I officially started my career as a tour guide when a friend invited to become part of the staff of guides at the brand new all inclusive resort in Western El Salvador back in 2006. Until that moment, I had been teaching English quietly in a school in San Salvador during weekdays and doing some informal guiding during the weekends.  I was hooked inmediately and started an eye-opening trip that took me to most of the territory of El Salvador to make sure I was able to show my beautiful country to the visitors.

​

One year later, I got my credential from the Ministry of Tourism as an official tour Guide of El Salvador. We started being trained in El Salvador's History, Archaeology, Gastronomy, Coffee, Indigo, Biodiversity and many more aspects. It is in this trainings that I had the chance to know about our avifauna and its habitats. I automatically fell in love with birds and the rest is history.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

I started taking birding more seriously and for that i got a couple of books and my first pair of binoculars. I read and learned a lot about our birds in Central America from 1995 Howell and Webb's Birds of Mexico and Central America. And then as I continued doing the historical, archaeological and hiking tours my eyes started paying more attention to the birds around.

​

                                                                                   

                                                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I revisited our National Parks and Natural areas with a new pair of eyes and ears. I discovered so many birds behaving all kinds of ways. One of the first unexpected experiences was to witness the courtship of the Cinnamon-bellied flower-píercer at Los volcanes National Park, a Reddish Egret "dancing" at the mouth of Jiboa river or a couple of Social flycatchers raising their chicks at the National Botanical Garden in San Salvador just to mention some.

​

What started as specialization as a guide became a passion, and eventually led to my involvement in citizen science projects like eBird and Inaturalist. At this moment I am the coordinator of eBird's Global Big Day event for El Salvador and also an educator about the platform and some other conservation projects that target kids as future bird conservationists.

​

In the near future my plans include a video blog to teach specially kids as well as our people in general about how we can protect birds and their habitats and some other ideas that I will be disclosing soon. So, I kindly invite you to join me birding in Northern Central America to encourage conservation of birds and its habitats in our beautiful countries.

​

Julio Acosta

​