« Back to Leaders & Staff

Scott Olmstead

Scott Olmstead is a high school Spanish teacher who is always birding in the background. After finishing college with a degree in Latin American Studies, Scott headed straight to Costa Rica and began what would become a decades-long obsession with birding in the Neotropics. At first, seasons in Latin America were interspersed with field jobs in the US, including banding birds in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, counting migrating raptors over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and interpreting the spectacle of songbird migration for visitors to Cape May, New Jersey. A trip to Ecuador for the American Birding Association’s Young Adult Birder Conference provided an opportunity to try out tour leading and soon Scott found himself based in Quito, Ecuador while exploring and guiding in South America. This formative period helped establish a lifelong connection with Ecuador, and although he now lives in Arizona he maintains ties to Ecuador’s birds and birding community as a member of the Ecuadorian Ornithological Records Committee and an eBird volunteer reviewer.

Since 2009 Scott and his wife Erin have made their home in Tucson, where he shares his passion for language and culture as a high school Spanish teacher and head of the World Languages department at his school. He is a past member of the Arizona Bird Committee, currently serves on the board of Arizona Field Ornithologists, and contributes to Tucson Audubon Society as a longtime volunteer in many capacities, such as leading field trips and collecting data for the Desert Purple Martin Project.

Originally from Connecticut, Scott returns to New England regularly to watch birds and visit family. He is an avid sports fan, especially college basketball, and in addition to being a proud supporter of the Arizona Wildcats of his adopted hometown, he still closely follows the ups and downs of the UConn Huskies from afar. Scott’s birding-related side projects include sound recording, photography, and studying the local Great Horned Owl population in Tucson.

 

Upcoming Tours with Scott

Testimonials for Scott

Scott is a brilliant guide - knew all the birds both visually and by call/song recognition. Obviously it is difficult to please all birders at the same time as there is a range of experience but none of our group had ever been birding in Costa Rica...I definitely appreciated Scott’s efforts to make sure that we saw all the obvious birds plus many others of interest. Thoroughly enjoyable trip and Scott had a wonderful patient manner.

- William T. on Costa Rica in July

Scott knows everything and is more than generous in sharing his enthusiasm for birds and many other creatures. His never ending patience and kindness was monumental. I don't know how he could be any better!

- Sandie Z. on Costa Rica in July

It was incredible! Ecuador exceeded our expectations. This was our first official bird tour with a guide and other birders. We enjoyed having a variety of birding experience on our tour from beginner to expert. The amount of birds we saw (348!) was mind-numbing. Scott was very knowledgeable about Ecuadorean birds and his command of Spanish was a huge help. He was very thorough in keeping track of birds seen throughout the day and was extremely patient with guests. He was very accommodating and flexible!

- Debbie & Lon T. on Ecuador: Mindo and the Northwest Andes

Scott was phenomenal in locating the birds. I saw several on this tour that I thought I would never see in my life.

- David A. on Ecuador: Mindo and the Northwest Andes