2025: Field Guides turns 40!

In 2025 Field Guides is officially celebrating 40 years in business.  It all began on January 1, 1985, with a vision from five intrepid people who wanted to create an outfit that represented quality, professionalism, and adventure in a company with guide ownership.  Those five “founders,” as we like to call them affectionately, were guides Jan Pierson, John Rowlett, Rose Ann Rowlett, and Bret Whitney and, running our nascent office, Allan Griffith. 

Soon after Field Guides began operating tours in 1985, the founders hired new guides and office staff to help broaden the company’s coverage.  Those early guides included John Coons, Chris Benesh, and Dave Stejskal, while Peggy Watson expanded our office capability.   Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Field Guides continued to grow, not surprisingly, from a company of five to one of nearly forty guides and office staff today!  With this growth we have continued to remain true to our core, with a dedication to service.  And, yes, we are still guide- and staff-owned.

We like to think we are the best birding tour company in the world (we are), but we recognize there is a lot of competition out there now.  When we started 40 years ago, there were only a few birding travel options, but that is not the case today.  We have guided many thousands of participants since 1985, filling nearly 40,000 spaces on thousands of tours, and we want to thank you all for allowing us to show you the world over these past 40 years. It’s been a delight to share with you a lifer Resplendent Quetzal in Guatemala, a  Harpy Eagle in Brazil, a Bristlehead in Borneo, Lions on the Serengeti in Tanzania, or the Taj Mahal.  We love what we do, and we hope to be doing this for another 40.

We’ve put together a fun set of retrospective photos from 1985 to current day, distributed among four tiled galleries shown below. You can also see them all in our slideshow linked below.

SEE OUR 40TH ANNIVERSARY SLIDESHOW HERE!

See you in the field soon, and the best of birding to you all.