Background "all in all it is a very "slick" piece of work. Very well done. "Thomas S. Schulenberg "...This amazing book ... is just crammed with useful, and accurate, information... " Robert S. Ridgely "...It is clear and concise, and should serve as a model for future bird finding books... " John O'Neill LAUNCHED AT THE RUTLAND 2004 BIRD FAIR http://www.birdfair.org.uk (2004 Events, Sunday's lectures) - featured in the Caretas Magazine

Academic
Thomas started his education in the forestry department of the Universidad Nacional Agraria-La Molina in Lima, where he obtained his degree in Forestry and plenty of field experience. An influential step in his ornithological career was a semester spent studying shorebirds in Puerto Rico on a course run by the Manomet Bird Observatory. Later he obtained a Masters degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University and is currently a doctoral student at the Museum of Natural Science at Louisiana State University.

Field
Thomas became a hard core birder, because he liked to travel all around Peru. While still in high school he started traveling into remote corners of Peru and has not stopped ever since. He started in the 90s traveling for the CDC (Conservation Data Center) on their rapid assessment programs as the ornithologist, has than worked for several companies as an ornithological consultant and since the year 2000 he has participated on the MNS-LSU bird expeditions to Peru.

Guiding
Guiding has also been one of Thomas’activities, that kept him busy while traveling around Peru. He really started guiding as a Resident Naturalist in the Explorer’s Inn (Tambopata river, Southeast Peru), where he spend 3 month in 1990. Later he was called to guide when German groups visited the area and soon other lodges started hiring him for special groups. Despite been already an experienced birder it was not until1995 that he started guiding birders. On that year he guided Jim Clements (Birds of the World: a checklist, 5th on the rank of people with largest bird lists), who was trying to increase his Peru list after over 9 times in the country. They together pioneered what is now known as the northern circuit. A long friendship evolved which not only resulted in another 3 long trips in search of the rarest birds, but also the seeds for Thomas’ Guide on “Where to watch birds in Peru” and Jim’s guide “A Field Guide to the Birds of Peru” were planted.
His reputation kept growing and despite being mostly abroad completing post graduate studies, he always found the time to guide bird groups. Inkantura Travel, hired him for most bird groups where he was around. In 1998, he started a series of long trips with Mark Sokol, the birder that has very likely seen more of Peru’s birds than anyone else. The latest trip was two weeks long and the target list was only 11 birds. Another trip with 5 target species is planed for 2006.