Kristan Godbeer

Director

Kristan originally hails from the United Kingdom, where he caught the bird bug early, having grown up surrounded by birds and bird enthusiasts. In 1989, he began his career as a zoo aviculturist at Rode Bird Gardens in the rural county of Somerset in England. This early exposure to the wealth of avian diversity inspired him to study zoology at Bangor University in North Wales, where he graduated with First Class Honors. He received his Master of Science in Conservation and Biodiversity, with distinction, from the University of Exeter.

Afterwards, he took up a post as a Terrestrial Ecologist with the Cayman Islands Department of Environment. He was involved in everything terrestrial, and initiated the Cayman Brac parrot monitoring project, surveyed seabird colonies, and was a co-author of the National Biodiversity Action Plan. He moved to Arizona in 2010, and has since undertaken ornithological fieldwork in Arizona, Wyoming, South Dakota, Mississippi, and Sonora Mexico. Before heading to the Southeast, he was the Wildlife Research Specialist for the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Kristan and his wife Hiliary are recent arrivals to Florida. They fell in love with the Tallahassee area whilst exploring the Southeast. Subsequently, they decided to move there in November 2022. Kristan can be found birding at Audubon events, St. Marks NWR, and the many other parks in and around Tallahassee.