ABOUT US

White-headed Woodpecker © Robert Royse

Professional Birding Guides

California Birding Guides is all about following passions—our passion for nature, exploring beautiful places, discovering amazing birds, capturing the perfect photo, and creating lasting memories. We’re honored to share our love for California birds with you!

Jodhan Fine – Guide

Jodhan Fine is a 20-year-old birder and naturalist. Born and raised in Albuquerque, Jodhan lived in New Mexico until moving to Los Angeles in 2021, where he immersed himself in California’s rich avian diversity. A nature lover since birth and a birder since 2016, Jodhan loves showing people new places and species, and derives as much excitement from finding a friend a lifer as from seeing his own...

He appreciates any opportunity to look at birds but especially enjoys birding on pelagics, at migrant traps, or in coastal wetlands. Jodhan has been fortunate to travel across the globe, but with an abundance of birds to find and new places to explore never tires of local birding.

Jodhan is a regional reviewer for New Mexico, a New Mexico bird records committee member, a co-compiler of New Mexico’s NAB regional reports, and a former Central New Mexico Audubon Society board member. He’s an occasional author for ABA journals and Western Birds, and recently completed a small native bird guide for a local Los Angeles land conservancy. Jodhan researched nest parasitism of Bell’s Vireo back home in New Mexico and has spent the last few years studying wildlife corridors and connectivity in LA’s urban ecosystem.

Bobby Figarotta – Guide

After moving to the West Coast from New Jersey at the age of 12, Bobby has spent over a decade naturalizing and chasing rare birds up and down the golden state. He loves exploring new habitats and discovering how birds interact with the unique ecosystems California has to offer. Bobby particularly enjoys discovering how common birds are reacting to human pressures and how distributions of birds are changing in response to climate...

He also loves getting friends and clients lifers and is ecstatic about showing people the habitats he loves! Bobby has worked and volunteered for the National Park Service, various Audubon chapters, and environmental consulting firms. He has led walks throughout several wild areas, conducted countless field surveys, and spent thousands of hours in the field both professionally and in his down time.

Emmett Iverson – Guide

Emmett was born and raised in the land of Yellow-billed Magpies and Nuttall’s Woodpeckers…the Central Valley of California. His introduction to birding came in the form of a gifted Sibley guide and his grandmother’s feeder in Maine. Enamored by a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, he returned to California only to discover that we have the west coast counterpart, Black-head Grosbeaks. This sparked an early interest in the status and distribution of birds and he never looked back...

Emmett has spent summers doing avian technician field jobs trapping and collaring Dusky Grouse in Nevada as well as doing point count surveys throughout Northern California. Emmett is an eBird regional reviewer for Yolo County, California and leads field trips for local Audubon societies regularly. He recently graduated with a bachelors from Cal Poly Humboldt in wildlife conservation biology. In his free time he enjoys looking for vagrants (rare birds) along the coasts and in the deserts of California and arguing with friends about what the next first state record for California will be.

Sammy Cowell – Guide

A Southern California native, Sammy has always had an interest in wildlife and birds, compiling yard lists and lifers throughout his younger years. In college, his passion for birding began to really take hold when he took an ornithology course in northern Michigan and got his first research experience conducting point counts and transects...

He took a gap year between undergraduate and graduate school, working as a point count technician for the Intermountain Bird Observatory in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho. For his M.S., Sammy studied nesting behavior of White-headed and Black-backed Woodpeckers in the Eastern Cascades of Washington.

After graduate school, he returned to the Los Angeles area to begin teaching biology at Oxnard College and Cal State University Channel Islands. He is actively involved in the local Audubon chapters and serves on the board of the Conejo Valley Audubon Society as the Field Trips Coordinator.

While the Los Angeles area is his main stomping grounds, Sammy has explored large swaths of California throughout his whole life and is excited to help others discovery the rich biodiversity this state has to offer!

Otto Mayer – Guide

Otto was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Oregon where he spent the majority of his young birding years exploring the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest. As a child he saw a Northern Flicker in his backyard and immediately fell in love with birds and their fascinating diversity. At age 17 he moved back to Los Angeles, where he’s been intensively birding ever since, enjoying every bit of its incredible natural environment...

Otto has also been lucky to bird all over the US. He has assisted with Audubon surveys, conducted shorebird ID workshops, participated in Christmas Bird Counts, and led field trips in Oregon, California, Florida and Wisconsin. In 2023 he had the wonderful opportunity to work as a local bird guide conducting private bird tours in Iberia. Otto has a keen interest in all things nature—including herpetology and conservation issues.

Felipe Guerrero – Owner & Guide

Felipe started his birding career 17 years ago as a college student studying natural history and ecology in Prescott, Arizona. The more he learned about birds the more he discovered about himself and his passion for exploring the natural world around us and sharing the experience with others...

After several years of avian field surveys, graduate school, adventures in non-profit environmental education, and countless birding trips across the US and to destinations such as Chile, northern Mexico, and Dominican Republic, he started what would become American Birding Guides in 2018.

Having family in the bay area, Felipe has looked forward to his many visits to California since he was a child. In adulthood, his rediscovery of this beautiful part of the country in the context of its staggering biological diversity has inspired a new and exciting relationship with the Golden State and its birds.

Felipe is the owner and lead guide of American Birding Guides and California Birding Guides. He is currently a member of the Arizona Bird Committee, and a former eBird reviewer for Yavapai, Navajo, and Apache Counties. In the past he served as Field Expeditions Chair and board member for Arizona Field Ornithologists, as well as board member for Prescott Audubon Society.