Claudia Cavazos is a native Texan. She grew up in Houston and attended university in Austin and Houston, ultimately earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Psychology. Her curiosity about the world took her on her first international trip at the age of 17 to the islands of Greece, and she has never looked back.

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  Claudia’s passion for wildlife and birdwatching has led her to travel to 45 countries and all 7 continents. Her diverse interests are reflected in a storied career made up of positions that always combined her love of science, the outdoors, and the human condition.
  
  She began her career in clinical trial research and, over the course of seven years, worked at institutions such as the University of Texas Health Science Center, St Luke’s Hospital, and MD Anderson Cancer Hospital.
  
  Currently, her career focus is exploring the great outdoors and the natural world. For the last several years she has worked as a field biologist in Texas, Wyoming, and the Midwest, as an ecotourism guide at the renowned Cristalino Jungle Lodge in Brazil, and as a bird guide on St. Paul Island, Alaska. She has also led birding tours for the past four years in Alaska, Texas, Colorado, and Florida.
  
  From watching birds-of-paradise in West Papua to racing after vagrants in western Alaska to finding insects with wonderful cordyceps fungi in the Amazon, and trekking after rare mammals, Claudia enjoys sharing all aspects of the natural world. One of her personal birding highlights was completing the trek to see the rare Blue-bearded Helmetcrest in northern Colombia.