Javier Cotín is a Spanish ornithologist, Expedition Leader and bird guide whose fascination with birds began as a child exploring the Pyrenees with his father. Watching Bearded Vultures soaring over the mountains helped spark a lifelong interest in birds, wildlife and remote places.
He studied biology in Spain and Norway and earned his PhD in Ornithology from the University of Barcelona in 2012. His career in research and conservation has taken him around the world, including fieldwork in the Galápagos Islands, Costa Rica, Tasmania, northern Norway, the Seychelles and Hawaii, where he worked with native and endemic birds, including the Hawaiian Short-eared Owl.
For more than a decade, Javier has combined his scientific background with expedition travel, working as an ornithologist, naturalist, lecturer, guide and Expedition Leader aboard expedition ships around the world. He has completed more than 50 voyages to Antarctica and has extensive experience across the Arctic, Australia, New Zealand, South America, West Africa, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the islands of Melanesia and the South Pacific. Along the way, he has travelled to more than 100 countries and recorded more than 4,500 bird species worldwide.
His guiding style is enthusiastic and relaxed. Javier particularly enjoys helping people get onto birds, improve their identification skills and understand the behaviour, ecology and conservation stories behind the species they encounter. For him, sharing birds and the natural world with others is one of the most rewarding parts of guiding.
Despite having travelled and birded across much of the world, Javier is always keen to explore somewhere new. The more remote the destination, the better — although after more than 4,500 species, the Eleonora’s Falcon still remains his favourite bird.
