Soner Bekir is an enthusiastic birdwatcher and photographer, studied businessin Ege University. During his years as a student, he has established a bird watching club with some colleagues in his university, led student groups interested in watching and learning about birds and guided birdwatchers from abroad all over Turkey.

He enjoys to spend his time with birdwatchers and to show or discover new species of birds in Turkey. He has been birding since 1996, traveled Turkey extensively and has birding experience throughout Turkey. Soner has worked for many birding projects with NGOs to protect birds and their habitats. Being an avid explorer for so long, he is acquainted with Turkey's avifauna and habitats very well. He led the first Turkish-based birding tour in 2005 in Turkey, along with Cagan H. Sekercioglu, the first trip of its kind (results are in "www.turkishbirding.com" web site).

Soner has worked as a consultant for Tourism Development in Eastern Anatolia Project in 2005 and spent 3 months in Choruh Valley for the determination of fall migration routes. Furthermore, the same year, he worked as the bird photographer within the framework of the Baku-Tiflis-Ceyhan pipeline's Awareness Raising regarding Biodiversiy and Natural Resources project. He has great pleasure to show a bird to any keen birder, and he decided that he will continue to show birds and share his knowledge with the other birders and improve himself more and more.

He has much experience about eco-tourism, free diving, camping, trekking, rarest bird houses in Turkey and Greece. Now, he has been working for a freelance guide in every part of Turkey. He is also preparing long distance(7 to 22 days)twitching tours, which are including central, eastern, soutern east and Black-sea region and migration tours, included 3 bottleneck in Turkey. All of them are depending on clients birding list and requests.

 

I am a freelance ornithological editor and tour-leader, based part in the UK and part in Brazil. I was one of the original founders of the Neotropical Bird Club (http://www.neotropicalbirdclub.org/) and have served as the Managing Editor of its journal, Cotinga, since 1997, as well as on the editorial board of its recently launched birding magazine, Neotropical Birding. Since 2004, I have also been the incumbent editor of the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club (http://www.boc-online.org/), one of the world's premier ornithological journals specialising in taxonomy, nomenclature and distribution. Together with Ron Demey, I am also involved in editing the Bulletin of the African Bird Club (check their website, http://www.africanbirdclub.org/, for information about the journal and birds throughout the African continent). Between 1996 and the end of 2004 I was the editor of Sandgrouse, the journal of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East (http://www.osme.org/). I retain a strong interest in the Middle Eastern avifauna and continue to publish on the taxonomy and distribution of the birds of this region.

The main focus of my current field work is South America and the Caribbean. In particular, I have been visiting Brazil regularly since 1995, spending up to six months per year there since 1998, both guiding birdwatchers and conducting research. Thus, for part of the year I am based in Rio de Janeiro, where my partner and I have a house in São Conrado. I have also travelled extensively elsewhere in the Neotropical region, especially to the Greater Antilles (over one year in the field in Cuba alone), Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. I am a regular contributor to the periodical literature on Neotropical birds, and have published papers on distribution, taxonomy and biology. During the past 15 years, I have gained extensive field experience of most taxa in Brazil. Although available to guide trips throughout the country (and elsewhere, see 'Tour-leading'), my specialty is in the birds of the Atlantic Forest and the Caatinga and Cerrado biomes. For more information see the outline and some recent trip reports at http://www.freewebs.com/guykirwan/tourleading.htm.

I lead both scheduled trips (see, for instance, www.ornifolks.org) and privately organised groups, particularly in SE Brazil, but also elsewhere in Latin America, as well as in the Western Palearctic, where I am one of the foremost experts on Turkish birds.

Hasan Safak lives in the Aladag Mountains, Central Turkey. For over 10 years, Hasan takes the guided tours into the mountains for people interested in birdwatching, walking or climbing. Having organized hundreds of tailor-made birding trips to the area, he knows the mountains extremely well and will take you directly to the areas for the mountain birds.

He also owns a small mountain pension just off the Cukurbag village for birders. Nearest city is Nigde. He has a tractor and a 4 wheel drive vehicle for the tours. He can take you to many birding areas in the Central Turkey. But, the most popular tour is the one that includes famous Caspian Snowcock in Aladag Mountains. The area is a superb home also to Crimson-winged Finch, Radde's Accentor, Alpine Acentor, Snowfinch, Shore Lark, Lammergeier, Wallcreeper, Golden Eagle, Griffon Vulture, Red-Fronted Serin and hundreds of other birds. The altitude is just under 5000 feet.

Rates include accomodation and is very reasonable. For further information or to discuss a trip contact hsafak@e-kolay.net