ABOUT US

Long-billed Thrasher © Robert Royse

Professional Birding Guides

Texas Birding Guides is all about following passions—our passion for nature, exploring beautiful places, discovering amazing birds, capturing the perfect photo, and creating lasting memories. We’re honored to share our love for Texas birds with you!

Nolan Walker – Guide

Nolan hails from Tennessee where he began birding at the tender age of 9. Over the years he found himself in such famous eastern birding destinations as Cape May and the Outer Banks, absorbing all he could about the birds and wildlife of these celebrated areas. In 2018 Nolan moved to Vail, Arizona, and immersed himself in the birds and habitats of Arizona. Since he has come to learn much about their distribution and identification.

Migration, especially morning flight, but also seawatching, hawkwatching, and listening to nocturnal flight calls are particularly fascinating for Nolan. In his adventures around the county he fell in love with birding in Texas (like so many of us do) and is continuously learning about the rich avian diversity within its bounds. When in the field with clients, Nolan loves nothing more than sharing amazing experiences and seeing the look of joy on their faces when they get a new bird!

Nolan is a guide for Texas Birding Guides and Arizona Birding Guides. He is an eBird reviewer for Graham County in Arizona, helped compile data for various CBCs and spring/fall counts, and regularly leads field trips for birding festivals and other groups.

Justin Bosler – Guide

There's nothing Justin would rather be doing than birding, and especially so anywhere in his home state of Texas. His passion for birding developed as a young boy in his parent's Pennsylvania backyard. The local, nearctic-neotropical breeders, such as Great Crested Flycatcher, Wood Thrush and Baltimore Oriole, with their vibrant colors and melodious songs, sparked his interest in birds at an early age. Now, about 30 years later with a Bachelor's degree from LSU and a boatload of field experience, he's a fully-fledged wildlife biologist, Master Naturalist and birding guide residing in San Marcos, Texas with his wife and two dogs.

He fondly remembers his first birding trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley with his twin brother and father over two decades ago. Nowadays, he tries to bird as much as feasibly possible in the Lone Star State and throughout the world (most recently in southwestern India). Perhaps foolishly, he has taken up county and parish listing, between Texas and Louisiana, respectively, which also feeds his desire to learn more about species identification, as well as their status and distribution.

Cameron Johnson – Guide

Cameron was born and raised in Dallas, Texas where from a young age he sought out pockets of wildlife in an otherwise urbanized community. The awe and admiration he felt witnessing large migratory flocks of Snow and Ross’s Geese spurred what would become a lifelong interest in birding and ornithology. Since then, he has dedicated his time and effort exploring birdlife and ecosystems across North America.

Cameron has extensive professional and personal birding experience in Southern California, Southeastern Arizona, and the entirety of Texas. He is particularly fond of and interested in the behavior and ecology of secretive species like rails, trogons, and cuckoos. His favorite aspect of birding is creating and sharing unique, memorable experiences with those around him.

With a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University, Cameron has conducted ornithological fieldwork in Texas, Arizona, California, Florida, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Although he has birding experience across the country, his greatest ambitions remain in Texas, where he is attempting to record as many species as possible within his home state.

David Tonnessen – Guide

Starting his birding endeavors in Colorado, David was fortunate to then travel to many other states and provinces across North America for the sole purpose of his hobby, primarily in the US and Mexico. He is passionate about the incredibly varied birdlife and ecosystems of this great continent and continuously seeks to deepen his knowledge and share it with others. Currently he is based in the Big Bend region of Texas.

David is a guide for Texas Birding Guides and guides through various festivals and events. He serves on the records committee and is an eBird reviewer for the state of Colorado, and helps train the Merlin Sound ID algorithm for Cornell University. He also maintains the “Field Marks” column for the Colorado Birds journal, which discuss es subtle and challenging field identification topics. Currently, he is a graduate student and his broader academic interests include passive acoustic monitoring, evolution, phylogeny, and migration. His bio picture is from the Sierra de Perija, straddling the Columbia-Venezuela border.

Nick Glover – Guide

Nick has had a lifelong interest in birds ranging from actively birding, to aviculture, to ornithological research. His first bird list was recorded by his mother in 1997 when, at the age of 4, he began matching photos in a field guide to the birds he saw in their Massachusetts backyard. After spending the latter half of his youth in Pennsylvania, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology and has been working in avian research ever since...

Since late 2016, Nick has been working as a Research Specialist supporting population recovery efforts of Black-capped Vireos on Fort Cavazos (née Hood) and has used that convenient central Texas location to bird extensively throughout the state and beyond as much as possible. He is particularly fond of the Trans-Pecos region and enjoys exploring under-birded areas anywhere.

Liam Wolff – Guide

Liam Wolff’s birding journey began at 8 years old in the coastal plain of Georgia when spirited Mississippi Kites captured his fascination as they tossed about in the wind over his backyard. This fascination with identifying backyard birds transformed into an obsession by the time he was a teenager and shaped his career as a conservation ornithologist....

Liam now enjoys life in the “Birdiest City in America” (Corpus Christi, Texas) where he spends his free time county birding, chasing neotropical migrants, and sharing the Sparkling City by the Sea with visiting birders. As president of a local conservation non-profit, he also has the opportunity to lead field trips for members of that organization. Liam enjoys traveling internationally too and has a special fondness for the diverse, range-restricted endemic birds of Mexico.

Liam is a researcher at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and president of the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi. He is an eBird regional reviewer for 19 counties in Georgia and a state hotspot editor for Georgia as well. Liam also serves as a curator on iNaturalist specializing in mosquito taxonomy and an editor for the Birding Hotspots website.

Kadynn Hatfield – Guide

Kadynn was raised in Iowa and started birding at 14. He remembers the day a friend taught him the physical differences between Lincoln and Song Sparrows and from that moment on he was hooked. He soon found himself attending young birder camps, club meetings, and bird banding programs. Soon after he was leading bird walks and giving presentations to groups in high school, cultivating his love of birds and sharing it with others…

Now 22 years old, Kaydnn has endeavored to see birds across the continent; on their breeding territories, en route in migration, and on their wintering grounds. His travels in pursuit of birds have taken him from east to west across North America and as far south as Belize. Kadynn calls Arizona home but he has been enamored with Texas since his first visit in 2017. In fact, Kadynn would say it is his favorite state to go birding! Kadynn has a deep appreciation of the avian world and he especially loves helping others reach their birding goals.

Kadynn is a guide for Texas Birding Guides and Arizona Birding Guides. He is an eBird state reviewer for Iowa, and worked with waterfowl and game birds in captivity for several years. He has volunteered as a hawkwatcher, regularly participates in CBCs and enjoyed a season of guiding for Sandhill Cranes on the Platte River.

Jake Thompson – Guide

Jake is an Arizona born and bred naturalist and has fostered a love of the southwest and its varied habitats and inhabitants throughout his life. From Sonoran and Chihuahuan desertscrub to Madrean Sky Islands and Rio Grande Resacas, Jake’s enthusiasm for birding and exploring is contagious to all. His years learning about the avifauna of the US has taken him to such varied states as California, Florida, and Minnesota, and, of course, to Mexico on several occasions...

Jake is passionate about wildlife conservation and education, always looking to bring that appreciation to others through birding. He also thoroughly enjoys surveying for bird species at the limits of their ranges and maximizing species diversity on every trip. Whether it’s staking out a Hook-billed kite or getting a 100-species list at Estero Llano, Jake is prepared to provide you with an ideal birding experience!

Jake has participated in Arizona Game and Fish Department survey point counts as well as contributed to Arizona’s Breeding Bird Survey program. Jake is also a board member for Desert Rivers Audubon Society.

Felipe Guerrero – Owner & Guide

Felipe started birding 17 years ago as a bright-eyed college student studying natural history and ecology in Arizona. He was fortunate to have the guidance of a professor and academic advisor madly in love with the natural world and especially birds. The more he learned about birds the more he discovered about himself and his passion for exploring the amazing world around us and sharing that experience with others...

Through years of field work, graduate school, non-profit adventures, and countless birding trips to the most remote and under-birded corners of the Southwest and Northern Mexico, Arizona Birding Tours was born in 2018 followed by Texas Birding Guides in 2023. Felipe love birds and loves sharing the excitement and good times of birding with his clients. Birding with Felipe isn’t just about seeking specialty birds, it’s about celebrating the astonishingly diverse biological treasures we are all so fortunate to be a part of.

Felipe is the founder of Texas Birding Guides and Arizona Birding Guides. He is currently a member of the Arizona Bird Committee, and an eBird reviewer for Yavapai, Navajo, and Apache Counties. In the past he served as Field Expeditions Chair and board member for Arizona Field Ornithologists, as well as board member for Prescott Audubon Society.