Learn-the-Birds

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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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Christa Rolls

Christa RollsChrista Rolls is an Avian Ecologist and Conservation Biologist who loves birds and connecting others with their passion for birding. She started her career in avian ecology in Southern Indiana in 2012, and since then has had the opportunity to work on various projects in the Pacific Northwest, Germany, and, currently, California monitoring bird populations and behavior to help inform management decisions. Christa is also on the Board of Directors for Ecostudies Institute, a non-profit organization based in the Pacific Northwest that conserves wildlife and their habitats through science, restoration, and outreach. Most recently, in September 2020, she founded Birding Tools and hosts the Birding Tools Podcast, which breaks down all aspects of beginning birding, from finding the right pair of binoculars to learning how to find birds in the field.
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Faraaz Abdool

Faraaz Abdool is an internationally published freelance conservation and wildlife photographer/writer who specializes in birds and the issues they face worldwide. He graciously serves on the Trinidad and Tobago Bird Status and Distribution Committee (formerly the Trinidad and Tobago Rare Bird Committee), and leads birding trips on both islands. Faraaz also runs yearly birding and wildlife tours to East Africa. Faraaz is also the author of “Casual Birding in Trinidad & Tobago”, an extensive volume designed to market T&T as an attractive and easy birding destination as well as to educate the local population about their avian cohabitants. Faraaz cultivates wildlife consciousness via his words and images, in a last-ditch attempt to reconnect humans with nature and save the world.
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Freya McGregor

Freya McGregor, OTR/L, CIG is the Birdability Coordinator and Occupational Therapist. Birding since childhood, her ‘dodgy’ knee often creates an accessibility challenge for her. With a background in blindness and low vision services, she is passionate about enabling all birders and potential future birders to enjoy birding and nature as much as she does.  
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Benny Isaac Jacobs-Schwartz

Benny Isaac Jacobs-Schwartz Benny Isaac Jacobs-Schwartz owns and operates a bird-guiding business and lifestyle brand called BIRDS by BIJS (pronounced Bee-jus). With a background in biology, ecology, and outdoor education, Benny has worked for over 13 years as a naturalist guide, expedition trip leader, and international bird guide. Benny offers guided birding outings in Southern California and small-group birding tours to his favorite tropical locales like Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Colombia. Benny is a passionate educator and photographer, specializing in birds! Benny is active on social media where he creates fun, educational videos and posts to inspire others about the natural world with the goal of getting folks to put down their phone and pick up their Binos.
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Véronique Couttee

Véronique Couttee Véronique Couttee is from the tropical island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Her island is also where she started her journey as a conservation biologist and birder. Through a Fulbright scholarship, she left her small tropical paradise to embark on a master's degree in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Policy at the University at Albany in New York. As a Dangermond Fellow based in upstate New York, she currently works on mapping solutions focusing on climate, coastal conservation, and bird-friendly communities. She creates a wide array of GIS tools that empower historically marginalized communities in outdoor spaces while addressing complex and transboundary environmental issues.

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Professor Daniel Germer

Daniel GermerProfessor Daniel Germer is a Biologist, currently teaching Zoology and Research related courses at UPNFM, Honduras´s Pedagogic University. Originally trained as a botanist, he stumbled upon birds in 2006 during his Senior year of College and since then has worked in the promotion of Birdwatching as a way of life, passing on the hobby to new enthusiasts and training future biologists on birds and field craft, he spent a decade almost permanently in the field getting to know Honduras' avifauna, people and ecosystems. Professor Germer is the founding president of the Honduran Ornithological Association. He is also a founding member of the Professional Association of Honduran Biologists and currently holds a seat at its Court of Honor. His recent academic book, "Pedagogic Potential of Birdwatching in Honduras" delves into how birds are empowering the people involved in the hobby, thereby creating self taught naturalists with strong environmental consciences. Professor Germer also works as a freelance consultant and has recently published two children's books on the topics of birds and cryptids in an effort to empower children to pursue their dreams and rescue folklore-related creatures from extinction. You can find him on instagram relating his birdwatching adventures as @danny_germer.
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Dr Gabriel Jamie

Gabriel JamieGabriel Jamie became interested in science as a child through watching birds, first in Cape Town and then in the United Kingdom. This has resulted in a life-long avian obsession that has led him to fieldwork on birds in many places around the world. As a teenager he worked on projects studying migratory birds in the Danube Delta of Romania and on Antikythira in Greece. While doing an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Gabriel spent summers working as a research assistant studying bird communities in Peru with scientists from Oxford University and Conservation International. After graduating, Gabriel went on to do a PhD with Prof. Claire Spottiswoode at University of Cambridge conducting fieldwork in Zambia to study mimicry and speciation in the brood-parasitic Vidua finches (indigobirds and whydahs). Gabriel is currently a Leverhulme Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge where he continues to study brood-parasitic birds in Africa. Gabriel's current work focuses on the interactions between the brood-parasitic Cuckoo Finch (Anomalospiza imberbis) and its Tawny-flanked Prinia (Prinia subflava) hosts. Prinias have evolved incredibly diverse eggs which vary dramatically in colour and pattern between individuals. Gabriel is currently investigating the genetic basis of this diversity and the consequences of this genetic architecture for the co-evolutionary trajectories in the ongoing arms race between prinias and their Cuckoo Finch parasites.  Gabriel is involved in ornithological expeditionary work and the conservation of African birds and is a Research Associate at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. In November 2016, Gabriel was part of an expedition to the Njesi Plateau in northern Mozambique with researchers from BINCO. Together with Sam Jones, they discovered new populations of the highly endangered Mozambican Tailorbird (Artisornis sousae) and Dapplethroat (Modulatrix orostruthus) as well as finding two species previously unrecorded from Mozambique.
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Denis Li

Born and raised in Mauritius, Denis LiDenis Li initially went to Toulouse, France to study medicine but in the end, found himself in biology and ecology, earning a master’s degree in biodiversity management. After an internship with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, he decided to pursue a career in conservation, saving endangered species (instead of people) in his country. He spent the following 11 years with the MWF, working on Pink Pigeons and other bird projects but mostly with the Mauritius Kestrel, which was his first conservation interest. Since September 2019, Denis has been working for Ebony Forest Reserve, where his scope of work has broadened from species focused projects to more holistic ecosystem restoration work.
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