CFO 2024 Directors’ Award
The CFO Directors Award is given in recognition of significant contributions to Colorado Field Ornithologists and to efforts that CFO supports. This year a plaque was presented to Nick Komar at the Annual Meeting of CFO during the 2024 Convention in Lamar.
Nick Komar CFO Directors’ Award Nomination Letter
Nominated by Chuck Hundertmark
Longtime CFO member Nick Komar joined the CFO Board of Directors in 2017, serving on the Field Trips Committee.
He became president in 2019 succeeding David Gilillan and served in that role until the 2023 annual meeting.
In early 2020, less than a year into his presidency, CFO was confronted with the emergence the Covid-19 pandemic. This prevented the organization from conducting its most important signature event, the annual convention.
In responding to the challenge posed by the pandemic, Nick led CFO through a series of bold new programs, initiating the Colorado Birding Challenge, beginning an online speaker series, initiating the field workshop series, strengthening the Conservation Committee, and initiating a strategic planning session. One outcome of that was transition of the CFO website to a CRM which better facilitates communication with members and registration for events.
Nick’s prior experience with nonprofits includes serving on the board of the Fort Collins Audubon Society (a local chapter of NAS) and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (now called Bird Conservancy of the Rockies). He also founded the Quetzal Foundation, a nonprofit that is no longer active, and a student organization called the Biological Scientists for Social Responsibility.
He co-authored the popular book titled Wild Birding Colorado: The Big Year of 2010 published in 2011. Nick leads many field trips and identification workshops for birding organizations in Colorado. He also guides professionally for Partnership in International Birding and his own tour company, Quetzal Tours, specializing in tours to Central and South America. A dedicated eBird user, Nick has promoted use of eBird as a community science tool to CFO members.
CFO Awards are selected by the CFO Board of Directors based on nominations for CFO members and community members. Learn more about CFO Awards and the past recipients on our Awards page.
