Meet Our Team
Justin Rhys Nicolau
Founder/Avifaunal Specialist
Justin Rhys Nicolau, obtained a BSc in Zoology & Botany, followed by an Honors degree in African Vertebrate Biodiversity. He is a professional bird guide (over 18 years of experience), who has lead tours across 4 continents (over 20 countries) and is well versed in field identification, ecology and bird calls and has a sound understanding of rigorous scientific data collection. He has served as an avifaunal and faunal specialist for consulting companies and NGOs in the past. He has led avifaunal research and atlassing projects both on mainland Africa, as well as conducted data collection out at sea to Antarctica and along the west coast from South Africa to Namibia. He sits on the South African Rare Bird Committee and serves as a South African provincial reviewer for Ebird (Free State, Northern Cape, and Eastern Cape). He has seen over 890 and 1500 species in the subregion of Southern Africa and in Africa respectively, whilst seeking out and maintaining high species lists for other terrestrial fauna and flora.
Tristan Silver
Ecologist
Tristan obtained an Honours degree in Biological Sciences from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is a passionate birder with over ten years of experience, during which he traveled across South Africa and abroad in search of birds. He has extensive knowledge of bird calls and field identification of birds. He spent one year at the Kalahari Research Centre in the southern Kalahari Desert, working as a field research assistant for the Kalahari Meerkat Project. There, he collected behavioural, life history, and vocalisation data on habituated, wild groups of Meerkats (Suricata suricatta). He is a dedicated, hard-working individual driven by the need to work diligently to accomplish meaningful tasks in a team or individually.