Callan is the co-founder and director of Birding Africa. When not based in the Cape Town office, he leads tours across the continent, from Cape Town to Cameroon.

In addition to leading tours for Birding Africa, Callan has also guided for prestigious UK, USA and Scandinavian bird tour companies, such as Limosa, Sunbird, Zegrahms Eco Expeditions, BirdQuest and the Danish Ornithological Society. Callan has acted as a consultant for the BBC Natural History Unit and has even shown Bill Oddie some of the birds around Cape Town!

Together with Claire Spottiswoode, he has authored a birding guide to the areas from Cape Town to the Kalahari (Essential Birding - Western South Africa, Struik Publishers, 2000, see www.capebirdingroute.org for more information) and they've recently finished expanding this concept for the Southern African Birdfinder, a book on where to watch birds in the southern third of Africa and Madagascar that is becomming a bible for amateurs and birding guides alike.

Callan has spent much of his life traveling to the remotest parts of Africa in search of birds, and is also based at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of Ornithology at the University of Cape Town as a research student, investigating the systematics and biogeography of the bustard family and avian evolutionary patterns across Africa’s arid zones.

He was born in Cape Town and became a dedicated birder at a very young age, at the time becoming the youngest person to see the landmark 800 species in southern Africa. Callan is a past chairman of the Cape Bird Club and the current chairman of the Western Cape Rarities Committee. However, he’s also dedicated natural historian and has a passion for all things natural, notably mammals, frogs, reptiles, and the plants of the Cape Floral Kingdom and Karoo semi-desert.

Callan Cohen's partner and primatologist Deirdre lives in Cape Town, where she assists as a guide and in the Birding Africa office, specialising in African and Madagascan mammals (the lemurs rate among her favourites).

Her passion and previous work in conservation ecology led her to study Water Buffalo in India, Pronghorn Antelopes in Montana, and African Elephants and Painted Hunting Dogs in southern and eastern Africa, as well as our closest living relatives, Bonobos, in the jungles of the Congo.

Deirdre holds a Masters of Science degree in Environmental Biology from the Brussels Free University, and a Masters degree in Ecology from the University of California at Davis, where she has also completed the coursework in the Conservation Ecology PhD programme. She has started PhD research on bonobos ecology at the primatology department of Leipzig's Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology.

Fluent in English, French and Dutch, Deirdre teams up with Callan to co-lead tours to Madagascar where her expertise in lemurs will add an extra dimension to the tour. She also co-leads tours in other primate-focused or French speaking destinations.

Marje comes from a corporate publishing background, initially at Struik Publishers and more recently as production manager at Getaway travel magazine. So she brings a wealth of experience and professionalism with her and is a great asset to the company.

Marje has had a life-long interest in birds, but it took a trip to Kruger Park with her husband to realise how much more there is besides big and hairies, and she hasn't looked back since! Marje has been birding for more than 20 years, and covered the length and breadth of southern Africa. She, like the rest of us, loves travel and goes birding far and wide whenever she can. These passions make her the perfect person to work as a travel consultant in a birding tour company.

Michael splits his time between guiding and setting up tours for Birding Africa, and conducting research on birds. He holds a masters degree in Conservation Biology at the University of Cape Town, and is preparing to pursue a PhD in bird conservation at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute for African Ornithology.

His interest in wildlife was sparked at a young age, having grown up in the Kalahari Gemsbok and Kruger National Parks. He has lived in Kruger for 15 years, and know's the area's birds and wildlife intimately. He has also travelled extensively, to 16 countries in Africa, plus Madagascar, Sao Tome and Principe, The Philippines, India, Argentina, Ecuador and the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica.

Besides birds, he has a strong interest in mammals, particularly in small carnivores and African primates. Since 1997, he has lived in Cape Town

Ross is one of South Africa's most experienced seabirders, having spent years doing ornithological research on islands, including Marion, Bouvet and Gough in the Southern Ocean, Aldabra in the Seychelles and Galapagos, Anacapa, Guadalupe, Clarion and Socorro in the Pacific. Ross thus has an intimate knowledge and experience on the world's richest seabirding grounds.

Ross is also superbly suited to be an Indian Ocean birding guide, having lived nearly a year on the remote island of Aldabra (studying the endemic flightless rail as part of his Masters research) and birded extensively on the Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion and the Comores.

He regularly writes for popular birding and environmental magazines, while his research interests include conservation and ecology of island systems, seabird ecology, invasion biology and evolutionary biology. He obtained his PhD from the Percy FiitzPatrick Institute at the University of Cape Town for his work on the astonishing impacts of predatory mice on the endemic seabirds of Gough Island - the Tristan Albatross and Atlantic Petrel.

Cliff is one of the leading birders and naturalists in the Cape and has extensive experience in Southern African birding. His main career is Nature Conservation where he is charged with managing and protecting many of Cape Town's most biodiverse areas.He is passionate about all things natural, from birds to botany.

Cliff is widely travelled and has put in a lot of time at and on remote islands, and he is a regular guide on Cape Town Pelagics trips as well as leading birding trips around southern Africa.

Cape Town-born Claire is a co-founder of Birding Africa and is currently based in Cambridge where she completed her PhD and now pursues her academic career. Birding is still a major passion for Claire and she leads tours and does scouting missions to out-of-the-way places whenever she can (which as far as the birding world is concerned is not often enough!)

Ian Sinclair has the highest African bird list and is a renowned birding tour leader. Ian spent six months on Marion Island in the 1970s and has been back for shorter trips many times. He is a veteran of numerous trips to Antarctica and co-leads our trips on the SA Agulhas.

Dalton Gibbs is a conservator for the City of Cape Town and runs Rondevlei Nature Reserve, where, apart from ensuring Cape Town’s last protected areas remain intact, his responsibilities include monitoring bird breeding colonies and chasing down escaped hippos!

Dalton is a superb naturalist with a deep interest in all living things and their systems - making him a hihgly valued guide for Birding Africa and a favourite with tour participants. Dalton leads many of our tours around Cape Town, and as long as he buys his wife another rose bush for each excursion, is gearing up to lead trips in Uganda and Madagascar.

Joe grew up in northern South Africa and since a very young age showed a great passion for the natural environment around him. He is qualified in conservation and wildlife management and has a Master's in ornithology. Joe has been involved in a vast array of wildlife related activities ranging from field research in the Kruger National Park, game capture and translocation, field guide training, management of large private game reserves and environmental management for local government.

Joe is based in the Limpopo Province, were he has been instrumental in establishing birding routes, bird clubs and bird watching sites. He has designed organized and conducted birding and other eco-safaris across southern Africa for over twenty years and still enjoys every excursion as much as his clients do.

You might remember Callan's birding buddy David, who worked for Birding Africa and took many of you guiding while he was studying for his MBA. Dave is now donning a suit and working for a multinational corporation, but still enjoys his raptor watching as much as ever when he gets a chance!

Many of you will remember Eve, who was our Operations Manager for many years. Although Eve no longer works in the office, we are still in regular contact with her. Eve is well, and now has two gorgeous baby girls, Megan (pictured here) and Sydney, to keep her on her toes.