Rodrigo Tapia  was born in Valparaíso, a 16th century port city in the middle of a beautiful bay facing the Pacific coast of Central Chile.

Since he was a child he showed a great interest in wildlife, and living by the seaside provided him of a unique chance to get acquainted first hand with shorebirds, seabirds and waders. Combining his walks to the seashore with weekend trips to the countryside and the Andes, he started watching and studying birds before the age of ten, and has been doing so for about 30 years now.

He studied Biology at UCV Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and has a diploma in Bird Biology from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

As a biologist he has worked as a field researcher for years, having been involved in many ornithological research projects and field studies in a number of ornithological subjects like migration, seasonal distribution and abundance of populations, especially in species related to wetland and estuary environments, and he’ s been published in the Chilean Ornithological Bulletin.This field research work has led him to every region, environment and ecosystem in Chile, from the northern Altiplano and Atacama Desert to Cape Horn and the chilled Tierra del Fuego, and from the Andean heights to the waters of the Humboldt Current in the Pacific, and also to Antarctica, where he´s been more than 20 times since 1992 and has conducted studies on territorial, breeding and feeding behaviour of both South Polar and Brown Skuas and seasonal records on occurrence, abundance and distribution of Tubenoses and other Seabirds in the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, Drake Passage and Cape Horn area.

Rodrigo is a member of the Chilean Ornithologists Union, UNORCH. He speaks fluent English and Spanish.

He works as birding guide in Chile, as an ornithological consultant and guide instructor for the renowned Explora hotels in Atacama and Torres del Paine, and as a lecturer and wildlife guide on board expedition vessels going to Southern Patagonia and Antarctica. He also works in environmental education projects with schools.

Rodrigo is currently based in Viña del Mar.

rtapia@humboldtpelagics.com  

Rodrigo Reyes  is a Landscape Architect by profession, but has been studying birds since he was a child.

He is native from Viña del Mar, one of Central Chile’s most important cities, but his interest in birds began at the age of eleven in Sweden, where he was especially attracted to crows (Corvidae).

Since his return to Chile, Rodrigo’s interest began to move naturally from that magnificent representation of the European birds to the study of Chilean birds. Now he is a great connoisseur of the Chilean birds and in particular of the birds from Central Chile, having gathered a vast field experience over more than ten years. He has worked in several ornithological projects, such as abundance of bird populations in coastal wetlands in Central Chile, ornithological expeditions in the Central Andes and Chilean Patagonia, studies on breeding behaviour and fledgling stage in the endemic Chilean Mockingbird, and has been developing an inventory and census of the birds of La Campana National Park, among other projects.

In his landscaping work, he designs harmonically with the environment, to obtain an interrelation between the vegetation and the birds.

He also works in environmental education projects with schools.

Rodrigo is a member of the Chilean Ornithologists Union, UNORCH.
He speaks fluent English, Swedish and Spanish.
He is currently based in Viña del Mar.

rreyes@humboldtpelagics.com