Matt Brooks

A life-long naturalist, Matt Brooks has managed to stay immersed in the outdoors throughout his career. Born in southern New Mexico, he grew up with a love of open spaces, low humidity, desert sunsets, and green chile. After meeting his first Elegant Trogon, this love quickly grew to encompass the bird life unique to this part of the world. After college, his need to explore led to several years in Alaska working in various bird-related capacities for the US Forest Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Eventually, the call to return to his beloved open landscapes of the Southwest grew too strong. In 2006, he moved to Tucson, where he spent several great years working for the Tucson Audubon Society. Somehow, in the midst of all this, he found time to travel extensively and has visited over 75 countries, including virtually every country in mainland Latin America. Much of his travel has been with his lovely and equally adventurous wife, Sarah, and increasingly with their son Owen. He loves nothing more than a rough, multi-day journey to some far-flung corner of Colombia or China to see a great bird. Matt joined the WINGS family in 2012 and has served as the Managing Director since 2015. He is looking forward to many more birding adventures, both through work and on his own. And he’s willing to go anywhere for a good chile relleno.