Matt Jones

Matt was born in Kent and from a young age had an interest in birds.  He was a proud member of the Young Ornithologists Club and always had his nose in a bird book.

During his youth, he spent a good proportion of his spare time at birding sites such as Dungeness, Elmley and Oare Marshes.  The twitching and listing bug soon took a hold and Matt travelled the UK far and wide to see new birds finding a few rarities along the way such as American Robin and Roller.

Overseas birding initially took Matt to Europe but he soon began to explore further afield and it was during one of these trips that Stewart Island (New Zealand’s most southerly inhabited island) found its way into his heart and since 2007, this is where he calls home.

Since then, Matt has worked as a bird guide across New Zealand and elsewhere and he especially enjoys showing fellow birdwatchers the spectacular variety of seabirds on pelagics, the endemics of Ulva Island (a small island off Stewart Island), and the iconic kiwi during evening trips.  

He is a volunteer for the Stewart Island/Rakiura Community and Environment Trust carrying out Little Penguin surveys, ringing Sooty Shearwaters and undertaking counts of Kiwi, Morepork and Weka.   In 2011 Matt became Chairman of the Ulva Island Charitable Trust, a group that works towards keeping Ulva Island open to the public, remaining predator-free, and aspiring to be one of New Zealand’s premier birdwatching locations.