Jim Burns

Jim Burns is an outdoor writer/photographer based in Scottsdale, Arizona. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in English Literature and became hooked on birding while backpacking with his wife, Deva, trying to place proper labels on the birds they were seeing along the trail. He has been photographing birds and other wildlife for 15 years and for the past ten has been writing photo quizzes for the Cactus Wrendition, the publication of the Maricopa Audubon Society in Phoenix. He currently writes a birding column, "Bird Is A Verb," which appears on the Outdoor page of the Arizona Republic, the metro Phoenix daily newspaper, every other Thursday.

Jim's articles and photographs have been published in Birding, Birder's World, Outdoor Photographer, and Valley Nature, and he has written three books illustrated with his photography: A Beginner's Field Guide to Phoenix Birds, published by the Maricopa Audubon Society in 2004; North American Owls--Journey Through a Shadowed World, published by Willow Creek Press in 2004; and Jim Burns' Arizona Birds, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2008.

"It is mandatory that those of us who love nature pay it forward to the uninitiated, preserving it so that future generations may experience and love it as we do."

See more of Jim's work at www.jimburnsphotos.com..