Inspired by a Blue Jay visiting a bird feeder when he was five years old, Louie Dombroski has been watching and studying birds ever since. Originally from Michigan, he now divides his time between Michigan and Arizona. The shore of Lake Superior holds a special attraction for him, and he has spent many seasons documenting the phenomenal waterbird migration at Michigan Audubon's Whitefish Point Bird Observatory and at several other sites in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Louie first ventured to Arizona in 1983 and has spent years guiding visiting birders in Madera Canyon while working at the Santa Rita Lodge, and at Tucson Audubon's Paton Center for Hummingbirds, where he has resided for most of the last two years.
Louie has been part of ornithological research projects in Alaska, Colorado, and northern Mexico in addition to working on Michigan's Breeding Bird Atlas (both versions I and II). In addition to frequenting many of the Great Lakes region's birding hotspots, the pursuit of birds has also taken him to many corners of North America as well as to Costa Rica and Colombia.
Louie was long involved in a successful effort to bring his beloved Whitefish Point under the protection of the United States' National Wildlife Refuge system. He has written many seasonal bird survey reports for Michigan Audubon Society's natural history journal, and presently serves (and has served as chair in the past) on the MIchigan Bird Records Committee. Louie's enthusiasm is evident whenever he runs into people trying to connect with birds. He finds that showing people life birds that he's seen many times over is like reliving the experience of seeing them for the first time himself.
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