Bret Whitney must be at least half Brazilian by now. It all began when he was born, birding in the wild Midwest, mostly in Indiana, where he was narrowly overlooked by his high school baseball team but did, in fact, graduate from Earlham College.

He is known for his ability to identify birds by their calls and songs, which has led to his stumbling onto multiple species new to science. Bret is one of the founders of Field Guides, a Research Associate of the Museum of Natural Science at Louisiana State University, an Associate of the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell, 2004 recipient of the ABA's Ludlow Griscom award, and an eternal optimist about everything except Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.

Bret guides most of our Brazil tours and, with Brazilian colleagues, he is supposed to be producing a series of regional field guides to the birds of Brazil. When not on tour, "the Kite" attempts to stay in shape with irregular bike rides, by leaning over pool tables, and by hefting kegs of Live Oak Pilsner and dumping 35-lb sacks of spicy crawfish, corn, and potatoes onto old doors covered with newspapers so his family and friends can pig out at his crawfish boils. Oh yes, and by stirring cauldrons of Brazilian moqueca and playing lots of rowdy blowball at the Field Guides business meeting, excellent for the c-v pump and eye-mouth coordination.