Partner

Lelis Navarrete has nearly twenty years of experience as a birding guide. Lelis has vast experience as tour leader
in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Peru, and now Columbia and  Panama.  
  • Lelis is regarded as one of the finest birding guides in South America and is often consulted for his
    knowledge of the birds and their vocalizations.  Lelis is familiar and able to recognize the calls and
    sounds of some 2,400 South American species, and nearly 8,000 bird vocalizations.  You will find Lelis
    can find bird species by ear from 200 yards away and help you see the bird species you most desire
    whether you are in Ecuador or whether you are in Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, or most any part of South
    America. By my estimates and experience, Lelis' skills will allow you the opportunity to see another 10 to
    30 species more per day than other bird guides in South America.
  • His skills and time in the field often support a number of scientific contributions.  The most famous is
    working with Robert Ridgely in discovering of the Jocotoco Antpitta (a new bird to science), and also with
    Ridgely on first records of Crested Becard and Spot-throated Hummingbird.  He has contributed to the
    work of John Moore, including several CDs of Ecuadorian birds songs and calls and including the
    rediscovery of Striated Antbird.  In solo, he has reported new species for the Ecuador bird list: Andean
    Tyrant, White-backed Stilt, and Peruvian Antpitta.  When in the field in any country, Lelis can find new
    species where not found before, extending the known range of several other species in many parts of
    South America.  
  • When Ridgley returns to South America, he often hires Lelis as a guide in most parts of South America.  
  • Lelis has a degree in biology from the Universidad Catolica in Quito.  
  • Besides being a fantastic bird guide, Lelis supports a number of conservation efforts.  He has been, and
    continues to serve, on the Board of the Jocotoco Foundation (since its conception).   
  • Lelis has always received the highest rankings from client comments.  His tour participants use him as a
    benchmark for all birding guides worldwide. In addition to his strong background as a field naturalist
    birder, Lelis is unparalleled for his people skills, attentiveness, humor and organizational skills.
  • Lelis, along with Xavier Munoz and Mercedes Rivadeneira, is one of the owners of Neblina International.
Other Guides in South America

Adolfo "Fito" Downs

Adolfo “Fito” Downs has been interested in birding and natural history from a young age. A native Costa
Rican, “Fito” refined his excellent birding skills and broad knowledge of natural history at La Selva
Biological Station in Costa Rica (2 years conducting field research and guiding), and at the Smithsonian
Institute in Panama (2 years). In addition, he was the resident guide for Neblina Forest-Bolivia for
another three years! To date, “Fito” coordinates our groups in Costa Rica.  He now leads trips in
Ecuador, Costa Rica and Bolivia.


Alejandro Solano

Alejandro Solano is also Costa Rican and now resides in Ecuador.  He has a degree in biology from
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica and the most recent acquisition to our staff.  He has developed keen
field skills and has learned to be a trip leader.  Alejandro has worked as resident naturalist guide at
Monteverde Cloud Forest and has provided tremendous volunteer work in Costa Rica’s national parks.  
He has also worked in the United States on the MAPS project at the Institute of Bird Populations in
California and at the Redwoods Science Lab, Trinity River Restoration Program at Humboldt University.  
Besides leading bird trips, his field experience includes surveying, mapping nests and banding birds. In
Ecuador, he has conducted bird inventories and surveys, field projects in coastal and southern Ecuador,
and conservation work on the endangered Black-breasted Puffleg. Alejandro has also birded Peru,
Bolivia, Argentina and southern Brazil.


Bruno Lima

Bruno Lima lives in Sao Paolo, Brazil and is a bird guide and biologist.  Though he specializes in
ornithological studies in the Atlantic Forest as a biologist, he has been instrumental as a bird guide in
developing a number of our trips in Brazil, including the Pantanal, Rio Cristalino and the Atlantic Forest.  
He knows well, and enjoys showing clients, all the different bird species who live throughout Brazil from
the lowlands to the top of the mountains. The altitudinal gradient of the Atlantic Forest supports a great
number of habitats and a diversity of birds, making this area one of his favorites and a great place to
bird.  His masters degrees will be based upon his studies on the distribution of the Yellow-legged
Tinamou.

Willy Pérez

He has been working as a guide for Maquipucuna and Kapawi Lodge since 1998. He has been working
for Neblina Forest since 2004.  With over ten years experience, he has developed a great knowledge of
the birds of Ecuador and has a tremendous passion for bird watching.  His passion for birds is unique,
laying a foundation for productive birding and fun on any bird trip in Ecuador.
Fito Downs welcomes you to some great birding.
Willy Perez working to get the bird to show.
Bruno Lima works to get you some good looks at
birds (but not always this close).
Xavier Munoz and Mercedes Rivadeneira (happy to
be together in life and birding) and owners of
Neblina Forest Tours.