About us

Martin Kelsey started birding as a small boy over forty years ago and since then he has birded in five continents. After studying ecology at the University of East Anglia, he went on to the Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology in Oxford to complete a doctorate on the ecology of Marsh Warblers. He subsequently spent three years studying birds in the Amazon rainforest with the British Ornithologists' Union, where he met Claudia. Returning to the UK, he worked for BirdLife International for five years, before joining Save the Children UK, spending four years living in Colombia and then four years in India, as well as a short spell in Ethiopia. He was awarded the OBE in 2001. A founder member and first Chairman of the Neotropical Bird Club, he has been an active member of bird clubs and societies everywhere he has lived, as well as having written a number of papers, articles and contributions to books on birds.

Claudia Camacho grew up in Colombia and has long been active in ecotourism and outdoor recreational work. She studied Hotel Administration and Tourism at the Universidad Externado in Bogotá and did research on UK Bird Tour companies. She worked in a travel agency specialising in ecotourism and wildlife tours in Colombia and was the local organiser for the first commercial bird tours ever to go to Colombia, run over four years by Birdquest. Her other interests include football and Reiki, an ancient healing art which she studied in India.

Patrick Kelsey was born in India in 2000 and by the time he was three, he was already describing the plumage of sunbirds in the garden. However, he also has a keen interest in trains and dinosaurs.