Lelis Navarrete

Lelis Navarrete is one of Ecuador's most senior freelance bird guides, with roughly two decades of professional guiding and a biology degree from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador in Quito. He is widely cited as one of the finest birding guides in South America and is regularly contracted by international tour companies; he is also the co-author, with Miles McMullan, of the standard Fieldbook of the Birds of Ecuador including the Galapagos Islands. Navarrete worked with ornithologist Robert Ridgely on the discovery of the Jocotoco Antpitta — a species new to science — and on first records of Crested Becard and Spot-throated Hummingbird for Ecuador. He has served on the Board of the Jocotoco Foundation since its founding. Clients commonly cite his recall of an estimated 2,400 South American bird species and nearly 8,000 vocalizations, and he guides regularly across Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, and Panama.