About
Juan is a Colombian birding guide and a passionate advocate for birds and conservation. From his formative years in grade school, Juan was always attracted to the incredible biodiversity of his home country. He was a founding member of a local birding group called Aguilas, where he led walks as a student and excelled in identifying birds by sight and sound.
Based in the city of Pereira, he worked for several years as a nature and birding guide at the Otún Quimbaya Fauna and Flora Sanctuary. At that same time, he engaged in studies of tourism and heritage administration at UNISARC as well as music at the Technological University of Pereira. As his university education progressed, he became more serious about his educational pursuit of bird biology, focusing on bird communication and migration.
He is also a co-founder of an NGO called the Yarumo Blanco Community Association, an organization whose objectives support and promote responsible tourism development, conservation, and nature education in the Otún river basin of Pereira. Moreover, Juan is opening up new worlds of birding in Colombia, helping to pioneer and develop new birding routes in the Amazon and Orinoquia regions of the country