BirdGuides Limited is a British company that produces videos, books and multimedia computer software for birdwatchers. Over the years we have built up what is most probably the world's most comprehensive library of quality footage of European and American birds. This is made available via our DVD videos, CD- and DVD-ROMs.

The company also offers bird news services via the web, email and mobile phones, and has recently launched audio and video products for mp3 players and iPods.

Founders

Dave Gosney	Max Whitby	John Cromie
An experienced birder, Dave formed BirdGuides with Max back in 1994. He devised and wrote the classic Finding Birds in... books, based on his extensive birding travels throughout Europe and he provides the text and commentaries for most of the BirdGuides products. Over the years, he has been on many filming trips for BirdGuides, in Europe, North America and Asia and has personally filmed much of what appears in our products. When he isn't in the field, adding to our massive archive of footage and sound recordings, he is logging and editing this wealth of material.	Max Whitby is co-founder of BirdGuides. He is based in London at the offices of RGB Research where much of BirdGuides' interactive and video production takes place. Max has filmed many of the species in our library. By background he is a BBC-trained producer and has been responsible for numerous editions of Horizon and Tomorrow's World and has 2 BAFTA awards (and 4 nominations) to his credit. He has set up several other successful companies. Currently Max is studying for a PhD at Imperial College in the field of nanofluidics.	As Technical Director at BirdGuides, John Cromie is responsible for overall technical direction at BirdGuides and for the software which powers our DVD-ROM products and web presence. A software engineer and consultant, John has extensive experience in the development of interactive products. With his company, Skylark Associates, John continues to enhance our DVD-ROM products, and to develop new and innovative applications for our website.

Staff

Fiona Barclay	Jack Wylson	Dave Dunford
Fiona does the day-to-day running of BirdGuides from our London offices. She is responsible for marketing, business to business ventures, the webzine, looking after the news team and generally making sure everything is working smoothly. Fiona comes from a commercial science background, and has a PhD in Chemistry. In between times she also looks after RGB Research and even occasionally makes it out and about with the camera. She is always delighted to hear new ideas for BirdGuides products and services.	Jack is responsible for editing BirdGuides' extensive and ever-expanding archive of footage. He recently graduated in Zoology at Bristol University, before joining the team at the London office. Jack grew up in coastal Suffolk, watching and drawing wildlife from an early age. He has been actively birding for more than 10 years, mainly in his native county, but also often further afield. He is a passionate traveller, and particularly enjoys long-distance overland journeys. This has gained him experience with European, North American, Asian and Australasian birds. Jack had the honour of winning Young Ornithologist of the Year in 2000.	Dave joined BirdGuides in June 2000. His main role at BirdGuides is to look after this website. Before moving north, Dave was Chairman of the Oxford Ornithological Society, also designing their website and helping with the local annual report. As well as maintaining the website, Dave is responsible for the technical aspects of our bird news services; as a trained copy-editor he also helps out checking articles for the webzine and making sure our communications aren't too littered with mistakes! Dave is currently hard at work overhauling the whole of the BirdGuides website to our new look.

Andy Hirst	Pete Ellison
Andy rejoined BirdGuides in 2005 as Office Manager. He's responsible for the BirdGuides Office, ensuring the orders and enquiries are processed efficiently, occasionally sneaking out to film for our archive using our new High Definition camera. He first joined BirdGuides in 1994 as Office Manager and latterly Production Manager. Andy is the person you speak to when you call the office. Andy runs Gone Birding, leading tours plus wildlife video services in his spare time, as well as being Group Recorder and Producer for SK58 Birders. He spends most of his time birding in SK58, a 10km square near Sheffield.	Pete started working in Technical Support for BirdGuides in 2003. He was a Radio Electronics Officer in the Merchant Navy for 14 years, then Technical Support Engineer for Reuters on their PC and Sun Unix networks for 16 years. His hobby is sailing.

Contact information

Address

BirdGuides Ltd, PO Box 4104, Sheffield S25 9BS

Phone/fax

Phone: +44 (0)1909 560992

Fax: +44 (0)1909 560310

Email

Dave Gosney:
Max Whitby:
John Cromie:
Fiona Barclay:
Jack Wylson:
Dave Dunford:
Andy Hirst:

General emails
Sales enquiries:
Website enquiries:
Technical Support:
Reports of rare birds:

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