Rudy Gelis was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship in 1997 and began his career studying nesting Andean Condors in Argentina and penguins on the Falkland Islands. He has been a resident of Ecuador for more than 20 years. He is a highly qualified ornithologistand has collaborated in numerous publications, in Ecuador has studied the nests and breeding behavior of Fiery-throated Fruiteaters, Long-wattled Umbrellabirds, the Barred Hawk, and five species of Antpitta, amongst others. His diverse experiences include surveying breeding birds in the U.S. and parrot and macaw use of clay-licks in Peru. Rudy leads birding and natural history tours throughout much of Ecuador. He is the top contributor for Ecuador to the California of Sciences, “Citizen Science; Project Naturalist”. His more than one thousand photographic images of wild orchids of Ecuador is a lifetime achievement and this number grows continually. He is the author of an upcoming book, ‘Walking Mindo: A Guide to Wild Orchids of Town and Farms’, and he helped coordinate “The Global Big Day” (Cornell University and E’Bird) a bird count which in 2015 was won by Ecuador with 431 species in 24 hours.