Birding Brazil Tours & Nature Photography

Andrew Whittaker

Andy is the founder as well senior leader of Birding Brazil Tours. He has almost three decades of experience in leading birding tours and has become one of the most popular guides in the country. His passion for birds and natural history started at the early age of seven in his home in UK and is contagious! Since 1982 Andy has worked and studied birds worldwide in Canada, Israel, Borneo, and the UK before moving to Brazil where he has remained based in Manaus for the last 25 years. Moving to the heart of Amazon bring to him many opportunities such as be the Brazil's first professional birding guide, leading tours to all corners of Brazil, overstocking over years knowledge on all biomes and their birds intimately. Also he is a senior leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (Texas, USA), leading tours throughout other South and Central America countries, Europe and in the past to the Antarctic. He has been a consultant for the prestigious Life of Birds series by David Attenborough as well. Andy immensely enjoys sharing his fascination and knowledge of Neotropical birds, wildlife and its conservation with others. He is considered an authority on Amazonian birds and the regions natural history, due his numerous observations and contribution authoring many technical publications on the Brazilian avifauna. His exceptional know-how enabled him to make several important ornithological discoveries including describing several new species to science (the most famous is the Cryptic Forest-Falcon in 2002), adding 19 species to the Brazilian list and many other new species to be published yet. His special interest is bird vocalizations and in 2008 published a collection of four CDs called Voices of Brazilian Amazon (second edition in 2012) by National Institute for Amazonian Research publisher, in 2010 made a DVD-ROM of songs, calls and photos of 1051 species of Brazilian birds published by Avis Brasilis, both along with colleagues. In 2012 was honored with the scientific name of a species, which in fact discovered himself as a new cryptic species in 2007, the Alta Floresta Antpitta (Hylopezus whittakeri). At present Andy is working with Kevin Zimmer on a comprehensive field guide of the birds of Brazil to be published by Princeton University Press. Andy is a member of the Brazilian Ornithological Committee and one of the directors of Brazilian Association of Birdwatchers.


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