Brazil: Itatiaia

The last section of our trip to South-East Brazil was the hastily rearranged (thank you Demis!) trip to Itatiaia National Park a, couple of days of R&R and then finally a day-trip we put together with our guide for this section, Thomaz.

We picked the Ype hotel to stay at in the park and arrived after the three hour drive to spend the afternoon settling in and watching the birds on the feeders.   Oh and the macaques, too:

This one looks to have a guilty conscience, probably because they regularly come through pulling up the roof tiles and taking food from the bird feeders!

The next day we started with an early morning hike on a birding trail.   Conditions were tricky as it was quite overgrown, so not many bird photographs, we did however see a Coral Snake:

And in the gardens of the hotel in which the trail started, a Masked Water Tyrant perched briefly:

Back at the lodge one of the most 'popular' birds amongst birders and photographers alike was the Frilled Coquette, seen here feeding:

I can't decide which image I prefer:

The last full day was spent driving down from 1,200m to ground level, going round a bit and then ascending to 2,450m, rising reasonably quickly above the weather:

The view from the top of the mountain was fantastic:

One of the specialist species of the region in terms of habitat and altitude is the Itatiaia Spinetail, we had unusually good views of one:

The last bird of the day was spotted as we headed downhill again, a Velvety Black Tyrant:

After a couple of days rest and recuperation at a hotel near Sao Paulo airport, Thomaz picked us up at 5am for a day trip to Pousada da Fazenda.   We stopped off en route to spot a new species of Parakeet then arrived to watch the hummingbirds on the feeders while enjoying breakfast.

One of the species there is Swallow-tailed Hummingbird:

Just round the corner was the Glittering-bellied Emerald, feeding on a different plant, albeit resting briefly here:

There's simply loads of butterflies and moths in Brazil, this is just one example, again briefly paused:

We drove to see Great Horned Owl and on the way back to the lodge, a Burrowing Owl was perched:

Visiting Brazil was fascinating, rewarding, challenging and fun.  In total we saw 288 new species making a total of 3,938 seen so far.   Next up, the Galapagos....

Brazil: The pantanal

It's worth acknowledging that we've found some of this trip very challenging from a health perspective, I won't bore you with the details (which involved a significant allergic reaction to something I ate for me and a bleed in the back of the eye for Helen) but we're both pretty much on the mend as I write.

We flew from Sao Paulo via Foz do Iguacu, (I'd not visited there before whereas Helen had), to Campo Grande, from where it was a few hours drive to reach our first accommodation in the southern section of the Pantanal.

We timed our trip, unintentionally, with the first drought-beaking rainfall for three years.   While this was great for the environment and habitat it led to an exponential growth in the number and voracity of mosquitoes.   For some reason none of the places we stayed had mosquito nets which made the trip more and more uncomfortable as time passed.

Anyway the first place we visited and indeed stayed at was a vast cattle ranch at the end of a long dirt road, but with a huge amount of land including forest, marsh, corridor land, etc., with an accompanying variety of birdlife. 

First thing in the morning, I wandered out to grab a coffee and saw Blue-and-yellow Macaw:

As well as one of our favourite species we've seen in Brazil, the Hyacinth Macaws:

The lodge has a safari approach to exploring their land and looking for wildlife.   This led to lots of interesting sightings, such as this Blaze-winged Parakeet:

 A small area of flooded land by the entrance was being perused by a Whistling Heron:

We saw lots of the non-avian wildlife too including Capybara:

Cayman:

Six-banded Armadillo:

As well as the 'safari' drives, the lodge has a number of well stocked fruit and corn feeders, so there's always plenty of wildlife coming in for a free meal including lots of birds such as this stunning Plush-crested Jay:

Lots of Nanday Parakeets:

Bare-faced Currasow wandered around the grounds:

One of my favourite visitors to the feeders was the Yellow-billed Cardinal:

On another drive we encountered a Giant Anteater:

And one of my favourite encounters of the trip so far a pair of Streamer-tailed Tyrants, recently arrived seasonal migrants:

As previously noted the rains had started, we had to duck and run on one drive as a huge cloudburst washed through:

Having really enjoyed our stay at Pousasa Aguape we moved on to a more commercial (and therefore poorer quality) lodge, specifically to try and see Jaguars, however we had no luck on the night drive and the sheer volume of mosquitoes and bites we were getting by this stage persuaded us that another day, let alone another week in these conditions would be untenable.

The next morning we therefore headed out early to some drier forest for birding on our way to our final lodge in the area.   We did see Crab-eating Fox on the road out though:

We also encountered a butterfly 'puddling' which was a magical experience:

We passed through some rice fields though they were still just planted so not much to see however an 

Amazon Kingfisher didn't fly away immediately: 

From our final lodge, in Bonito, we visited a sinkhole used by Macaws for nesting, apparently Helen and her younger brother Robert had visited this site some 30-odd years ago!

A Red-and-Green Macaw flew across the sinkhole:

As well as the sinkhole our local guide walked us around the property and took us to a nearby outdoor park, which was much quieter, to see some more species.   We did very well and added Chestnut-eared Aracari:

An immature Helmeted Mannakin:

Blue-crowned (Amazon) Motmot:

A Planalto Woodcreeper, probably species 3,900 of my birding so far:

And a Laughing Falcon with prey:

Instead of the scheduled next mosquito-filled week in the north of the Pantanal, our guide Demis managed to arrange a trip instead to Itatiaia National Park, with a layover back in Sao Paulo.   From Bonito it was therefore back to Campo Grande for a night in a cheap-and-noisy (but clean) airport hotel before heading back to Sao Paulo.   Next up, Itatiaia....

Brazil: Altantic Forest, South

We'd been thinking about a visit to Brazil and indeed more broadly South America for years and finally the stars aligned!  Travel is somewhat normal again, most facilities are open and with South America hosting one third of all avian species on Earth it was time we visited.   This then is the first part of a two-month trip, starting in the Atlantic Rainforest of South East Brazil, which meant arriving in Sao Paulo and meeting our guide(s) there. 

We planned a few rest days on arrival but decided to go on a day trip from the city, and were rewarded with 49 life species in a single day, including the specialist Gilt-edged Tanager:

The place we visited has only been open a year and the owners are innovating and developing all the time.

From there it was back to the city for another day before being collected by our host and main guide Demis Bucci.

We visited a number of sites in the Atlantic Rainforest, all specialist birding lodges and saw some stunning species including the Red-necked Tanager:

We were sat watching the feeders one morning over breakfast when i spotted the lighter-headed bird on the left, cue much excitement.   It turns out Black-legged Dacnis are unlikely visitors to feeders and it was the first sighting at the property:

The next destination was the operations centre for Biologists in the middle of a hydroelectric area, Legado das Aguas, this being one of the dams holding the water back for the generators:

We set out after lunch, up a trail to see this Bat Falcon on her regular perch:

A stunning little bird was this Grey-headed Tody-Flcycatcher:

Legado is well reputed for its owl species, we saw two before dinner after dusk the night we stayed, we heard at least three more species during the night too.   The first was this Mottled Owl:

Followed shortly by a Tawny-browed Owl:

The feeders at our last stop proved very productive, we saw Golden-chevroned Tanager:

Magpie Tanager:

And evenutally the star of the show, a Saffron Toucanet:

Yellow-fronted Woodpeckers were regular visitors: 

I was very excited to see this Black-throated Grosbeak, a funky bird:

From the Atlantic Forest we headed back to Sao Paulo, a brief stop at Foz to see the waterfalls and then on to the Pantanal....