Learn-the-Birds

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Professor Richard Fuller

Richard Fuller is a Professor at the University of Queensland. He studies how people have affected the natural world around them, and how some of their destructive effects can best be reversed. The research group works on pure and applied topics in biodiversity and conservation, with a strong emphasis on building collaborative conservation to save migratory species. He is also an incurable birder.
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Prof Adrian Craig

Adrian Craig is a retired professor of zoology, who spent his working career lecturing at Rhodes University in South Africa. He has also given many talks to school groups and other audiences. His research has always focused on African birds, involving field studies, museum specimens, and historical records. Apart from formal scientific publications, Adrian has written many popular articles for birdclub magazines, and contributed to handbooks such as “The birds of Africa” and “Handbook of the birds of the world”.

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Dr Derek W. Keats

Derek was biology professor for over 20 years, and discovered several species new to science (not birds, alas), and even has a species named after him. His studies have encompassed ecology, systematics and phylogeny, as well as technology in education. He has published around 80 academic papers, and more than 100 magazine articles in which he has brought science and nature to lay persons. He has also been a university Deputy Vice Chancellor, held various technology roles in university and business, and is a technology geek. Derek is an accomplished nature photographer on land and under water, with his photos appearing in over 20 books, hundreds of magazines, several mobile apps, and museum exhibits. Today he works in FinTech, but prefers to spend time photographing birds  and unravelling their stories so he can re-tell them to humans. He is co-founder and looks after the technology and arrangements for Learn-the-Birds.
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Etienne Marais

Etienne is one of South Africa's most experienced birders, a veteran guide and has been training birders for 15 years in an array of skills and specialities. He thinks deeply about the experience of birding.
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Dr Mark Brown

Dr. Mark Brown is an ornithologist and conservationist based in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. With over 25 years of experience, he has conducted extensive research on avian physiology, pollination ecology, and the conservation of nectar-feeding birds. He has published over 100 scientific papers and is a recognized expert in the field. Mark has supervised over 40 postgraduate students and mentored dozens of South African and international students in the fields of ecology, conservation and marine biology. He is passionate about finding solutions to local conservation issues in the greater Plett region, and runs a conservation NPO Conserve Eden and a conservation travel company Discover Eden. Dr. Brown is the lead author of the recently published Roberts Sunbirds and Sugarbirds of Southern Africa, a comprehensive book on these birds, featuring scientific insights and stunning artwork. His work focuses on understanding bird ecology, particularly sunbirds and sugarbirds, and their roles as pollinators.
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Wesley Gush

Wesley Gush is a keen birder, ornithologist and nature enthusiast. He has a Masters in Conservation Biology from the University of Cape Town, and has spent time working on wildlife reserves in his home province of the Eastern Cape, as well as abroad in Zimbabwe and the USA. He currently sits on the management committee for Amakhala Game Reserve. Wesley has published research on Brown Hyena and Rudd's Lark, but his current focus is on better understanding the potential threat of climate change on the Secretarybird. He is also a sports fanatic and partial to a good Eggs Benedict.
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Jess Lund

Jess is an evolutionary biologist and has been studying brood parasites – namely African Cuckoos, Greater Honeyguides, and Cuckoo Finches – for five years. She grew up on a farm in Limpopo, where her passion for birds began, and went on to do her BSc and Masters at the University of Cape Town. She is now doing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, and is investigating how the early lives of brood parasites in the nests of their hosts can influence their lives as adults. More broadly, she is interested in the effect of species interactions on evolution, as well as how these interactions can generate evolutionary novelty. Despite currently being based in the UK, she spends as much time as possible in the field in Mozambique and Zambia, and remains unashamedly biased towards African birdlife.
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Al Uy

Al Uy is Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester (NY, USA). Al was born and raised in the Philippines, moving to the US in his early teens. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and his doctorate degree from the University of Maryland at College Park. Before joining the University of Rochester, Al held faculty positions at San Francisco State University, Syracuse University and the University of Miami. For over 25 years, Al and his team, the “Trop Bio Lab”, have explored the ecology and evolution of avian biological diversity, working in Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, as well as Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica. His work in the Solomon Islands is featured in “Islands of Creation”, a documentary produced by the Smithsonian Channel and now available to stream through Paramount+.
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Dr Derek Engelbrecht

Derek has always been passionate about the natural world, and this was nurtured by his parents, who always bought him animal books. After matriculating, he studied towards a BSc degree in Zoology and Botany at the then Rand Afrikaans University, followed by a BSc Honours in Zoology and an MSc in Zoology (Cum Laude). This was followed by a PhD in the conservation genetics of minnows in mountain streams.

Derek moved to Polokwane in 1992 when he assumed a position as a tutor in the Department of Physiology. In 2007 he switched his allegiance and joined the Department of Zoology at the University of Limpopo as an associate professor.

His research interests are varied, and he has supervised students in topics ranging from plant ecology to anatomy, but his main research focus and interest are birds, specifically larks. Beyond larks, he has published papers on a variety of other birds. He prides himself that he has the somewhat unique distinction of having published peer-reviewed scientific papers on all five vertebrate taxa: fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals. To date, Derek has published 168 scientific and semi-scientific papers on various topics.

He serves on several national and international working groups for threatened taxa, such as the IUCN Hornbill Specialist Group, Southern Ground Hornbill Advisory Panel, Cape Parrot Action Group and Botha’s Lark Working Group. He is a registered A-class ringer with SAFRING and has ringed around 10 000 birds at the end of 2022. He is also the chairperson of the Limpopo Regional Bird Atlas committee and a longstanding member of Birdlife Polokwane where he serves on the club’s management committee. Derek is also on the editorial board of three scientific journals, Ostrich, Afrotropical Bird Biology, and Hornbill Natural History and Conservation, and is the co-editor of Birdlife Polokwane’s birding magazine, The Lark. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the 8th edition of Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, currently under revision in partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Derek is a member of the E-birders, the winning team of the 2022 South African Birding Big Day, and also the current BBD record holders with 236 species recorded in 24 hours. In 2018, Derek was honoured by Birdlife South Africa when he received the Eagle-Owl Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Conservation of Birds and Their Habitats.

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Dr Krista Oswald

Despite noKrista Oswaldt necessarily being a birder (I didn’t even own proper binoculars), I completed an Honours BSc studying Tree Swallows through Dalhousie University in Canada, and an internship with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Life was leading me down the ornithological path, and I wasn’t exactly upset about the idea. In January 2015 my flight from Canada to South Africa landed in Port Elizabeth, where I would live for the next 5 years. Except, I actually spent more than two of those years in the Cape Fold Mountains and their fynbos biome, following and learning about Cape Rockjumpers. My research resulted in an MSc (Nelson Mandela University) and a PhD (Rhodes University), but most importantly an infatuation with my study species that I doubt will ever truly disappear. I am now studying birds in the Negev desert of Israel, and doing my best to find an excuse/time/money to go back to the Fynbos and see the worlds best birds.
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