Pablo Elizondo

Pablo, better known as “Chespi”, currently works under an agreement between the US Forest Service, the Klamath Bird Observatory, and the National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio), coordinating their bird monitoring efforts in Costa Rica.

He also serves as the Partners in Flight Coordinator for his native Costa Rica as well as the chair of the Western Hemisphere Bird

Banding Network. He is also a certified bird banding trainer, through the North American Banding Council (NABC). Pablo has been studying and banding birds in Costa Rica, USA, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru, among other places.

In 2007 he achieved the “Partners in Flight Leadership Award” together with the PIF-Meso working group, for bird conservation efforts in Mesoamerica. And in 2011 he was awarded with the “US Forest Service Wings Across The Americas International Cooperation Award”, for his role in establishing the Costa Rica Bird Observatories and the Costa Rica Bird Banding Network.

Chespi is heavily involved with and committed to the establishment of national bird banding schemes, collaborative initiatives, and capacity building of bird monitoring efforts in Latin America, and he actively participates in the development and organization of bird banding courses and workshops in order to improve and promote safe banding and proper data management in the region.