Ryan Phillips
At the early age of 4, Ryan was in the field tracking Tule Elk in California with his mother as she was working on her master's thesis. At 12, he fell in love with birds and the tropical regions as he traveled one month yearly for eight years throughout Costa Rica with his mother, a tropical ecology instructor at De Anza College leading the Study Abroad Program. He then obtained his Bachelor of Science at the University of California, Davis in Wildlife and Conservation Biology with a specialization in Ornithology.
While attending college, Ryan worked at the California Raptor Center for three years studying and caring for North American raptors, was the Principal Investigator for the Wildlife Society on a small mammal study, a field assistant on a Wood Duck study and mice study and conducted bird surveys for the Davis Wildlife Museum. The California Raptor Center was where he gained much of his knowledge about raptors, such as handling techniques, trapping techniques, captive propagation, species identification, molting patterns, medical care, release techniques and much more, as well as knowing that raptors was what he wanted to study as a career.
After graduating from UC Davis, Ryan moved to Belize to work for The Peregrine Fund on the Belize Harpy Eagle Restoration Project (BHERP) for four years. As part of the BHERP, Chris Hatten and he conducted a foraging ecology study on sub-adult Harpy Eagles during this time. In this study, they answered various questions such as how much area does a sub-adult Harpy Eagle require, will Harpy Eagles use forest fragments, forest edge and secondary forest, how far and often do Harpy Eagles move, what is the prey base, how often will they feed, does diet change in the wet and dry season, did diet vary between males and females and what type of forest was preferred. This study brought to light much unknown data on Harpy Eagles. Original thinking was that Harpy Eagles need large tracts of primary rainforest, but learned that they will use secondary forest, forest edge, small fragmented pieces of forest and will even cross open fields. They also identified new prey items that were never observed before this study. During this study, Chris and Ryan camped out in the rainforest for days on end and followed the birds wherever they flew. Sometimes flying over hundreds of miles in a year, these birds would take them to all areas of the Mexico, Guatemala and Belize region. Most often ending up in areas that were little traveled, if at all, and they were lucky if they could get in by four-wheel drive. During their travels they began studying all raptors, not only the Harpy Eagle, and documented everything by photography. Capturing the photographs for this book would take most people a lifetime to accomplish, but they were in the field everyday and in areas that were very hard to access. They both have the passion and dedication to complete such a book in such a short time.
During these four years in Belize they also studied the breeding biology of the rare Orange-breasted Falcon and Ornate Hawk-Eagle. Ryan constructed a watch platform at an Ornate Hawk-Eagle nest to obtain breeding data such as incubation length, fledging time, juvenile dependency length and prey items. This was the first nest survey on Ornate Hawk-Eagles in Belize. The other project studying the Orange-breasted Falcon consisted of surveying known nests, as well as surveying for new nest site locations by ground and air. This would entail camping at nest sites where we would monitor the status of the nests. They and help from The Peregrine Fund staff, installed a camera system at one of the nests deep down in a sinkhole to monitor the progression of the young, which was some of the first nest video footage for this species.
Currently Ryan is an instructor at De Anza College teaching ornithology and conservation biology, along with starting a non-profit organization in Belize called the Belize Raptor Research Institute that will focus on migration, breeding biology and conservation. As part of the Belize Raptor Research Institute, he is starting the first Raptor Watch in Belize this fall, which will record raptor migration data throughout Belize. The hope is to record species once thought to be strictly non-migratory and only to be resident, to be highly migratory, like the Hook-billed Kite. The Belize Raptor Research Institute will be based in the Mountain Pine Ridge of Belize on a newly acquired 14.5 acres, which will be equipped with cabanas for interns and tourists.
Also, a team of students, instructors, environmental groups and Ryan are trying to establish the first raptor reserve in California, which was featured in the community newspapers in the Silicon Valley. They hope to halt 25,000 homes from being developed in Coyote Valley, the last corridor between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range, and protect it as a National Monument. Ryan's photographs have been published in North American Birds journal, The Peregrine Fund newsletters, a raptor guides, The Belize Zoo newsletters and other publications.