Steve Shunk — Author, Naturalist, Photographer, Conservationist

Steve Shunk started birding in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990. Within two years, he was teaching birding classes in the South Bay Area, and two years after that, he took on his first volunteer field job with San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. Steve visited eastern Oregon in early 1997, and he soon moved there as a full-time volunteer with Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. After his volunteer stint with the refuge, Steve moved to Sisters, Oregon, on the eastern slope of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains.

Steve founded his Paradise Birding tour company just before leaving the Bay Area, but once he settled in Sisters, the business really started to take shape. He started leading multi-day tours to Malheur, and then to California, Washington, and Texas. After a winter trip to Pacific Mexico, Steve got the ‘tropical bug’, and he added several international destinations to the Paradise Birding repertoire, including Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Portugal, Sicily, and Malaysian Borneo. Steve has since become a seasoned professional naturalist, with over 150 tours under his belt.

While living in Central Oregon, Steve discovered the amazing diversity of woodpeckers in the region. Looking for answers to this woodpecker phenomenon, Steve buried himself in woodpecker research and took several field jobs studying woodpeckers in Oregon and California. This woodpecker obsession culminated in the publication of his crowning achievement, the Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpecker of North America.

In 2020, Steve met Mexican biologist and birder Lizzy Martinez, and in 2024, he moved to Mexico’s Pacific Slope, where he and Lizzy now serve as resident naturalists at the Rancho Primavera bird sanctuary.

Commitment to Conservation

Steve moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989 to study Meteorology and Environmental Studies at San Jose State University. His academic learning inspired years of activism and a lifelong commitment to volunteer leadership and citizen science. His early resume included:

• Director of the Environmental Resource Center, San Jose State University

• Board member, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition

• Board Member, Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society

• Board Member, San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society

• Founding Board Member and President, East Cascades Bird Conservancy (now East Cascades Bird Alliance)

Steve served as a 15-year compiler for two different Christmas Bird Counts. He volunteered for the first Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas and several Breeding Bird Surveys. And, he engaged local volunteers in a wide array of field studies. As Paradise Birding grew and began consuming more of his time, Steve continued his commitment to science and conservation through financial support to a variety of organizations, including:

Steve’s Publications

Articles

For many years, Steve has been writing articles for a variety of publications, including Living Bird, Birding, and Bird Watcher's Digest. In 2016, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published Steve’s Peterson Reference Guide to the Woodpeckers of North America. The book is now out of print, although copies can be found online, and it is available in various electronic formats. Click the link to get your virtual copy! Here is a sampling of Steve’s past articles:

BIRD WATCHER'S DIGEST—Species Profiles: White-tailed Ptarmigan, Northern Flicker & Acorn Woodpecker

BIRDING MAGAZINE—Puzzling Flickers, Understanding Introgression

BIRDING MAGAZINE—Sphyrapicus Anxiety: Identifying Hybrid Sapsuckers

LIVING BIRD MAGAZINE—Meriwether Lewis Would be Proud

NATURE TRAVEL NETWORK—My Birthday in the Caribbean

NATURE TRAVEL NETWORK—Five Reasons to Go Birding in Mexico

OREGON MAGAZINE—The Colors of Fall Migration

OREGON CASCADES BIRDING TRAIL - Comprehensive 32-page guide to nearly 200 birding sites

WILDLIFE SOCIETY NEWS—A New Forest Fire Paradigm, The need for high-severity fires (co-authored with 5 others)

WINGING IT - Woodpecker Wonderland, American Birding Association

Steve’s Photography and Videos

Steve started capturing birds on film in 1997, and he has long since joined the digital camera revolution. You can view hundreds of Steve’s favorite images on his Flickr page, and his YouTube page continues to grow with a wide range of videos. Click the logos below to explore.