Professional ornithologist and ecologist, based in Ellington, UK. I run my own Ecological Consultancy, Stuart Elsom Ecology, providing specialist advice and expert guidance regarding the status and conservation of protected species on development projects, the mitigation measures required and wider conservation management strategies, both here in UK and overseas.

A birder for over 45 years, Tour Leader for 25 years and Wildlife Photographer for 20 years. I have an appreciation of all things in the natural world. Although my specialism is in birds, my MSc in Biological Recording concentrated on invertebrates with the habitats and ecology studied in detail. My final thesis was centered around the effects of discontinuous habitat on pollinators, specifically hoverflies of the genus eristalis.

I am a Member of CIEEM and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Biology in 2013. In 2011 I was awarded my Licentiate Distinction (LRPS) by the Royal Photographic Society for a panel of wildlife images. In 2016 two of my images were shortlisted and made the last 32 of the Bird Photographer of the year competition which featured over 7000 images from photographers in 100 countries.

Since 1989 I have been taking regular birding trips overseas, leading my first tour just over 25 years ago. Since then I have visited over 65 countries and have seen over 5000 species of bird, depending on which taxonomy you use of course. Of that 5150 or so, I have photographed just over 3300 and have a stock library of over 165,000 images. In addition my non-bird taxa takes me to around 6500 species worldwide.

For 20 years I was a staff-leader for UK Tour Operator, Sunbird. I now lead Birdwatching and specialist photographic tours for Rockjumper: www.rockjumperbirding.com/about/tour-leaders/tour-leader-.... Tour destinations, past and present include the following:

Peru

Brazil

Argentina

Paraguay

Colombia

Panama

Costa Rica

Honduras

Guatemala

Belize

Cuba (March and October)

St Lucia and St Vincent

Puerto Rico

Texas

Ohio

Ontario

Manitoba

Sri Lanka

India

Japan

Thailand

Belarus

Hungary and Slovakia

Finland and Norway

Sicily

Poland

Ghana

Tanzania

Kenya

Gambia

South Africa

Morocco

More can be found about me and my tours on my website. I'm an active contributor to eBird and IgoTerra, with my profiles for each as follows: eBird: ebird.org/profile/OTYyMTI0/world IgoTerra: www.igoterra.com/user_profile.asp