Antbird Tours is a different kind of tour company.
Birds. Education. Compassion.
Education:
While completing my PhD in Ornithology, I began leading birding tours around the world. Although I saw my birding tours as an opportunity to disconnect from the work I did as a conservation scientist, which can be disheartening and stressful at times, I was always struck by how much my tours acted as mechanisms for effective conservation in their own right.
Employing locals to transport my groups, dispensing funds into communities poised to protect the abundant natural resources in their own backyard, and leading clients who witness issues of conservation importance first-hand, such as deforestation for agriculture, all served to infuse substantially more meaning into my tours.
I now focus on operating a handful of small group tours each year, where I engage local communities, provide my clients with an exciting and educational experience and aim to help change our world, one group at a time. And, of course, each trip is brimming with birds!
Compassion:
My passion extends far beyond the act of birding. Through my touring company, I seek to empower local communities to serve as effective stewards of their habitats through the recognition that great intrinsic value exists in nature. Beyond the often discussed “ecosystem services” that nature provides (clean water, air, food, etc), it has the capacity to enrich our lives through the simple fact that it exists. Our connection to nature has been severely degraded and Antbird Tours seeks to reestablish the relationship that is so essential to our well being and happiness. Come on an Antbird Tours excursion and discover the ways that the simple act of birding can help transform our world.
Birds:
If you are reading this, then you love birds. Personally, I am obsessed with them. Every aspect of avian anatomy, physiology, evolution and natural history fascinates me. It’s why I have devoted my entire career to studying them, conserving them and traveling the world to experience them. I am a trained scientist, but my connection to our feathered friends is rooted in deep emotion…something stirs in my soul when I watch a bird in flight or listen to the dawn chorus.
All of us who love birds have an intimate connection with them that is hard to describe to others. That is because our connection to birds is unique for each of us. My tours are designed to allow you the time and opportunity to commune with birds in new and exciting locations and solidify your personal relationship with them.
