Max grew up in southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley, where a childhood spent exploring forests and creeks sparked a lifelong fascination with the living world. He originally specialized in reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, but everything changed after taking a college ornithology class—he caught the birding bug, and birds have been at the center of his naturalist journey ever since.
Max has guided local groups in southern Oregon since 2019. With professional experience across wildlife research and habitat restoration, he considers himself a naturalist first and a birder second—though his ears are always open, and he rarely steps outside without keeping a species list. His fieldwork includes surveys for multiple owl and raptor species in the Cascades, as well as contributing to pre-dawn warbler song research.
Max loves introducing people to wild places and sharing his passion for the intricate connections between organisms and their environments. Equally at home in the mountains of Oregon and northern California (Cascade/Siskiyou/Klamath), the Great Basin, or along the Pacific Coast, he’s ready to help you explore and discover what makes these landscapes extraordinary.
