Jo Ann MacKenzie

Executive Secretary, Taiwan International Birding Association (Canada)

          Growing up in Indiana and Ohio (U.S.A.), Jo Ann was always interested in nature and how things work.   Friends say that she has an insatiable curiosity.  She moved to Ontario, and later became an elementary school teacher, specializing in science and Outdoor Education.  Her passion for birds began with a day-long observation of the behavior of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

            After moving to B.C., she joined the Vancouver Natural History Society.  She served on the V.N.H.S. Bird Records Committee for ten years (1990–2000), the Bird Alert Operators Team for five years (1995–2000), and received the V.N.H.S. Garibaldi Award for Outstanding Service in 2000.  She participated in the B.C. Beached Bird Survey, along the north shore of Mud Bay (the northeast part of Boundary Bay) once a month for ten years (1986–1996).  Jo Ann developed and taught a “Beginning Birding” course for the White Rock and Surrey Naturalists for five years.  She was Secretary of the B.C. Field Ornithologists for three years, then president in 2002-2003.  Her writing has been published in The Canadian Field-Naturalist, British Columbia Birds, B.C. Birding, Birders Journal and Nature Canada.  Her interests include bird photography, with photographs appearing in Birders Journal, British Columbia Birds, Audubon Field Notes, Discovery, and The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 4.

            Jo Ann has seen 516 of approximately 671 bird species ever recorded in Canada. For a brief time (the year 2000), she and her husband Hue, who died in 2009, had the largest Canadian Bird List.  Jo Ann has observed birds in 38 countries around the world.  Her World Life List is over 4,500 species; 314 of them in Taiwan.  Taiwan is her favourite birding destination.  (February 2010 update.)