Tropical Birding Trip Report Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon July-Aug 2016 A Tropical Birding SET DEPARTURE tour Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon 18 July – 1 August 2016 TOUR LEADER: ANDRES VASQUEZ Photos by Andres Vasquez One of the top 3 birds of the trip as voted by the participants, the astonishing Hyacinth Macaw www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] Page 1 Tropical Birding Trip Report Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon July-Aug 2016 Introduction: It is difficult to put into words a trip like this, when you have seen many of South America’s most iconic animals and birds in only 15 days of focused birding. While searching for every possible species, we repeatedly got out of our vans for another Red-legged Seriema or Giant Anteater, and on other occasions we birded from the comfort of canoes that ride along some of the most scenic rivers, to find Giant Otters, Sunbitterns, Agami Herons, Sungrebes, and the most wanted of all mammals in the region, the majestic Jaguar. We did, in fact, cover three distinct biomes during the trip: the start of the tour visited the scrubby, dry Cerrado, then we continued to the vast Amazon rainforest, with its huge biodiversity enclosed in a mosaic of micro ecosystems, and finished in the Pantanal where the open nature of the country let us scan long distances to see running Greater Rheas, Southern Screamers, Jaguarundi, and an uncountable amount of waterbirds concentrated on the remaining waterholes, co-existing with large number of caiman laying along the banks. Yes, we saw all that, and the final numbers revealed 450 species of birds seen (plus another 32 heard) among which the highlights included, apart from those mentioned above: Collared Crescentchest, Dot-eared Coquette, Blue-tufted Starthroat, and Coal-crested Finch in the Cerrado, 43 species of Antbirds (largely in the Amazon), together with Pompadour Cotinga, Collared Puffbird, one of the few records of Green Oropendola in Cristalino Jungle Lodge, Cryptic Forest Falcon, and Razor-billed Curassow on the borders of the Cristalino River, Dark-winged Trumpeter, Common, Long- tailed and Great Potoos, the unique Hyacinth Macaw, and bright Toco Toucans in the Pantanal. I have to mention again the Jaguar, with multiple sightings and 5 individuals involved: one pregnant female, a fully mature male, plus a mother with a young cub, and its older brother. Magical. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] Page 2 Tropical Birding Trip Report Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon July-Aug 2016 Rusty-backed Antwren and Jacare Caimans along the Transpantaneira Highway Giant River Otters swimming along the Pixaim River A mom, a young cub and older brother Jaguar crossing the Cuiaba River www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] Page 3 Tropical Birding Trip Report Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon July-Aug 2016 Daily Summary: Days 2 and 3 – The Cerrado: The trip started with a 5am departure towards the outskirts of the small city of Chapada Dos Guimaraes where good Cerrado habitat holds the target birds of this region. Birding along the Agua Fria road we soon found a very responsive Rufous-winged Antshrike, a couple of Black-throated Saltators and various tanager species like White-rumped, White- banded and Black-faced Tanagers. We were trying to locate a skittish Tawny-crowned Pygmy-Tyrant, which we saw briefly, when a major target for this site started singing next to us. We soon managed to track it down and got good views (but only decent pictures) of this Collared Crescentchest (photo below). That night we met Arjan Dwarshuis, the Dutch young birder who just smashed Noah Striker’s World Record during his big year; we gave Arjan the spot for this crescentchest which he had missed the previous day; we later found out he got it that time. To get some more of the specialties of this habitat, the next day we visited another famous road, the Geladeira Road, which hosted a large number of hummingbirds out of which the most common were Blue-tufted Starthroat, Blue-tailed Emerald and White-vented Violetear plus we had views of a female Dot-eared Coquette (not seen by all) and, sadly, only the guide got good views of a male Horned Sungem. We struggled at first but at the end we got nice looks of White-eared Puffbird (photos on page 5), Curl-crested Jays and a female Coal-crested Finch too. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] Page 4 Tropical Birding Trip Report Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon July-Aug 2016 Both days, after spending the early mornings in the Cerrado ecosystem we moved inside gallery forests of this area that holds some very interesting birds, which are distinctly more colorful than the birds in the nearby scrubby Cerrado. Among those it is worth mentioning we saw Amazonian Motmot, Blue-crowned Trogon, and two bright species of manakins, the minute Fiery-capped and the gaudy Band-tailed (photos below). Other birds of note here were, Brown and Rufous-tailed Jacamars, White-wedged Piculet, Golden-crowned (White-bellied) Warbler, and Yellow-tufted Woodpecker. The second morning we had to cut birding short at about 9h30am since we needed to drive back to the city of Cuiaba to catch a flight to Alta Floresta, the gateway to the Amazon, in the north of Mato Grosso state. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] Page 5 Tropical Birding Trip Report Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon July-Aug 2016 Days 4 to 7 – The Amazon: After a short flight we arrived in Alta Floresta where the staff from Cristalino Jungle Lodge received us and got us in a confortable van that in an hour-long drive took us northwards until we reached the Teles Pires River, where we took the boats to ride to the lodge. Before reaching the river, we stopped once at a famous palm grove area where we intended to find the streaky Point-tailed Palmcreeper and got it with ease, together with a few other species, like Fork-tailed Palm-Swifts. We got into the lodge quite late in the afternoon, so we stayed just around the lodge grounds looking for some of the common species that inhabit the open areas. During the next four days we were going to explore the main habitats or micro ecosystems of the area that have quite distinct avifauna, each with its own specialties. The main micro ecosystems in Cristalino are terra firme canopy, terra firme understory, stunted “highland” forest, river edges and river islands. The “highland” stunted forests are a very interesting habitat characteristic of this southern part of central Amazonia, and it is due to the volcanic Pahoehoe lava-like appearance the ground of this area has once you reach the top of some rocky hills through a trail called the Serra Nova Trail. The forest here is short with vast open areas and some bushes that mainly inhabit the cracks of these black plate rocks. It was here that we found White-fringed Antwren, Natterer's Slaty- Antshrike, Brown-banded, Striolated and Pied Puffbirds, Paradise Jacamar, Short-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant, and Layard's (Lineated) Woodcreeper. Once the sun had become too intense, we headed back down towards the denser and taller forest, where we found a couple of flocks with some interesting birds like, Dusky-tailed Flatbill, White-browed Antbird, and White-shouldered and Saturnine Antshrikes. It was from the two Cristalino canopy towers where we found the majority of the species - it is said that over 80% of the diversity and the activity on a rainforest occurs in the canopy. Due to this, we spent two full mornings above the canopy www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] Page 6 Tropical Birding Trip Report Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon July-Aug 2016 thanks to the high towers that emerge above the treetops. The list of birds we found from there is vast, but highlights included Black-girdled Barbet, Black-necked, Lettered, Red-necked and Curl-crested Aracaris, Gould's Toucanet, Scale- breasted, Red-necked, Ringed and Crimson-crested Woodpeckers, Spangled and Pompadour Cotingas, Red-billed Pied Tanager (photo on page 6), Green-and-gold, Turquoise, Paradise, and Yellow-backed Tanagers, Pygmy and Sclater's Antwrens, Tooth-billed Wren, Red-and-green and Blue-and-yellow Macaws, Kawall's and White-bellied Parrots, Crimson-bellied Parakeet, White-browed Hawk, Spix's Guan and dozens more. We dedicated a morning to visit the river islands on the Teles Pires River, since they hold some special birds. For instance, next to one island, there are stretches of the river that become narrow to form rapids; there is one species that specializes on these, the local Black-collared Swallow. In the short vegetation on early succession islands we found the small and localized Amazonian Tyrannulet, and close by we saw the miniscule Spotted Tody-Flyactcher. The star of the morning, (well, stars since we saw 5 in total), was the sought-after Amazonian Umbrellabird. We then had to work a little for a couple of antbirds, but we did find Mato Grosso Antbird, plus Amazonian, Chestnut-backed and Glossy Antshrikes. A couple of afternoons were used to navigate up and down the Cristalino River in search of some birds that occur near the edges of the river. We did a lot of birding from the canoe but also did a few short stops on shore, to call a few things in from the typically tangly vegetation along the margins of the water.