Sneed and Braden Collard at La Angostura Florencia wetlands, Costa Rica.
Sneed B. Collard III is a passionate author, environmentalist, birder, and speaker. His 100+ books for adults and children have won countless awards including the 2024 Orbis Pictus Award (Border Crossings), the Subaru-AAAS-SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books (The Prairie Builders), the Green Earth Book Award (Flash Point), and the High Plains Book Award (multiple titles).
Sneed grew up with three biologists for parents and graduated with honors in marine biology from UC Berkeley. While forging his writing career, he earned a master’s in scientific instrumentation from UC Santa Barbara and worked as a computer consultant for scientists. Both his nonfiction and fiction rely heavily on in-person experience, and to research his books he has traveled to Central and South America, the Caribbean, Australia, Asia, and the deep sea floor.
While working on his children’s science book Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests, Sneed and his son Braden enthusiastically embraced birding. That passion has fueled Sneed’s adult writing career. His award-winning memoir Warblers & Woodpeckers: A Father-Son Big Year of Birding was released in 2018 while his humorous best-selling guide Birding for Boomers came out in 2024. Sneed is also the author of First-Time Japan—A Step-by-Step Guide for theIndependent Traveler and, together with his son, writes the popular blog FatherSonBirding.com, which highlights their birding adventures and provides entertaining travel tips, book reviews, and equipment reviews.
Sneed is a popular speaker at schools, conferences, and birding festivals. He lives in Missoula, Montana, and may be contacted through the link in the navigation bar.