Greg R. Homel | Natural Encounters Birding Tours

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Greg R. Homel

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What, Who, or Where?
Point your cursor at the photograph on any page for the answer!

Greg R. Homel is an ornithologist, award-winning international nature photojournalist, documentary film producer, and lecturer. He lives and works from his home within the magnificent Los Padres National Forest, California, USA (home of the California Condor) and from his second home at Río Lagartos, surrounded by the magnificent Ría Lagartos National Park and Biosphere Reserve at the north tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

A birder-naturalist since childhood, Greg founded Natural Elements Productions in 1986 and Natural Encounters Birding Tours shortly thereafter. Now he travels the globe on a full-time basis in search of rare and little-known birds and other wildlife.

He shares his unbounded (and contagious) enthusiasm through excursions for small groups worldwide, and with a wider audience through state-of-the-art digital lectures, television, and wide variety of publications and video productions.

Throughout his life, but especially since 1990, Greg has guided, educated, and inspired travelers in over 80 countries throughout the world. His travels on all seven continents, from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic, have allowed him to see more than half of the planet's roughly 9,800 bird species in their natural habitats.

His early work appeared regularly in books and magazines, including Wildbird Magazine, The Audubon Society Field Guides to Eastern Birds and The Audubon Society Field Guides to Western Birds, Time, Birder's World, Tucson Lifestyle, and Texas Monthly. Since the "digital revolution," Greg has moved into television, video production, and lecturing aboard expedition ships with the hope of "giving a voice to his truest love, which is the natural world and its inhabitants, especially birds!"

Greg's other achievements include, among many others:

Greg Homel and Luis Oliveros at El Peru, Guatemala

Field guides to the birds of South Texas, Southeastern Arizona, and Southern California, published by Quick Reference Publishing. Other guides are underway.

Introducing the Wonderful Birds of Pico Bonito, Honduras, an HD DVD filmed in December 2007 and January 2008, at Pico Bonito National Park and The Lodge at Pico Bonito in Honduras. This collaborative effort is the first high-definition documentary on the park's birds. It is now available through Natural Elements Productions and The Lodge at Pico Bonito. Excerpts can be viewed at Audubon Magazine. (Order details.)

The first-ever high-definition video of nidification (nest-building) and nuptial displays of the critically endangered Grenada Dove in October 2007. The American Bird Conservancy put Greg's rare footage to work for conservation, to help modify the plans of a Four Season’s Resort development, which would have consumed important nesting habitat for this bird. Greg's video is helping to shape a brighter future for Grenada’s National Bird.

Appointment in 2007 as official video producer for the Lemur Conservation Foundation.

The first-ever filmed documentation of the lekking display of Peru’s remarkable and critically endangered Marvelous Spatuletail, a hummingbird with an impressively long, racketed tail, known only from the rugged Andean highlands of Amazonas and nearby departments. The video, filmed in December 2006 and January 2007, was featured on national news programs and may be seen here or at National Geographic.

The first-ever documentary on the wildlife and culture of the Commander Islands for the World Wildlife Fund/Russian Wildlife Authority (2004).

Playing a critical role in the rediscovery of the then-criticially rare Poo-uli, during a National Biological Survey/State Division of Forestry and Wildlife ornithological survey of the primordial forests on the outer windward slopes of Haleakala Volcano, Maui. (At the time, October 1994, fewer than six individuals remained, and there have been no sightings since the last known bird died in captivity in 2005.) The rediscovery was the fulfillment of a dream Greg had since first visiting the Hawaiian islands on a family trip as a teenager in 1977.

Let Greg Homel help you realize your own dreams of Natural Encounters!

Greg is available for photojournalism and other documentary assignments anywhere in the world. He devotes himself tirelessly to the ethical acquisition of stunning HD and HDV video and high-resolution digital photography featuring the world’s rarest and least-known wildlife in the most extreme and remote environments.
E-mail with your needs or an inquiry
Greg Homel at work behind a video camera in Granada

Greg Homel at work behind a video camera in Granada

Available on the Web:

"Successes in Conserving the Thick-billed Parrot," American Bird Conservancy

"Birds Rock!" Bird News Network/American Bird Conservancy

"The Owl of Flame, Flammulated Owl," Birder's Magazine, January 1992

"Biosphere Birds," Audobon Magazine Web Exclusive

"Lured by His Lovely," Audobon Magazine Web Exclusive

"Rare Hummingbird Courtship," National Geographic video

"It's all for the Birds," KTVB Idaho News Now (2007)

Videos by Greg R. Homel at the Internet Bird Collection

"Les photos de l'expédition Pitoreal 2005: L'expédition de novembre 2005 de Gregory Homel" Ornithomedia (in French, with English abstract)

Greg Homel at the old airstrip, Tikal National Park, Guatemala

Greg Homel photographing an Ocellated Turkey