Kim Richard Eckert's interest in birding was sparked in the Chicago area during a 10th-grade biology class--the only biology course he would ever take. Kim became an English major at St. John's University in Minnesota and then taught English (with some first-year French on the side) during the 1970s. But he turned to a career in birding after moving to Duluth, Minnesota, in 1977, where he served as Naturalist at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve (for a total of 20 years), taught bird identification classes for a decade, and started leading birding tours (including 30 years with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours). In 1986, he created the Minnesota Birding Weekends & Weeks program of tours throughout Minnesota and elsewhere in the US and Canada.

Kim has written numerous articles for The Loon and other publications; plus Birding by Hindsight, a compilation of The Loon's series of 70 bird ID articles; and four previous editions of A Birder's Guide to Minnesota.

After 45 years, he still lives in Duluth, where he muses about the Great Plains, prefers not to take anything too seriously, finds joy in not knowing where he is going, reminisces about the times with Bob and Panda... and thinks about things.