Eldhose K.V.

Eldhose K.V. is a self-taught ornithologist and bird-photography guide based at Thattekad in Kerala, on the edge of the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary that the late Dr. Salim Ali famously called "the richest bird habitat in peninsular India." Eldhose has been birding the sanctuary's lowland forests since boyhood and now runs Eldhose Bird Tours and a small lodge geared specifically to visiting birders and photographers. He is best known to international photographers for the network of forest hides he has built around his property, where he reliably stakes out hard-to-photograph species such as Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Oriental Bay Owl, Mottled Wood Owl, and a roster of around a dozen owl species. Beyond the hides he leads multi-day expeditions across the Western Ghats covering roughly 300 species, including South Indian and Western Ghats endemics. His tours are pitched at both serious listers chasing endemics like the White-bellied Sholakili and at photographers wanting hide-based work on owls, kingfishers, and pittas.