Brazil, Atlantic Rainforest (1 Viewer)

Just spent a couple of weeks in Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest, based at Serra dos Tucanos, run by ex-Pagham birder Andy Foster. Excellent trip! Will report here in installments.

Day 1

Me and my girlfriend (Anna, non-birder but monumentally indulgent) were picked up from Rio airport on the morning of 20th Sep and driven the couple of hours or so to the Lodge - first tick of the trip, roadside Guira Cuckoos. Spent the rest of the day wndering the Lodge garden and trails with my gob hanging open! Just love Neo-tropical birding! Procession of Hummers (including Swallow-tailed) at the feeders (see pics of a few others), Tanagers (Green-headed, Golden-chevroned) at the bird tables (as well as Maroon-bellied Conures, Yellow-lored Tody-Fltcatcher and an immature male Blue Manakin). The trails produced yet more Tanagers (Red-necked, Flame-crested & Black-goggled), a couple of Foliage-Gleaners (Black-capped & White-eyed), Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant and my first of three family ticks of the trip - Black-cheeked Gnateater (Conopophagidae).

Day 2

A trip along the Theodoro trail a few minutes from the Lodge, this time with Andy and his MP3 player! Undoubted highlight of this walk was, for me, Sharpbill - a bird I've wanted to see for years, and my second (albeit not universally recognized) family tick of the trip - the monotypic Oxyruncidae! He was perched up high, not calling, and might easily have gone unnoticed had a Plumbeous Pigeon not been sat in the same tree-top, prompting the scope to be set up! Other goodies on this trail were Pin-tailed Manakin (my favourite Manakin so far!) and Bare-throated Bellbird (what a sound!), as well as our introductions to birds that we would frequently encounter over the next few days such as Spot-billed Toucanet and Star-throated Antwren. In the afternoon Andy took us round the trails at the lodge where he managed to conjure up Rufous-capped Antthrush,Saffron Toucanet and White-shouldered Fire-eye (but the Scaled Antbird was my spot!)

Day 3

A visit to a nearby wetland introduced a bit of variety - things like Capped Heron, Limpkin, and Brazilian Teal as well as some open country birds. Amongst these were Burrowing Owls, Campo Flickers and a Whiye-eared Puffbird. Some woodland there produced, amongst other things, the very cool Long-billed Wren (it doesn't just look good, it's got a neat song - Doug, one of the trio of Michiganners, we met liked dancing to it!). Back at the lodge for lunch, then hit the trails in the trails in the afternoon with Rufous-crowned Motmot (the most skulkingest Motmot I've come across so far) and Spot-backed Antshrike stealing the show between them.

That'll do for now, I'll post a bit more when I've time. I will just add, though, that it made a huge difference having the right people to bird with, and here we were just lucky that our trip coincided with that of Doug, Karl & Pat from Michigan and Neil and Diana from Caithness. The company you end up with can (almost) make or brake a trip and these guys were just what one needs - good field skills, friendly, humourous and nicely laid back. Of course, we were pretty much guaranteed at least one good birding companion on this trip, had we but known it - Andy was great too!

More to follow

Hummer pics:- Black Jacobin, Brazilian Ruby, Rufous-breasted and Saw-billed Hermits and Sombre Hummingbird.

Day 4

A day of rain, but not sufficiently heavy to deter! We visited the bamboo trail, quite a narrow track, not really any good for a big group, but with 7 of us plus guide we just about did it! As the name suggests, this is the place to look out for bamboo specialists, and they came in the form of such things as Drab-breasyed Bamboo-Tyrant, White-collared Foliage-Gleaner and, best of all, a skulking Slaty Bristlefront that crept into view as we peered into the gloom trying to locate a Brazilian Antthrush that was being called in (successfully). The two other main heart-racing birds on this trail were Hooded Berryeater and Black & Gold Cotinga, and among the many others seen a pair of Rufous-backed Antvireos and a lek of Black-breasted Plovercrests (of which just one male was visible to us!) were specially good to see. All in all a hugely successful day, in spite of the drizzly weather!

Day 5

A fairly low key day, in the morning we visited a nearby trail (the Cedae) for a leisurely stroll. The law of diminishing returns starts to kick in here, and only a handful of new birds are added, White0throated Woodcreeper, Pale-browed Treehunter and Rufous-headed Tanager being about the best (well, my favourites anyway), but a great many birds put in very enjoyable repeat appearances.
Walking the trails at the lodge in the afteroon I flushed a Brown Tinamou from by the path - a good end to the day's birding.

Day 6

The first day spent largely in the minibus rather than walking trails, with frequent roadside stops for birding, nearly all of them adding a tyrant Flycatcher or two to the trip list. Streamer-tailed Tyrant at one stop, Yellow-browed Flycatcher at another, a Long-tailed Tyrany here, a Sooty Tyrannulet there. And there was plenty else besides - Blue-winged Macaws nesting at the roadside, an Ash-throated Crake skulking in a ditch, a pair of Gilt-edged Tanagers (a real beaut of a Tanagers, one of the best I've seen anywhere) also building a roadside nest, Green, backed Becard, Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, thick and fast they came. Best amongst them was my third and final family tick - Cariamidae - Red-legged Seriema. One flew from a field as we passed by, crossing the road behind us, and landed before slowly walking up the hillside - a real wow bird. The purpose (excuse?) for this trip was to see Three-toed Jacamar - a highly restricted range species - near the town of Sumidour, and this we did, with very little difficulty, the Jacamar stake-out also yielding parties of Curl-crested Jay and White Woodpecker. The drive back to base had one last roadside treat in store in the shape of a Grey-bellied Goshawk perched up in a tree, only the second Andy had seen in the area. All in all, a fantastic day.

Days 7 & 8

The rain returns, and very little birding is possible, though Crested Becard and Planalto Woodcreeper were worth the getting wet, working the lodge gardens and trails.

That'll do for now, more to follow.

James

Pics are Ash-thoated Crake, female Green-backed Becard and female Surucua Trogon on the Jacamar excursion, and Chestnut-bellied Euphonia and Golden-chevroned Tanager on the lodge garden feeders.

Sounds like a great trip Arch - keep it coming....excellent pics too!

Mike

indeed, sounds like a great trip; Brazil really is an amazing country.

Cheers chaps, here's the balance of the trip, and I'll add species accounts when they're done.

Day 9

A second visit to the Cedae trail, with some great new birds - Black-throated Grosbeak singing from a tree-top, parties of Olive-green Tanagers foraging purposefully through the canopy, an Ochre-breasted Foilage-Gleaner in a mixed flock, and a soaring Mantled Hawk, turning in a pretty decent Cessna impression! But in spite of all these fine, Brazilian endemics the best bird of the day for me was a quite widespread species - Collared Forest Falcon, perched in a distant tree-top, my first Micrastur!

Day 10

In some ways the most frustrating day of the trip - partly due to the weather. The game plan was to visit an area of lowland forest near Rio - an extremely rare habitat - followed (after lunch) by searching for Restinga Antwren and then checking out some coastal marshes, maybe the beach for a bit of a seawatch. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the lowland forest area it was raining quite heavily, so it was decided to do the coastal stuff first. The marshes played host to White-cheeked Pintail (so weird seeing such an archetypal collection duck as wild birds!), Whistling Heron, Grassland Sparrow and a variety of waders, and at the coast there were Brown Boobies and South American Terns passing the beach. A foray into the rare Restinga habitat (a sort of sandy coastal desert strip close to Rio, being eaten up at an alarming rate by people building seaside homes) was primarily to see the endangered Restinga Antwren, which we did without too much difficulty but also gave us Crane Hawk and Hangnest Tody-Tyrant. So far so good. The dissappointment came after lunch when we returned to the lowland forest, full of anticipation. This patch of forest had survived because it is owned by a hotel, and the management had said they were quite happy to allow Andy to take parties of birders round the trails in search of such goodies as Elegant Mourner and Sooretama Slaty Antshrike. However, on our arrival at just before 2pm, we were told we only had till 3:20 before we had to leave! Well, we did our best, possibly got a couple of everso brief views of a calling Mourner, heard the Antshrike, and then had to leave, just as bird activity started to pick up after the mid-day lull! The only new birds I saw were Tropical Parula and White-winged Becard - I hate to think what we might have seen given a couple more hours - ah, well, way it goes.

Day 11

A visit to the High Altitude trail, the highest we'd been so far, with a chance of some new and very special birds. Chief among these was Swallow-tailed Cotinga, which was seen on a few occasions, perched in the tops of dead trees across the valley, with the best views of birds perched in a eucalyptus by the minibus when we returned to it at the end of the day! Other delights included skulkers like Mouse-coloured Tapaculo and Dusky-tailed Antbird, and showier specimens like Bay-chested Warbling-Finch and Diademed Tanager (a fine, fine bird). Again, amongst the endemic contingent there were a couple of widespread show-stealers - a Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper attending to its nest on a trailside bank, and an out of range (presumably newly arrived) Yellow warbler in amongst the Brassy-breasted Tanagers! (Well, we all like finding rarities, eh?)

Days 12-14

Quiet days spent winding down around the Lodge, with one trip back to the Cedae trail. Few new birds (Black-tailed Tityra, White-tailed Kite & Black Hawk-Eagle), but then little effort was expended - it was nice just to sit with a beer and watch the garden feeders!

Days 15-17

Chilling in Rio mostly, with Manx Shearwater added to the trip list on Copacabana beach! A visit to the botanical garden produced the hoped for Slaty-breasted Wood-Rails, as well as some tame Dusky-legged Guans. Last tick of the trip was also here - a party of White-eyed Parakeets, shrieking at a perched up Roadside Hawk. Then it's homeward bound, and after spending nearly three weeks being paranoid of being mugged for my optics, in a fit of travel-weary absent-mindedness I left my scope in the overhead baggage locker when we arrived to change flight in Paris! D'oh!! I'm still awaiting a reply from Air France if it's been found!

So there you have it - 270 odd species, 189 ticks, 3 family ticks. I could certainly have seen more birds by travelling round more, but I'd rather not live out of a suitcase for two weeks, and it would also heve pushed the price up - this was a great way to re-acquaint myself with South American birding, after an absence of nearly twenty years (albeit with an intervening Costa Rica trip), and it was every bit as good, if not better rhan my expectations. I'll be back!

My thanks go to the staff at Serra dos Tucanos for their friendly, efficient service, and to Andy and Cristina for a very well run and (more importantly!) bird rich operation.

James

pics - Maroon-bellied Conure and Versicoloured Emerald iat the Lodge, Channel-billed Toucan, Dusky-legged Guan & Slaty-breasted Wood-Rail in Rio Botanical Gardens.

Good stuff James.
Definitely on my list of areas to visit.

Rob

On my list too; nice report and pics.

I can't recommend it highly enough, and next year Andy's hoping to add a Pantanal extension to his current week-long Atlantic Rainforest itinerary, which'll make it even more attractive! It may even tempt me back in a few years, if Anna can be persuaded!!

James

James,
What an incredible series of reports.I will have to re-read it a few times to fully absorb it all.I have a friend that lives in Brazil and I would love to see it someday, he says the hummingbird species are wonderful and varied.
I will be in Oaxaca Mexico for some mountian rainforest birding and hope to see some similar species as you have in this report.
Thanks for sharing!

For the sake of completeness the Guan in #5 is Rusty-margined, not Dusky-legged. See link below for more photos & details.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=136796

James