Paul Bannick is a wildlife photographer specializing in the natural history of North America with a focus on birds and habitat. Coupling his love of the outdoors with his skill as a photographer, he creates images that foster the intimacy between viewer and subject, inspiring education and conservation.

Paul’s first book, The Owl and the Woodpecker, published by The Mountaineers Books in October of 2008, continues to be one of the best–selling bird books in North America, and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award for general non-fiction. The University of Washington’s Burke Museum is creating a traveling exhibit based on The Owl and the Woodpecker, which will begin touring North American cities in March of 2011.

Paul has appeared on dozens of NPR stations and programs including Travels with Rick Steves, and BirdNote. His work has appeared in Audubon, Sunset, Birds and Blooms, Pacific Northwest, Seattle Times and Seattle Magazine, the National Wildlife Federation Guide to North American Birds, Smithsonian’s Guide to North American Birds, in several volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of the World and in many other books, magazines, parks, refuges, and other outlets in North America and Europe.

Paul has served as keynote speaker for dozens of festivals and fundraisers across the country, and two of his photos are part of the traveling exhibit, “Arctic Wings,” featuring images from several of the world’s finest wildlife photographers.

After graduating from the University of Washington, Paul worked successfully for 15 years in the computer software industry beginning as one of the original 75 employees of the Aldus Corporation. He later served as a Director for Adobe Systems, and also worked as a senior manager at Microsoft. Wishing to combine his passion for wilderness conservation with his career, Paul turned his attention to non-profit work and currently serves as the Director of Development for Conservation Northwest, an organization dedicated to protecting and connecting wild areas from the Pacific Coast to the Canadian Rockies.

Presentation: Birds By Season and Habitat

Paul takes audiences on a multimedia journey across seasons and habitats where birds are the actors. Through intimate images, this presentation examines the sometimes surprising, often dramatic, and always engaging behavior of the birds through distinct times and places. This stunning photographic study is accompanied by stories and rich natural history derived from thousands of hours in the field, and looks at the way key indicator species define and enrich their habitat and how their life histories are inter-twined. Audiences will travel with the birds through courtship, mating and nesting in the spring; summer’s busy months of fledging and feeding; independence and dispersal in the fall; and winter’s struggle to survive. Anyone interested in birdlife amidst North America’s wonderful natural settings is sure to be enthralled by this extraordinary program.