Andrew Farnsworth
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Andrew Farnsworth developed a keen interest in birds at a young age. By age five he was birding around his home in Rye, New York. As his passion for birds grew, Andrew developed a particular interest in bird migration, fostered by many autumn days at local hawk watch sites. By age ten Andrew was regularly leading bird walks at Westchester County parks, especially at Marshlands Conservancy in Rye. In May 1990 Andrew captained the first youth birding team in the 24-hour World Series of Birding in New Jersey. In 1998 and 1999, Andrew captained consecutive winning teams in the Great Texas Birding Classic. Although birds have always been his true passion, Andrew is also a performing musician; since July 1997 he has toured extensively with his band, Mectapus, which has released three CDs to date. Andrew received his B.S. in natural resources from Cornell University in 1995; his M.S. in zoology in 2001 under Dr. Sidney Gauthreaux, comparing nocturnal bird density measures from surveillance radar and nocturnal flight-call counts from acoustic sensors; and his doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology in 2007 under Dr. John Fitzpatrick, studying ecological and evolutionary characteristics of flight-calls. Andrew combines his extensive field experience with explicit research goals focused on nocturnal bird migration, flight-calling behavior, and radar ornithology, conducting his fieldwork on flight-calls in numerous locations across the United States, Mexico, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles while pursuing a variety of other ornithological projects, including two Rapid Biological Inventories in Cuba, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Recovery Project in Arkansas, and co-authoring species' accounts for the Handbook of the Birds of the World. In 1995 he co-led his first tour for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours in Peru, leading trips more recently in Minnesota, New York, Texas, the Lesser Antilles, and northeastern South America. At present, Andrew lives in New York with his wife, Patricia Ryan.