About Steve

Stephen A. Shunk was raised with a passion for nature and the outdoors, and he went on to study Meteorology and Environmental Studies at San Jose State University. Steve began birding in the Bay Area in 1989, and he started teaching birding classes in 1992. After moving to central Oregon in 1997, he founded the Paradise Birding tour company. Now an accomplished professional naturalist, Steve leads birding and natural history tours throughout the Americas, as well as destinations in Asia and Europe.

While in central Oregon, Steve co-founded the East Cascades Bird Conservancy—now the East Cascades Audubon Society—and served as its first President. Steve co-founded the Oregon Birding Trails program and coordinated its flagship project, the Oregon Cascades Birding Trail. He served as a 15-year compiler for two Christmas bird counts, and he has worked as a field biologist off and on for over 20 years. Most recently, Steve conducted surveys for woodpeckers and other cavity nesters in Central Oregon’s Deschutes National Fores

In 2021, Steve started leading domestic and international birding tours through Arizona-based Naturalist Journeys. In January 2024, Steve moved his home base to Rancho Primavera, in Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, Mexico. Here, Steve and his partner, Lizzy Martinez, lead tours on this private nature reserve, while Steve continues guiding for Naturalist Journeys.    

Over 20 years ago, Steve recognized the amazing woodpecker diversity on the eastern slope of the Oregon Cascades, where 11 woodpecker species annually raise their young. He began studying the lives of woodpeckers across the continent, and he founded the Woodpecker Wonderland Festival in Camp Sherman, Oregon in 2008. But his crowning achievement was the publication of his woodpecker guide.

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Saturday - Steve's Banquet Presentation

The Lives & Times of Arizona Woodpeckers 

From the Mogollon Rim to the Sonoran Desert, Arizona hosts 12 nesting woodpecker species. Each one has carved out its niche in the state's diverse habitats, and each one has a story to tell. Join Steve Shunk, the author of the Peterson woodpecker guide, as he explores the natural history, ecology, and conservation of Arizona's woodpeckers. Steve will start with an overview of the woodpecker family, delving into breeding and non-breeding behaviors that make each species unique. He will introduce us to the amazing woodpecker anatomy and the behavioral adaptations that define their unique lifestyles. Steve will also discuss current conservation issues that affect local woodpeckers and their habitats, as well as keystone roles played by Arizona's many woodpecker species.

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Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. Sponsored by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute and the National Wildlife Federation.
This 300-page book includes chapters on the anatomy, behavior, ecology and conservation of the 23 species of North American woodpeckers, and provides detailed species accounts for each one.  An extensive appendix includes information on the woodpecker family tree, and human-woodpecker interactions.

Each species account includes information on distribution, breeding range, seasonal movements, winter range, breeding range, detection, vocal and nonvocal sounds, visual identification, plumages and molt, distinctive characteristics, similar species, geographic variation, subspecies, hybridization, breeding and nonbreeding behavior, courtship, parenting, dispersal, foraging, territory defense and sociality, interactions with other species, conservation, habitat threats, population changes, conservation status and management and references. The text is complemented by numerous illustrations and beautiful photography by many of the top photographers in the field.