Rich Hoyer
Before birds, Rich Hoyer had discovered reptiles, amphibians, bugs, plants and other creepy crawly things, most of which he and his brother kept in cages in their bedroom. He could identify at least 20 species of birds too, until a move to northern California at the age of 14 led to the discovery of a Plain Titmouse, the one that got him hooked on birding.
Combining a love of languages and natural history, Rich Hoyer completed a double major in German and Zoology at Oregon State University. He worked on various “biobum” jobs doing bird surveys in places such as southeastern Arizona, western Oregon, California and western Russia. His first professional guiding job during the summers of 1996 and 1997 was as a natural history interpreter on St. Paul Island in Alaska’s Pribilofs, where he guided birding groups, explained the life history of the Northern Fur-Seal to German tourists and discovered North America’s first Chinese Pond-Heron. He has been a field leader for WINGS since September 1997.
Rich has also studied Spanish and recently added Portuguese, honing his language skills at a school in the state of Alagoas, Brazil as well as during a two-month volunteer guiding job at Cristalino Jungle Lodge in Mato Grosso.
Today when Rich is at home between tours in Tucson, Arizona, he sings English madrigals with a group of friends and occasionally makes use of his several years of piano lessons. He also loves to garden and bake bread (skills from his mother) and will rarely miss an opportunity to catch a lizard or snake (influence from his father). When leading tours, Rich also enjoys pointing out butterflies, dragonflies and plants, provided of course, there’s a break in the birding. The diversity of his natural history interests is well represented in Rich’s blog, Birdernaturalist.
Tours
- Alaska: Gambell
- Alaska, Birding the Last Frontier NEW!
- Costa Rica: Snowcaps and Sea TurtlesNEW!
- Brazil: Cristalino Jungle Lodge
- Peru: The Manu Biosphere Reserve and Machu Picchu
- Bolivia: The Peak of DiversityNEW!
- Jamaica: Butterflies and BirdsNEW!
- Oregon
- Oregon: Birds and the Shakespeare Festival
- Jamaica
- Brazil: The Northeast - Alagoas to Ceará
- The Galápagos Islands, A WINGS Charter
- Mexico: Oaxaca and Western Chiapas
- Brazil: Cristalino Jungle Lodge - Butterflies and Birds
- Belize: The Birds of Chan Chich
- Peru: The North, Marvelous Spatuletail and the Search for Long-whiskered Owlet
- Peru: Machu Picchu and Abra Malaga
- Peru: The Northeast, Explornapo Lodge, the Canopy Walkway and Mishana White Sands Forest
- Brazil: Bahia and Sergipe
- Mexico: Butterflies and Birds, Gómez Farías and the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve
- Mexico: The Yucatán and Cozumel
- Mexico: Oaxaca at Christmastime
- Costa Rica in March
- Mexico: Gómez Farías and the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve