Evan Obercian

Evan Obercian was born and raised on the farms and in the leafy forests in the hills of New Jersey.  A very early boyish love for wildlife, especially for the snakes in the garden, the mice in the barn, and the swifts in the chimney, lead him to discover, one glorious May morning, an incredible cast of characters inhabiting the woods around his house, the neotropical bird migrants.  As if by magic, seemingly all the unfathomable creatures he had come to know in books had appeared among the leaves.  This early realization, that the greatest mysteries of the Earth are right there for him to uncover, has never left him, nor has the desire to express this love.  Recognizing these things, a teacher in the school referred him to a sagacious man who would become his mentor.  Soon even the ocean was unveiling her secrets to the young boy.  Since these early days, Evan has continued as a student of Nature.  After his schooling, he began traveling extensively — to Asia, Africa, all over Europe, and the Americas, often taking odd jobs in order to stay on the road and pursue his passions for  Art, Nature, and adventure.  He also would spend many seasons at Cape May, counting songbirds and developing an intimate knowledge of American birds, in particular their vocalizations.  While traveling in Bolivia he found a Swedish bird and soon married her, went into farming near his homeland, and also spent several years in Sweden, sometimes working with birds  at Falsterbo.  His greatest experiences over the years have been in areas of remote wilderness, and encountering birds around a primitive camp, in their original roles in these remaining bits of Paradise (and boyishly searching for their nests) is, to him, happiness.  Alternately working as a farmer, a carpenter, an arborist, and a cook, when not on tour, he now lives with his wife and their daughter in a mountainous part of the Maine coast, where he continues to search for ways to express the deep love that came to him as a youth.

Testimonials for Evan