About Ignacio Yúfera

I was born in 1968 in Madrid, where I have lived all my life except for two and a half years I spent in France, finishing my university degree. I currently live some 15 km north of downtown Madrid with my wife, Margaret. I find it kind of silly when people speak of themselves in the third person.

Over the years I have traveled around the world in search of wildlife in general and birds in particular. My main areas of interest are Africa and the Palearctic (roughly the area that comprises Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East), although I have made trips in South, Central and North America as well as SE Asia. In the last few years I am narrowing down my traveling to places that are off the beaten track, and if possible rarely birded or photographed. I have a preference for open spaces: steppes, deserts, tundra, and high mountain areas. Many of the trip reports I have written on those places can be seen at my personal website.

In 2007, together with some friends and associates I created the Emberiza Fund, a small organization with the goal of contributing to wildlife and habitat conservation, both in Spain and abroad. We are currently trying to purchase some tracts of land in NE Spain vital to the protection of steppe birds, and also working with the Uganda Birdguides Club, providing equipment to their trainees.

I am an occasional Birding Tour leader, guiding groups for  Boletas Birdwatching Centre, mostly in central Spain and the Pyrenees.