Dimiter Georgiev
Managing director and tour leader

Dimiter lives in the city of Varna on the northern Bulgarian Black Sea coast. He has graduated in forestry, completing his Master’s thesis on the conservation of birds and habitats of the Kamchia flooded forests – the biggest riverine forest complex along the Bulgarian coast.

Being an active member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds /BirdLife Bulgaria, Dimiter has worked on various projects focusing on the studying and conservation of Bulgarian birds, like the monitoring and conservation of the wintering Red-breasted Geese in Coastal Dobrudja, studying the autumn migration along the Via Pontica Flyway, establishing the BirdLife International “Important Bird Areas” network in Bulgaria.

Having led a big number of birdwatching and natural history tours, Dimiter has accumulated a great knowledge and experience and can help you find and explore the best birding places in Bulgaria. Since 1995 Dimiter is the Managing Director of Neophron Tours, the tourist company of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds. He believes that the environment friendly tourism will greatly contribute to improving the life of local people and will raise their awareness to wildlife and nature conservation.

Petar Iankov
Tour leader

Petar is one of the best experts in Bulgarian birds and bird areas.

He has graduated Sofia University and completed his PhD on the bird fauna of the city of Sofia. In fact he is one of the pioneers of the birdwatching tourism in Bulgaria, playing an active role on its development during the last 20 years.

Petar is one of the founders of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/BirdLife Bulgaria and has been its Director for nearly 10 years. He is an author of the book "Where to watch birds in Bulgaria", issued in 1996 – the first complete guide of this kind in Bulgaria.

Thanks to his great experience in biodiversity conservation, Petar has played the main role for elaboration of the management plans of the Central Balkan National Park, Rila National Park, the Rila Monastery Nature Park and many other significant nature territories in Bulgaria.

At present he is working on the Atlas of the Breeding Birds in Bulgaria, which is to be published in 2007. Petar is also a member of the Bulgarian Rarities Committee.

Bozhidar Ivanov
Tour leader

Bozhidar is one of the Bulgaria's leading ornithologists, one of the founders of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds and its chairman for 8 years.

Bozhidar works at the Institute of Zoology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where he is in charge of the Laboratory of Zoocenology. As a scientist, Bojidar has published a lot of articles and scientific works, among which the most-solid scientific monography “The birds of Bulgaria”. He is in the editorial board of the Atlas of the Breeding Birds in Bulgaria, to be issued in 2007. At present Bozhidar is also the Chairman of the Bulgarian Rarities Committee.

He has been guiding birdwatching, wildlife and natural history tours for more than 15 years. Bozhidar speaks 4 languages and has a vivid sense of humour, which makes him one of the most popular birding guides in Bulgaria.

Mladen Vasilev
Tour leader and wildlife photographer

Mladen is doing his final year at the Shumen University with major Ecology and Environmental Protection

Mladen has been always interested in birds and nature and is a member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) since 2000. He has participated in most of the major BSPB projects (Red-breasted Goose and Egyptian Vulture conservation, Natura 2000 establishment, and many others).

Mladen is also a member of the Maine Audubon Society (Maine, USA) and has guided birdwatchers in Maine, USA during the summer seasons of 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Mladen is also very keen on wildlife photography and has published many photos of birds in Bulgarian and European magazines.

He has been guiding birdwatching, natural history and wildlife photography trips for Neophron Tours since 2005.

Svetoslav Spasov
Tour leader and wildlife photographer

Svetoslav has graduated from the Sofia University as a biologist, his Master’s thesis is on the avifauna of the Elena Hills and the Veselina River Valley. Currently he is a Monitoring Officer at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, where he is in charge of the bird monitoring activities such as Common Bird Monitoring, Mid-winter count of Waterfowl, single species surveys and others.

Svetoslav is an author of the field bird guide “Widespread Birds in Bulgaria” and several articles on bird distribution and number.

Wildlife photography and especially bird photography have been Svetoslav’s hobby for a long time. Many of his photos have been published in books, magazines (including National Geographic Bulgaria) and posters and have been presented on several exhibitions.

Svetoslav is a leader of birdwatching and wildlife photography tours since 2001 and this is the most enjoyable part of his work.

Tihomir Stefanov
Tour leader and wildlife photographer

Tihomir is presently working at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia as a Head of Department of Recent and Fossil Fishes. His main research topic is taxonomy and phylogeny of the freshwater fishes in Bulgaria but he is also enthusiastic naturalist and very keen in birdwatching.

As an active volunteer of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds / BirdLife Bulgaria since 1995 he has participated in many field activities and projects. He has been also a Council member of the Society for the period 2003-2006.

Tihomir has been involved in many environmental projects like preparation of the Management plans of Pirin Nature Park, Development of a National Biodiversity Monitoring System in Bulgaria and Preparation of the Bulgarian Natura 2000 network of protected zones. His hobbies are birdwatching, wildlife photography and angling.

Iordan Hristov
Tour leader

Iordan has graduated in Environmental Sciences and Policy from the Central European University in Hungary. His research topic was on the strategies of environmental non-governmental organizations in Bulgaria in solving environmental conflicts.

For almost 8 years he has been an active member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds / BirdLife Bulgaria and has participated in numerous bird census field activities and public awareness campaigns.

Currently Iordan works as a monitoring assistant in the Common Birds Monitoring Scheme at BSPB. His duties include recruitment and training of participants in bird identification techniques and methodologies.

Iordan is a newcomer to Neophron Tours (since 2005) but is enthusiastic about leading birdwatchers. He passed a training course on the specifics of leading specialized tourists and already led his first several tours.

Stoycho Stoychev
Tour leader

Stoycho is one of the best experts in raptor conservation in Bulgaria.

He has graduated from the Plovdiv University and completed his Master’s thesis on the bird fauna of Sakar Mountains. He has run several educational end conservation projects of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/BirdLife Bulgaria aimed at raptors conservation. He leads the Imperial Eagle working group of BSPB that is highly successful in improving the status of this globally threatened species. Stoycho is the author of the books “Helping the Lords of the air” dedicated to the Imperial eagle and “Protected areas in the Eastern Rhodopes and Sakar Mountains”.

His work as a tour leader is also connected to conservation. He has developed a birding route that brings incomes to the villages in Imperial Eagle areas, thus gaining local support.