Carolyn Felderhof was born and raised on Vancouver Island, Canada where she studied aquaculture and fisheries. Together with her husband, Paul, Carolyn moved to Mazatlan in 1992 to experience life in his native country of Mexico. In 1994 they started a nature tour company primarily offering kayak tours to the coastal islands and nearby estuaries. Impressed by the incredible biodiversity of her adopted country, especially the birdlife, Carolyn decided to create and promote quality birding tours to hotspots in southern Sinaloa. In 1997, seeing a need for a conservation initiative to protect the habitat for the Tufted Jay, Paul and Carolyn decided to get involved by offering their time and energy to promote its creation. Carolyn leads birding trips for Sendero Mexico to various locations in Sinaloa, Durango and Nayarit including San Blas and beginning in 2009 to Northeast Mexico and the Tabasco & Chiapas region. She is also the local logistics liaison and co-leader for companies such as Naturalist Journeys, Carpenter Nature Center, Toucan Birding Tours from Britain and, starting in 2009, for Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours. The Mazatlan Bird Festival was a goal Carolyn and her husband shared to promote conservation awareness and attract visitors to the birding hotspots of Sinaloa.