Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017 www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected]p.1 A Tropical Birding SET DEPARTURE tour BRAZIL: THE ATLANTIC FOREST INTROTOUR 10-17 September 2017 TOUR LEADER: ANDRES VASQUEZ Photos by Andres Vasquez One of the endemic Brazilian tanagers, the gorgeous Rufous-headed Tanager
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A Tropical Birding SET DEPARTURE tour BRAZIL: THE ATLANTIC … · 2017-10-06 · Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017 +1-409-515-9110...
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Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
September 11th: Regua, the 4x4 trail and the wetlands: We used Regua’s iconic old Toyota pickup truck to go up a steep track, often called the 4x4 trail. We departed right at dawn this day since it takes about 25 minutes to reach the best birding areas in this spot. We were lucky that the only local driver for that day was a good friend of mine and one of the great local bird guides of the reserve, Adelei. Usually he is busy guiding other groups, but this time we were fortunate that he was able to accompany us the rest of the time we were at Regua, since he had up to date info on the territories of the birds. He was even able to join us on the excursion to the coast the following day and was rewarded with a lifer.
Ok, getting back on topic, on that first morning on the 4x4 trail we got tons of good stuff. Many things we had to work for quite a bit due to their skulking nature but we got well rewarded. Highlights included Scaled Antbird, Black-capped and White-eyed Foliage-gleaners, White-flanked, Rufous-winged, Star-throated, Streak-capped and Unicolored Antrwrens, Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant, White-shouldered Fire-eye, Plain and Spot-breasted Antvireos, Rufous-breasted Leaftosser, Plain-winged Woodcreeper, Spot-billed Toucanet, Rufous-capped Motmot, Surucua Trogon, White-barred Piculet (photo above), Violaceous Euphonia, among others.
The morning was a great success so we returned to the lodge for a nice lunch and a good rest. In the afternoon we returned to the wetlands, this time birding a couple of different trails. It was a hot afternoon and the birding started slowly, but we managed to add several things to the list including Yellow Tyrannulet, Capped Heron, the Brazilian endemic Sooretama Slaty-Antshrike, a difficult but rewarding Southern Antpipit, the minuscule Reddish Hermit, a lone Lesser Woodcreeper, our first Swallow-tailed Manakin, and the endemic Long-billed Wren. Heading back to the lodge
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
quite late in the afternoon Adelei spotted a Maned Three-toed Sloth (photo below) that was coming down from a Cecropia tree quite close to us but when it noticed our presence it decided not to go all the way down and instead it moved on to another tree and disappeared into the vegetation; clearly we were delighted looking at it for so long; it’s quite slow moving of course.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
September 12th: The coast and restinga habitat: An early start was required today since we needed to drive for about 2 hours to the coast near the town of Praia Seca to reach the closest restinga location. Restinga is a habitat of quite diverse thick vegetation specially adapted to sandy and nutrient-poor soils located close to the ocean; these are also prime real estate developing areas and therefore the ecosystem has suffered enormously in the past decades until it finally got some legal protection by Brazil some years back.
Relatively few birds depend on this habitat, and the most famous is certainly the beautiful Restinga Antwren, which was our main goal this morning. Once in the correct habitat, this antwren is in fact common but often skulking, we saw it but didn’t manage any photos. Some other birds we found in this spot were Tropical Mockingbird (photo below), which was Adelei’s lifer, the weirdly distributed Bicolored Conebill (photo on next page), Hangnest Tody-Tyrant, Brazilian Tanager, Lemon-chested Greenlet and Burrowing Owl. Scanning the ocean and a nearby pond we found Semipalmated Plover, Black-necked Stilt, White-cheeked Pintail, Kelp Gull, Brown Booby, and South American, Royal and Sandwich (Cayenne) Terns.
There is not a lot more to look for here, so we headed back to the lodge for a late lunch. The afternoon was very hot and we did not see much from the lodge grounds. One of the participants decided to take the afternoon off, but got lucky to see a Mantled Hawk from the balcony while we were gone. Late in the afternoon we took the blue pickup truck and went to a nearby site where, at dusk, Giant Snipes display. We saw only flight views of three individuals but the views were quite satisfactory. A shy Scissor-tailed Nightjar flew by distantly. Prior to that, while waiting for it to get dark, we saw Yellow-browed Tyrant, White-bellied Seedeater, Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch, Striped Cuccko, and a couple of Ash-throated Crakes that walked tamely in front of us without any playback needed.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
September 13th: The green trail and Waldenor’s area: A couple of the most remarkable birds of the trip were seen this day, but it required quite a bit of walking along a hilly but very “birdy” trail. We started with Gray-hooded and Ochre-bellied Flycatchers and a Black-cheeked Gnateater (photo below), right at the start and later White-necked and Yellow-legged Thrush. The whole morning we kept on finding new birds almost constantly, but they were scattered along the path; highlights were Pin-tailed Manakin, Rough-legged Tyrannulet, Golden-chevroned and Red-necked Tanagers, Grayish Mourner, Yellow-green Grosbeak, Euler's Flycatcher, Buff-fronted and Ochre-breasted Foliage-gleaners, Black-throated Grosbeak, and almost at the end of the trail, near a beautiful waterfall where we rested for a while, we found the bird if the morning, the pristine white Bare-throated Bellbird that took a while to spot, but finally we saw it well. Only Adelei and I got views of the rare Salvadori’s Antwren close to the same spot.
The afternoon hike was along the Waldenor trail located on a more distant part of the reserve, not adjacent to the main section. We added this excursion since there were reports of a staked-out a Frilled Coquette in a clearing close to some flowering trees. It turned out to be a great idea since in the end it was one of the selected “birds of the trip”. The trail was a bit steep but we did it slowly, stopping for a few other birds. We were rewarded with, among other things, the endemic Saw-billed Hermit which perched patiently for scope views, a male Black-throated Trogon, the only Yellow-fronted Woodpeckers of the trip, White-thighed Swallows, and the first Azure-shouldered Tanagers.
After reaching the coquette´s territory it took is just a few minutes to find it but due to the high expectations, those few minutes felt like an hour in my head, especially when we didn’t see it in the main spot where Adelei had seen the bird previously. I was relieved when Danielle, one of the participants, spotted the bird almost by accident while we were
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
looking at other birds. We were concentrating on a distant mixed flock, and she instead focused her bins to close range, which is where she found the Frilled Coquette (photo below on right) on a twig where none of us thought of looking at before. The bird sat there for a good while and I even managed to put it in the scope for everybody to have outstanding close up views.
Happy, with the target in the pocket, we started heading back. We got in the truck and started heading down, but we were forced to stop for a perched Brazilian endemic White-necked Hawk (photo below on left) that was sitting patiently on the side of the road. The last bird of the day was by coincidence in the same spot, the endemic Crescent-chested Puffbird that we tracked down and scoped.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
September 14th: Sumidouro area: Our time at Regua had come to an end since we needed to move on to higher elevations to find a new set of birds. We departed very early in the morning with all our bags to drive to the next location. This day required quite a bit of driving but we made several stops here and there for birding and to also admire
the scenery. We drove over the famous Serra dos Orgãos mountain range, passing beautiful rock formations like the iconic Dedo de Deus (God’s Finger). Some people joked that it will switch fingers if humans continue to make a mess of this world (photo on left).
The first couple hours of the day are mainly driving, but from time to time we find some new road side birds that forced us to stop. That was the case of a couple Crested Black-Tyrants and the first of many Dusky-legged Guans. We also wasted a little time with a possible “Buff-bellied Puffbird” which turned out to be a Great Kiskadee after a little maneuvering on the highway.
We reached one of the main birding areas of the day at about 8:30 and went to a stretch of road I hadn’t been to before, because Alceni, our driver, knew a stakeout for Campo Troupial (photo on next page) that I really wanted. In the same area we also saw the main target of the area, the local Brazilian endemic Three-toed Jacamar.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
Other interesting birds seen on that stop included Black-necked Aracari, a Common Pauraque flushed, Piliated Finch, Glitering-bellied, Glitering-throated, and Sapphire-spangled Emeralds, Gild-edged Tanager, a lone Plumbeous Kite, and Chestnut-backed Antshrike. We then went to a stakeout for Narrow-billed Woodcreeper, and besides this species we also found a very accommodating pair of Firewood-Gatherers that came in from a long distance to give us good scope views.
Other stops later on the day turned out to be very rewarding despite the hot and sunny weather. For instance the lunch stop that we had at a random shady side road produced a flock of Blue-winged Parrotlets, a pair of Variable Antshrikes, Bran-colored Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tyrant, and Crested Oropendolas while we ate our packed lunches.
Farther down the road we took a little detour driving a couple kilometers on a dirt road that passed through a mixture of open fields and some patches of secondary forest always has good stuff and this time was no exception.
A pair of Red-legged Seriemas walked through a grass field near where we turned around. There we also saw Giant Cowbirds and a pair of the Brazilian endemic Cinnamon Tanager which is not always an easy bird on this trip. The area also held other open country birds like Ultramarine Grosbeak that flew by and a White-rumped Monjita. In the secondary forest patch we found Ferruginous Antbird, Ochre-faced Tody-Flycatcher, Orange-eyed Thornbird, Spix’s Spinetail, and Rufous-browed Peppershrike.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
Late in the afternoon we arrived at Itororó Lodge for a 3 night stay. We spent the last hour of sunlight right at the balcony overlooking a beautiful valley with an incredible view and managed to see various new things like a soaring Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, a pair of Slaty-breasted Wood-Rails that were running along the low gardens, and several of the birds that visit the feeders daily.
September 15th: Itororó Lodge: The first night at this very nice lodge was such a great change in terms of temperature since it was the first cool weather for a while (especially for those of us who had just come from the Pantanal-Amazon tour before); it felt awesome. The morning was nice and cool but it warmed up a lot by mid-day. We spent the morning walking the trails near the lodge and covered a lot of ground.
Since we were in a new ecosystem, we got tons of new birds that day. We started with a group of Brassy-breasted Tanagers (photo below) that were foraging quite low on the trees. We soon found ourselves surrounded by bamboo and this means we soon found several specialties associated with these plants. The first was a very responsive Bertoni’s Antbird, followed by its congener, Ochre-rumped Antbird, then White-collared Foliage-gleaner, White-browed Warbler, Drab-breasted Pygmy-Tyrant, Rufous-capped and Gray-bellied Spinetails, Lineated Woodpecker, Fawn-breasted Tanager, Peach-fronted and Maroon-bellied Parakeets, and the dull Brazilian endemic Serra do Mar Tyrant-Manakin, all these during the first couple hours of the morning.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
Later that morning things started to get quiet so we decided to just walk along the longest loop trail to see if some things would start calling, and this was a good plan since we picked up quite a few things on this walk. First it was another endemic, Scaled Woodcreeper, afterwards we got Greenish Schiffornis, a surprising Hook-billed Kite, some more Bare-throated Bellbirds (better views than previously), Pallid Spinetail (another endemic), Sharp-shinned Hawk, and, only for the ones that were in front of the group, an unexpected Brown Tinamou that was walking on the trail away from us until it decided to turn inside the dense foliage.
We had a good rest in the early afternoon right after lunch and at about 3pm we spent some time watching the feeders near the main building. It was an unusually warm day, and the action at the feeders was a little slow, but it started to pick up and we managed some nice birds like a Half-collared Sparrow (photo above) right underneath the view point/feeders platform. Some of the interesting birds present at the feeders were Scale-throated Hermit, Black Jacobin, Brazilian Ruby, White-throated Hummingbird, Amethyst Woodstar, Violet-capped Woodnymph, and Sapphire-spangled Emerald, Black-goggled, Azure-shouldered, Burnish-buff, Golden-chevroned, Fawn-breasted, Ruby-crowned, and Sayaca Tanagers, Maroon-bellied Parakeet, Dusky-legged Guan, and Rufous-collared Sparrow.
We went back to the trails later in the afternoon and managed to call in a female Giant Antshrike, and a pair of Rufous Gnateaters, plus we saw Green-winged Saltator and Hooded Siskin, which were new birds for the tour. At dusk we walked to a clearing were some nights a Long-trained Nightjar displays but we were only partially lucky since only one participant and I got to see the bird as it flushed from the ground and left to never come back that night despite some more waiting.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
September 16th: Pico da Caledonia: It was the last of the early starts, as we needed to drive for about one hour to the famous highland site of Pico da Caledonia. Right where we started walking, we quickly found a couple new birds for us like Buff-browed Foliage-gleaner, Rufous-capped Greenlet, and the first of several Green-crowned Plovercrests.
Unfortunately, the steep, cobblestone road had deteriorated in recent years, with large potholes that looked more like craters, which made it so that even the 4x4 could not pass. We decided to just bite the bullet and walk all the way to the
highest spot of the hill since that is the only habitat for a couple of target birds. Weather was not as expected, it was not cold at all despite the over 7000ft of elevation (some days it can be frigid). It was so warm that we peeled off our layers and left them in the truck before hiking past the potholes.
We continued birding and found a good deal of target endemic species like Velvety Black-Tyrant,, Rufous-tailed Antbird, Bay-chested Warbling-Finch (photo on next page) and Serra do Mar Tyrannulet (photo on next page), plus other key high elevation birds like Shear-tailed Gray-Tyrant, Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet, Diademed Tanager, Thick-billed Saltator, and another of the hulking Southeast Brazil specialty antbirds, the superb Large-tailed Antshrike (photo on left).
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
I had told the driver that if he puts a rock here and there he might be able to pass and pick us up a little higher to help us out. We heard from the distance a truck coming and we thought it was our car, but it was another car that was able to make it, so we had the hope that our car would also do it, and to our surprise he did.
We could only drive a short distance before there was another huge hole in the road that was impassable. So we rested a bit and started walking last few hundred meters along the steepest portion of the road.
Almost at tree line, we found a few new birds, White-browed Woodpecker (photo left), Rufous-capped Antshrike, White-tailed Hawk, and Blue-billed Black-Tyrant. We made it to some patches of high elevation grasses that are the habitat for the scarce endemic Itatiaia Spinetail, so once again we asked our legs to give a little more and started heading up the steps. Not too far up we already heard a couple singing distantly and we tried to call them in but only I got flight views before they went quiet. We were not going to let this one get away after all the walking we did, so we had to try a little higher for a pair that I could hear singing near the antennas at the top of the mountain. I decided to try calling the birds before reaching the top to see if they decided to come down, and after a little
playback a pair of these sneaky birds came in silently right to where we were and we managed great views.
We started walking back down the mountain, and halfway down we finally found the main target of the area, the extremely local Gray-winged Cotinga, and we got great scope views. Farther down we got the other big target we were missing, the elegant Black-and-gold Cotinga, whose deceptive high pitch song we had heard throughout the morning.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
The view from the top of the Pico de Caledonia after finding the Itatiaia Spinetail
We had our packed lunch at a shady spot, then headed back to the lodge where we had a relaxed afternoon around the feeders. We saw mostly the same set of birds as before, but some Magpie Tanagers (photo on next page) came in and gave us a show.
We still had unfinished business with the nightjar, so we waited until dusk and walked to the spot we had it previously, but despite a long wait the bird did not come. We did not go out empty handed, since I managed to call in a White-throated Woodcreeper using my spotlight to illuminate it in the darkness.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017
September 17th: Itororó and departure: Sadly our time on this tour had almost come to an end but not without one more birding morning. We took our last walk on the trails of the lodge early in the morning hoping to find at least a couple new birds and we were not disappointed with the three we got. The morning was a little cool and birds were not very active at the beginning. We starting seeing some of the birds we had already seen before but we were trying better views of a couple of the skulking ones. The first of the new birds we got that day was the scarce and local Chestnut-headed Tanager which was a lifer for me so I was very happy. Later we managed to call in the skulking but beautifully patterned Dusky-tailed Antbird and finally, with some luck and with some patience, we managed to have a couple Spot-winged Wood-Quails crossing the trail but only a few participants got to see them.
We departed the lodge after our morning hike. Not too far away we stopped when I heard Orange-eyed Thornbirds (photo above) calling from a patch next to the road. I knew that in this random spot these birds probably had never been exposed to playback, and the results were nice!
We had one more birding stop, closer to Rio, in lower elevations. Just as we stopped we had a great flock with many birds, all of them we had seen before but we were happy to see again Rufous-headed, Red-necked, and Green-headed Tanagers at eye-level. A little way along the trail we found Gray-hooded Attila, Black-cheeked Gnateater, Chestnut-crowned Becard and others, and found one a new endemic bird, a family group of the bright Olive-green Tanager. We had run out of time, and started our drive to Rio’s International Airport, where the tour finished.
Tropical Birding - Trip Report BRAZIL: The Atlantic Forest Introtour, Jan 2017