Team members

Renowned across Australia for his knowledge of woodland birds, Chris brings 30 years of fieldcraft and an award-winning photographic eye to the Top End.

We’re thrilled to welcome Chris Tzaros to the NT Bird Specialists’ guiding team. Chris is one of Australia’s most respected woodland bird experts, an accomplished author and a multi-award-winning wildlife photographer. Whether you’re chasing a lifer or the perfect frame, there are few people better to have beside you in the field.

Chris grew up in the bush near Bendigo in central Victoria, where birds captured his imagination from childhood. That curiosity became a career, and for more than 30 years he has led conservation and research programs across south-eastern Australia, with a strong focus on threatened woodland birds. In 1997, this work earned him a Young Australian of the Year award in the Victorian category.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from Charles Sturt University and a Master of Science in Conservation Ecology from Deakin University. He spent over 12 years with BirdLife Australia, coordinating major projects including the Swift Parrot Recovery Program and the National Threatened Bird Network. For the past 13 years he has worked independently as a wildlife ecologist, professional nature photographer and bird guide.

Over 25 years, Chris has become one of the country’s finest wildlife photographers. He has photographed more than 600 Australian bird species, along with countless reptiles, frogs and mammals, and his images have won multiple national and international awards. For Chris, photography is a way to raise the profile of wild animals and give something back to his “feathered, furred and scaly friends”. He also writes a weekly newspaper column, contributes to books and magazines, and presents photography and education seminars across Australia.

Chris is the author of Wildlife of the Box–Ironbark Country, a detailed photographic guide to one of southern Australia’s most important regions for wildlife, now fully revised and available through CSIRO Publishing. Another book is already underway.

Besides his humour and easy-going nature, guests will love his patient fieldcraft, his eye for light and behaviour, and the depth of ecological knowledge behind every sighting.

At home, Chris and his family manage a 200-acre grassy woodland property in north-east Victoria for conservation.

Chris is no stranger to the Top End. Through guiding and his own birding and photography adventures, he has come to know and love the region’s tropical woodlands, wetlands and northern specialties. Now he’s bringing that experience, and his passion for the north, to NT Bird Specialists’ guests.