"I am working for the birds and their welfare. The more people I can get interested in birds, the more friends they will have."

Field ornithologist and bird researcher, Lloyd Nielsen, is the first Queenslander to receive the prestigious J.N. Hobbs Medal, awarded in 2014 by BirdLife Australia for outstanding amateur contributions to Australasian ornithology.

Lloyd is a Life Member of Birds Queensland and BirdLife Australia.

Self-taught and working independently, he researches birds in the field, conducting regular surveys and maintaining records of his findings.

He has written articles and papers published in ornithological journals and contributed to The Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, published by Oxford University Press.

Lloyd is probably best known for his work with the endangered Buff-breasted Button-quail and for many years he has monitored this elusive bird. It is the only species in Australia never to have been photographed and no-one has recorded its voice.

His field research with Fuscous and Yellow-tinted Honeyeaters, as well as other species in far north Queensland and on Cape York Peninsula, indicates that the age of discovery has not yet passed.

The second edition of Birds of Queensland’s Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef now retitled BIRDS of the Wet Tropics of Queensland & Great Barrier Reef & Where to Find Them is now available - see our shop page for full details.

Other books written and illustrated by Lloyd include Birds of Lamington National Park and Environs; Birding Australia: A Directory for Birders; Birding Australia Site Guide: The South-East and Daintree: Jewel of Tropical North Queensland.