Peter G Kaestner

Always a birder, Peter took his first international trip at age ten, when he visited the Bahamas with his brother and mentor Hank. As of April 2024, he has birded in 190 eBird countries and territories and holds the record for the world’s life lists in eBird (9850) and IOC (10,013).  Peter is also recognized in the Guinness Book of Records as the first person to see a representative of every bird family – a feat that he accomplished in October, 1986. The highlight of Peter’s birding career came in 1989, when he lived in Bogotá. Just 50 kilometers east of the Colombian capital, he discovered a bird new to science, the Cundinamarca Antpitta (Grallaria kaestneri)..

Peter graduated from Friends School Baltimore, where he received the William S. Pike science award and then studied Biology at Cornell University. Peter served in the Peace Corps in Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) as a secondary-school science teacher in 1976-1978. He joined the U.S. Department of State in June, 1980.

During his 36-year career as a U.S. diplomat, he helped negotiate the UN Desertification Convention and a protocol amending the 1916 Migratory Bird Convention with Canada. He represented the United States at Conferences of the Parties of the Ramsar Convention and the CITES COPs. On 9/11/2001, while returning from a temporary assignment to Ethiopia, Peter’s flight was diverted to Newfoundland, Canada where his experience was reflected in the musical Come From Away. Peter has lived in 12 different countries – India (three times), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Washington DC, Colombia, Malaysia, Michigan, Namibia, Guatemala, Brazil, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Germany.  Peter retired in 2016 from the State Department at the rank of Minister-Counselor.

Peter gets the most satisfaction in sharing his passion for birds by writing articles, leading bird walks and tours, supporting local conservation efforts, and giving illustrated lectures on birds around the world. After the Colombian Government made peace with the FARC guerilla group, Peter helped it bring economic development to rural Colombia by promoting bird tourism. He also worked with the American Bird Conservancy and a Colombian NGO (Fundación Camaná) to preserve critical habitat of the Cundinamarca Antpitta in the eastern Andes. In 2019, Peter became a part-time tour leader for Rockjumper Birding Tours, in 2021 he became a VIP for Swarovski Optik, and in 2023 he was appointed an ambassador of the American Bird Conservancy.

Peter is married to Kimberly Vreeland Kaestner, and has two grown daughters, Laurel and Katie

https://ebird.org/profile/MjM1Nzk4