Meet the Birding the Islands Team
Birding the Islands Ltd is co-owned and operated by husband and wife team Ryan & Alex Chenery.
Ryan Chenery
Born in Barbados, Ryan (aka the Bajan Birder) has been leading birding tours in the Caribbean for over 2 decades and is Birding the Islands’ lead birding guide.
Before starting the company Birding the Islands Ltd, Ryan combined leading his birding excursions with a full-time career in conservation. During this time, he was employed as Chief Naturalist and Eco-guide Manager at Graeme Hall Nature Reserve in Barbados; Environmental Consultant for PAA Management Ltd, Barbados; Field Researcher with Global Vision International in the Ecuadorian Amazon; Development Officer with the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) at one of it's flagship reserves in the UK; and finally Parks Officer with North York Moors National Park in North Yorkshire, UK.
In addition to leading trips, Ryan also enjoys branching off to do other projects; most recently authoring the first field guide to focus exclusively on the birds of the Lesser Antilles. This Birds of the Lesser Antilles HELM Field Guide is now available to purchase in stores worldwide and online. He has also authored the episode scripts for the upcoming US Fish and Wildlife Service and Canadian Wildlife Service Nature Documentary on shorebird migration through the Lesser Antilles. Ryan also consults for the local NGO Barbados Land Conservancy, which has a mandate to preserve and protect Barbados’ remaining wetlands.
A hello from your Birding the Islands lead guide…
Hi! My name is Ryan Chenery and I’m the Bajan Birder! I was born and raised on Barbados and formed Birding the Islands Ltd with the main purpose of offering clients a series of birding trips which focus exclusively on the phenomenally bio-diverse and breathtakingly beautiful islands of a region where I’ve birded my whole life: the magical Lesser Antilles.
On these trips, I rely on local knowledge amassed over the last 20+ years of offering professional bird guiding services, to ensure you travel to the very best sites to see the array of wonderful birdlife found in our rich mangroves, vast open grasslands, dynamic coastlines and lush tropical rainforests. I’ll get you close (very close) to stunning, and often critically endangered, endemics like the Whistling Warbler in St.Vincent, the majestic Imperial Parrot in Dominica, the dazzling Purple-throated Carib and bemusing Gray Trembler on St.Lucia, the flame-breasted Montserrat Oriole on the “emerald isle” of Montserrat and rarest of them all, the gentle, unassuming Grenada Dove, still found serenely walking the pathways in the only area of suitable habitat remaining on the “spice isle” of Grenada.
Let me show you the many wonders of my home; let me take you to My Caribbean!
Contact Ryan here
Alexandra (Alex) Chenery
Alex runs the office here at Birding the Islands, and is responsible for designing the itineraries, finding routes through the islands, sourcing accommodation and all of the administration work that goes along with running a company!
As well as working behind the scenes of our fixed-date tours, she heads up our Build Your Own Tours department, creating custom-made tours for all nature of birders - from groups of birding friends, to families, to couples and solo adventurers and birding research expeditions, she is sure to be able to design a tour that will tick all your boxes.
A qualified Yoga teacher and Reiki Master, Alex is also the founder of Spinning Arrow Yoga & Holistic Healing, offering a range of wellbeing techniques to help you connect more deeply to your inner Self. She co-leads both our Wildlife & Wellbeing tours and our Birding & Being tours in the Caribbean.
Before joining the Birding the Islands team officially, Alex enjoyed a full-time teaching career in the UK, heading up the International Department and living on-site as a Deputy Boarding House Mistress at a long-standing independent school in East Yorkshire.
Contact Alex at: info@birdingtheislands.com
Faraaz Abdool
Faraaz is a wildlife photographer, birding guide, author, speaker, and environmental advocate from Trinidad & Tobago. His photographs and writings have been widely published both digitally and in print. His first book, Casual Birding in Trinidad & Tobago was released in 2020 and received widespread praise.
Faraaz also provides birding tourism consultancy services for eco-lodges wishing to attract a birding clientele. He has delivered talks to various birding clubs and Audubon chapters across the US on topics ranging from the birding experience in T&T, to the philosophy of Casual Birding. He has appeared on radio shows and podcasts in various countries; and interviews with him have been published in Audubon Magazine and all major national newspapers in Trinidad & Tobago. Faraaz also voluntarily works for Learn-the-Birds - a South African company dedicated to spreading accessible knowledge of birds throughout the world. Via this platform, he has conducted paid bird photography masterclasses, facilitated free educational webinars, and hosted a monthly livestream entitled “Bird is the Word” featuring guests from many different countries, with a special emphasis on the global south.
His roundabout journey began with a deep love for nature as a child followed by several years of intense mathematics and science. After working for a few years as an electrical engineer, Faraaz abandoned that profession to put all his efforts into the conservation and protection of the natural world. Today, he remains as captivated by nature as he was decades ago; he seeks to impart that love to any and every person possible in a bid to save the world.
Birding the Islands is Caribbean through and through…
At Birding the Islands, we are proud to promote sustainable travel, and one of the ways we do this is to work with locally-owned and operated businesses on the islands we visit.
On St Lucia, we work closely with Wildlife Ambassors, a family-owned birding and hiking company headed up by Adams Toussaint - a retired Government Foresty Service Officer, photographer, author, conservation volunteer and bird guide. Adams has an in depth knowledge of the flora and fauna on St Lucia and is dedicated to educating both the local and international community about her bird life through delivering training workshops, and with his books “Birds of Saint Lucia, West Indies” and “The Status and Conservation of Saint Lucia’s Forest Birds”, along with various other scientific and informative articles that he has written. Wildlife Ambassadors works hard to promote nature tourism on this captivating island!
Supporting conservation efforts across the region…
Birding the Islands is a proud supporter of BirdsCaribbean, and we donate a fixed amount from each of our tours to support their essential efforts to protect and conserve the region’s avifauna through promoting on-the-ground conservation action by increasing human capacity, raising awareness, and promoting sound science across the region and beyond.