Tropical Birding Tour Report

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Tropical Birding Tour Report BRAZIL: THE PANTANAL & AMAZON 26 July – 7 August 2009 Tour leader: Nick Athanas Report by Nick Athanas Photos by the author unless otherwise indicated. Photo below: Scarlet-headed Blackbird. It’s a hard combo to beat – the vast primeval Amazonian forests of Cristalino and the non-stop wildlife show of the Pantanal, where pretty much the only way to stop seeing stuff is to close your eyes. There’s also a bit of cerrado birding thrown in to add some spice and variety, where you can quickly see a bunch of neat birds not available elsewhere on the tour. This year, despite a harpy and the mega-diveristy of Cristalino Lodge, it was Pousada Piuval that stole the show. It has always been good, which is why it features in the itinerary, but this year it was just jaw-dropping, mind-blowingly out-of-this world incredible. There were birds literally everywhere you looked. Vast numbers of birds, insane daily species lists topping out at 174 seen on one day (maybe a TB record?), normally tough birds like Great Rufous Woodcreepers pretty much on the doorstep, and quite simply a huge amount of fun. Mammals got better as we went deeper into the Pantanal, with the likes of Ocelot , Giant Otter , Giant Anteater , and Brazilian Tapir all featuring. I apologize now for the brevity of this report – I’ve had an insane guiding schedule over the last few months, and only a few days before my next one begins. But that’s the way I like it. The Chapada dos Guimarães We spent a couple of days in and around this plateau just northeast of the city of Cuiabá. It’s a picturesque region with scenic views, waterfalls, great accommodation, and some birds that we can’t get anywhere else on the itinerary. Much of the habitat is cerrado , a type of savanna characterized by dense bushes and short trees; it doesn’t look very impressive, but it has a lot of really cool birds in it. Birding here is easy due to the open nature of the habitat, but you have to do it early in the morning or late in the afternoon before it gets blazing hot. Some of the birds we saw in the cerrado include Horned Sungem , White-vented Violetear , Blue-tufted Starthroat (which amazingly we saw at Piuval as well), White-eared Puffbird , Checkered Woodpecker , Red-and-green and Blue-winged Macaws , Plain-crested Elaenia , Chapada Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 1 Flycatcher , Rufous-sided Pygmy-Tyrant , Collared Crescentchest , Curl-crested Jay , White-rumped , White-banded , Black-faced , & Cinnamon Tanagers , Black-throated Saltator , Plumbeous Seedeater , and a female Coal-crested Finch . White-banded Tanager Blue-tufted Starthroat Birding the gallery forest gets you out of the sun, and it’s a nice place to spend late morning or mid-afternoon. We had great luck with a Pavonine Cuckoo , having one come in close and sit in the open for prolonged scope views, while some of the other birds in here were Planalto Slaty-Antshrike , White-bellied Warbler , Sirystes , Saffron-billed Sparrow , and Rusty- fronted Tody-Flycatcher . Our hotel, the luxurious Pousada Penhasco, is in a beautiful setting perched near the edge of the plateau, with a panoramic view hard to beat anywhere. It’s a great place for raptors, and we saw Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle , Bat Falcon , and King Vulture here. In late afternoon, when the forest has gotten dark and quiet, you can see a lot of birds just by walking around the grounds, like Burnished-buff Tanager , Thick-billed Euphonia , and Burrowing Owl . Burrowing Owl Burnished-buff Tanager Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 2 The Amazon: Alta Floresta and Cristalino Jungle Lodge The southern Amazon is easy to access from Cuiabá via a two-hour flight up to Alta Floresta. This “frontier town” has become well known to birders in recent years due to a pair of Harpy Eagles that has regularly nested in a little forest fragment around the Floresta Amazonica Hotel. The hotel is owned by the same folks who own Cristalino, so they are well aware of the importance and value of these birds and are keen to protect them. Our flight landed a little bit late, and we were a bit stressed to find out that the young bird had fledged the previous week and was no longer being seen every day! Since we were already running late, we had to insist on racing out to the nest to have a first shot at this mega bird, and it’s a darn good thing we did – the young bird was sitting on the nest, eating something that we couldn’t possibly ID since there wasn’t much left of it; mom or dad had obviously come in that morning to feed it. My camera gear was still packed away from the flight, but Linton was ready and got a shot of it, which you can see here. To jump ahead in the story, when we checked the nest before flying back five days later, the bird was nowhere to be found! It’s always a thrill to see this bird, and this time also a huge relief. From there, we rode about two hours in 4WD vehicles to the edge of the Teles Pires river, and took a boat up the Cristalino river to Cristalino Jungle Lodge, our base for the next five nights, seeing our only Amazonian Umbrellabird along the way. Cristalino Jungle Lodge makes the shortlist as one of the top jungle lodges in the world. It is wonderfully remote, adjacent to a huge state park that the lodge owner helped to establish, and the whole food chain is still intact here. However, the nature of the forest (20-30 m canopy with 40 m emergents) combined with the fact that a large number of the birds are shy and skulking makes birding here extremely challenging. While their bird list is nearing 600, you may only see a third of those on a five- night visit (and hear many that you never see). That was certainly our experience. While the canopy tower treated us well (it was fabulous on both our morning and afternoon visits), the forest interior required a huge amount of hard work and patience to call the birds in. Despite this, we still managed to see the vast majority of what I consider the specialties of Cristalino, birds that are easier to see here than in most other easily accessible sites, and I even managed to get a lifer, the Brown-banded Puffbird pictured above! I’ll mention a few of the key birds we saw during our wonderful stay here: Crimson-bellied and Santarem Parakeets , Kawall’s Parrot , Bronzy Jacamar , Black-girdled Barbet , Gould’s Toucanet , Para Foliage- gleaner , Glossy Antshrike , Natterer’s Slaty-Antshrike , Spix’s Warbling-Antbird , Pompadour Cotinga , Snow-capped and Flame-crowned Manakins , Tooth-billed Wren , and Red-billed Pied Tanager . Andrew and Dan even managed to find an active Undulated Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 3 Tinamou nest one evening while out looking for snakes, and they found a few of as well (see the list at the end). While they were some of the youngest TB tour participants we’ve had, their enthusiasm to see everything that flew, hopped, walked, crawled, swam, or slithered was addictive and refreshing. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of them end up volunteering at Cristalino one day. The Pantanal Our flight from Alta Floresta landed pretty much on time, and we were shocked to discover that it was almost cold ! This is usually one of the hottest places on the continent, but a rare, powerful cold front, pushing up from Patagonia, had just passed through. The cool weather would only last for a couple of days, but it made our stay at Piuval just that much better. Our driver was there right on time to meet us, and he headed south for about 1h45m, getting us to Pousada Piuval just in time for dinner. We split our time in the Pantanal between three lodges: Pousada Piuval, Pantanal Wildlife Center, and Jaguar Ecolodge. The latter was a late addition since PWC was full for our last night, and while we didn’t see any huge kitties there, it was an interesting change of venue that got us a few extra birds. I’ve already raved a bit about Piuval; the main reason why it is such great birding is that you have a wide variety of habitats in easy reach, including marshes, ponds, rivers, pastures (dry & flooded), gallery forest, dry woodland, and scrubland. You can access all of this in just a few kilometers, so can see huge numbers in a day. We took a boat out onto a river so wide it seemed like a lake, and though we didn’t see much different from the boat itself, with it we could access an island with a wildlife observation tower. This tower offered a 360º view over the surrounding wetlands, where we witnessed an incredible concentration of birdlife of the sort that is very hard to find in the world today, making one realize just what we have lost in the rest of the world over the last few hundred years. Hyacinth Macaws near Pousada Piuval – probably the most desired bird in the Pantanal. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 4 More birds from Piuval: Gray-crested Cacholote and Yellow-billed Cardinal, regulars near the lodge. A Plumbeous Ibis in a flooded field in front of the lodge, and a White-naped Xenopsaris along the entrance track.
Recommended publications
  • The Birds of Reserva Ecológica Guapiaçu (REGUA)
    Cotinga 33 The birds of Reserva Ecológica Guapiaçu (REGUA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Leonardo Pimentel and Fábio Olmos Received 30 September 2009; final revision accepted 15 December 2010 Cotinga 33 (2011): OL 8–24 published online 16 March 2011 É apresentada uma lista da avifauna da Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu (REGUA), uma reserva privada de 6.500 ha localizada no município de Cachoeiras de Macacu, vizinha ao Parque Estadual dos Três Picos, Estação Ecológica do Paraíso e Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, parte de um dos maiores conjuntos protegidos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Foram registradas um total de 450 espécies de aves, das quais 63 consideradas de interesse para conservação, como Leucopternis lacernulatus, Harpyhaliaetus coronatus, Triclaria malachitacea, Myrmotherula minor, Dacnis nigripes, Sporophila frontalis e S. falcirostris. A reserva também está desenvolvendo um projeto de reintrodução dos localmente extintos Crax blumembachii e Aburria jacutinga, e de reforço das populações locais de Tinamus solitarius. The Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil and Some information has been published on neighbouring Argentina and Paraguay is among the birds of lower (90–500 m) elevations in the the most imperilled biomes in the world. At region10,13, but few areas have been subject to least 188 bird species are endemic to it, and 70 long-term surveys. Here we present the cumulative globally threatened birds occur there, most of them list of a privately protected area, Reserva Ecológica endemics4,8. The Atlantic Forest is not homogeneous Guapiaçu (REGUA), which includes both low-lying and both latitudinal and longitudinal gradients parts of the Serra dos Órgãos massif and nearby account for diverse associations of discrete habitats higher ground, now mostly incorporated within and associated bird communities.
    [Show full text]
  • Diversity and Structure of Bird and Mammal Communities in the Semiarid Chaco Region: Response to Agricultural Practices and Landscape Alterations
    Diversity and structure of bird and mammal communities in the Semiarid Chaco Region: response to agricultural practices and landscape alterations Julieta Decarre March 2015 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London 2 Imperial College London Department of Life Sciences Diversity and structure of bird and mammal communities in the Semiarid Chaco Region: response to agricultural practices and landscape alterations Supervised by Dr. Chris Carbone Dr. Cristina Banks-Leite Dr. Marcus Rowcliffe Imperial College London Institute of Zoology Zoological Society of London 3 Declaration of Originality I herewith certify that the work presented in this thesis is my own and all else is referenced appropriately. I have used the first-person plural in recognition of my supervisors’ contribution. People who provided less formal advice are named in the acknowledgments. Julieta Decarre 4 Copyright Declaration The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. Researchers are free to copy, distribute or transmit the thesis on the condition that they attribute it, that they do not use it for commercial purposes and that they do not alter, transform or build upon it. For any reuse or redistribution, researchers must make clear to others the licence terms of this work 5 “ …and we wandered for about four hours across the dense forest…Along the path I could see several footprints of wild animals, peccaries, giant anteaters, lions, and the footprint of a tiger, that is the first one I saw.” - Emilio Budin, 19061 I dedicate this thesis To my mother and my father to Virginia, Juan Martin and Alejandro, for being there through space and time 1 Book: “Viajes de Emilio Budin: La Expedición al Chaco, 1906-1907”.
    [Show full text]
  • Lista Roja De Las Aves Del Uruguay 1
    Lista Roja de las Aves del Uruguay 1 Lista Roja de las Aves del Uruguay Una evaluación del estado de conservación de la avifauna nacional con base en los criterios de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza. Adrián B. Azpiroz, Laboratorio de Genética de la Conservación, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Av. Italia 3318 (CP 11600), Montevideo ([email protected]). Matilde Alfaro, Asociación Averaves & Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225 (CP 11400), Montevideo ([email protected]). Sebastián Jiménez, Proyecto Albatros y Petreles-Uruguay, Centro de Investigación y Conservación Marina (CICMAR), Avenida Giannattasio Km 30.5. (CP 15008) Canelones, Uruguay; Laboratorio de Recursos Pelágicos, Dirección Nacional de Recursos Acuáticos, Constituyente 1497 (CP 11200), Montevideo ([email protected]). Cita sugerida: Azpiroz, A.B., M. Alfaro y S. Jiménez. 2012. Lista Roja de las Aves del Uruguay. Una evaluación del estado de conservación de la avifauna nacional con base en los criterios de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza. Dirección Nacional de Medio Ambiente, Montevideo. Descargo de responsabilidad El contenido de esta publicación es responsabilidad de los autores y no refleja necesariamente las opiniones o políticas de la DINAMA ni de las organizaciones auspiciantes y no comprometen a estas instituciones. Las denominaciones empleadas y la forma en que aparecen los datos no implica de parte de DINAMA, ni de las organizaciones auspiciantes o de los autores, juicio alguno sobre la condición jurídica de países, territorios, ciudades, personas, organizaciones, zonas o de sus autoridades, ni sobre la delimitación de sus fronteras o límites.
    [Show full text]
  • SAB 019 1999 P272-280 Seasonal Movements and Conservation Of
    Studies in Avian Biology No. 19:272-280, 1999. SEASONAL MOVEMENTS AND CONSERVATION OF SEEDEATERS OF THE GENUS SPOROPHZIA IN SOUTH AMERICA Jose MARIA CARDOSO DA SILVA Abstract. Small seed-eating finches of the genus Sporophila, commonly called seedeaters, are among the most characteristic elements of South Americas’ grassland avifauna. Twenty-three species of Spa- rophila seedeaters were classified into three groups according to their seasonal movements. Fourteen species make long-distance movements between at least two major ecological regions in South Amer- ica, four species make intermediate to long-distance movements within a single ecological region, and five species make short-distance movements between adjacent habitats. The grasslands in the Cerrado region seem to be the most important wintering sites for most of the long-distance migrant Sporophila. Mapping the ranges of all threatened or near-threatened Sporophila species identified seven critical areas between southern coastal Colombia and southernmost Brazil. Creating reserves in these seven areas would protect at least one population of 23 Sporophilu species. Mapping the ranges of all species and well-marked subspecies with restricted ranges (350,000 square kilometers or less) identified nine critical areas (five of which were also identified by mapping threatened or near-threatened species) between northern South America and southernmost Brazil. Creating reserves in these nine areas would protect populations of 29 species or well-defined subspecies of Sporophila.The conservation of South American grasslands needs urgent action. The areas identified here are important grassland habitats that should be priority areas for organizations and agencies interested in grassland conservation. LOS MOVIMIENTOS ESTACIONALES Y LA CONSERVACIGN DE GRANIVOROS DEL GENERO SPOROPHILA EN AMERICA DEL SUR Sinopsis.
    [Show full text]
  • Abstract Book
    Welcome to the Ornithological Congress of the Americas! Puerto Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina, from 8–11 August, 2017 Puerto Iguazú is located in the heart of the interior Atlantic Forest and is the portal to the Iguazú Falls, one of the world’s Seven Natural Wonders and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area surrounding Puerto Iguazú, the province of Misiones and neighboring regions of Paraguay and Brazil offers many scenic attractions and natural areas such as Iguazú National Park, and provides unique opportunities for birdwatching. Over 500 species have been recorded, including many Atlantic Forest endemics like the Blue Manakin (Chiroxiphia caudata), the emblem of our congress. This is the first meeting collaboratively organized by the Association of Field Ornithologists, Sociedade Brasileira de Ornitologia and Aves Argentinas, and promises to be an outstanding professional experience for both students and researchers. The congress will feature workshops, symposia, over 400 scientific presentations, 7 internationally renowned plenary speakers, and a celebration of 100 years of Aves Argentinas! Enjoy the book of abstracts! ORGANIZING COMMITTEE CHAIR: Valentina Ferretti, Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires (IEGEBA- CONICET) and Association of Field Ornithologists (AFO) Andrés Bosso, Administración de Parques Nacionales (Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable) Reed Bowman, Archbold Biological Station and Association of Field Ornithologists (AFO) Gustavo Sebastián Cabanne, División Ornitología, Museo Argentino
    [Show full text]
  • Vogelliste Venezuela
    Vogelliste Venezuela Datum: www.casa-vieja-merida.com (c) Beobachtungstage: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Birdlist VENEZUELA copyrightBeobachtungsgebiete: Henri Pittier Azulita / Catatumbo La Altamira St Domingo Paramo Los Llanos Caura Sierra de Imataca Sierra de Lema + Gran Sabana Sucre Berge und Kueste Transfers Andere - gesehen gesehen an wieviel Tagen TINAMIFORMES: Tinamidae - Steißhühner 0 1 Tawny-breasted Tinamou Nothocercus julius Gelbbrusttinamu 0 2 Highland Tinamou Nothocercus bonapartei Bergtinamu 0 3 Gray Tinamou Tinamus tao Tao 0 4 Great Tinamou Tinamus major Großtinamu x 0 5 White-throated Tinamou Tinamus guttatus Weißkehltinamu 0 6 Cinereous Tinamou Crypturellus cinereus Grautinamu x x 0 7 Little Tinamou Crypturellus soui Brauntinamu x x x 0 8 Tepui Tinamou Crypturellus ptaritepui Tepuitinamu by 0 9 Brown Tinamou Crypturellus obsoletus Kastanientinamu 0 10 Undulated Tinamou Crypturellus undulatus Wellentinamu 0 11 Gray-legged Tinamou Crypturellus duidae Graufußtinamu 0 12 Red-legged Tinamou Crypturellus erythropus Rotfußtinamu birds-venezuela.dex x 0 13 Variegated Tinamou Crypturellus variegatus Rotbrusttinamu x x x 0 14 Barred Tinamou Crypturellus casiquiare Bindentinamu 0 ANSERIFORMES: Anatidae - Entenvögel 0 15 Horned Screamer Anhima cornuta Hornwehrvogel x 0 16 Northern Screamer Chauna chavaria Weißwangen-Wehrvogel x 0 17 White-faced Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna viduata Witwenpfeifgans x 0 18 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis Rotschnabel-Pfeifgans x 0 19 Fulvous Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna bicolor
    [Show full text]
  • TOUR REPORT Southwestern Amazonia 2017 Final
    For the first time on a Birdquest tour, the Holy Grail from the Brazilian Amazon, Rondonia Bushbird – male (Eduardo Patrial) BRAZIL’S SOUTHWESTERN AMAZONIA 7 / 11 - 24 JUNE 2017 LEADER: EDUARDO PATRIAL What an impressive and rewarding tour it was this inaugural Brazil’s Southwestern Amazonia. Sixteen days of fine Amazonian birding, exploring some of the most fascinating forests and campina habitats in three different Brazilian states: Rondonia, Amazonas and Acre. We recorded over five hundred species (536) with the exquisite taste of specialties from the Rondonia and Inambari endemism centres, respectively east bank and west bank of Rio Madeira. At least eight Birdquest lifer birds were acquired on this tour: the rare Rondonia Bushbird; Brazilian endemics White-breasted Antbird, Manicore Warbling Antbird, Aripuana Antwren and Chico’s Tyrannulet; also Buff-cheeked Tody-Flycatcher, Acre Tody-Tyrant and the amazing Rufous Twistwing. Our itinerary definitely put together one of the finest selections of Amazonian avifauna, though for a next trip there are probably few adjustments to be done. The pre-tour extension campsite brings you to very basic camping conditions, with company of some mosquitoes and relentless heat, but certainly a remarkable site for birding, the Igarapé São João really provided an amazing experience. All other sites 1 BirdQuest Tour Report: Brazil’s Southwestern Amazonia 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com visited on main tour provided considerably easy and very good birding. From the rich east part of Rondonia, the fascinating savannas and endless forests around Humaitá in Amazonas, and finally the impressive bamboo forest at Rio Branco in Acre, this tour focused the endemics from both sides of the medium Rio Madeira.
    [Show full text]
  • The Generic Distinction of Pied Woodpeckers
    THE GENERIC DISTINCTION OF PIED WOODPECKERS M. RALPH BROWNING, 170 JacksonCreek Drive, Jacksonville,Oregon 97530 ABSTRACT: The ten speciesof New World four-toedwoodpeckers (scalaris, nuttallii, pubescens, villosus, stricklandi, arizonae, borealis, albolarvatus, lignarius,and m ixtusand the two borealthree-toed species (arcticus and tridactylus), currentlycombined in the genusPicoides, differ, in additionto the numberof toes,in modificationsof the skull,ribs, the belly of the pubo-ischio-femoralismuscle, head plumage,and behavior. I recommendthat the genericname Dryobates be reinstituted for the New World four-toedwoodpeckers. There are three generalmorphological groups of pied woodpeckers,a groupof nine four-toedspecies of the New World, a groupof 22 four-toed speciesof the Old World, and a groupof two three-toedspecies straddling bothregions. ! referto thesegroups of piedwoodpeckers beyond as the New World,Old World,and three-toedgroups. The three-toedspecies have long beenin the genusPicoides Lac•p•de, 1799, but the four-toedgroups have been combinedat the genericlevel in differentways. All four-toedpied woodpeckerswere long includedin the genusDryobates Boie, 1826, later changed to Dendrocopos Koch, 1816 an earlier name (Voous 1947, A.O.U. 1947, Peters 1948). Despite the differencein number of toes, Dendrocoposwas combined with Picoidesbecause of generalsimilarities in anatomy (Delacour 1951, Short 1971a), plumage and behavior (Short 1974a), and vocalizations(Winkler and Short 1978). The A.O.U (1976) followedthis mergerof the genera.On the basisof skeletalcharacters Rea (1983) was skepticalof the merger,but he did not providedetails. On the otherhand, Ouellet(1977), concludingthat the two generadiffer in external morphologyand some behaviors and vocalizations, separated the Old World four-toedwoodpeckers in Dendrocoposand three-toedand New World four-toedwoodpeckers in Picoides.The A.O.U.
    [Show full text]
  • Aves, Grallariidae
    Variação morfológica, vocal e molecular em Hylopezus macularius (Temminck, 1830) (Aves, Grallariidae). Lincoln Silva Carneiro BELÉM – PARÁ 2009 MUSEU PARAENSE EMÍLIO GOELDI UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO PARÁ PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ZOOLOGIA CURSO DE MESTRADO EM ZOOLOGIA Variação morfológica, vocal e molecular em Hylopezus macularius (Temminck, 1830) (Aves, Grallariidae). LINCOLN SILVA CARNEIRO Dissertação de mestrado apresentada ao Programa de Pós-graduação em Zoologia, Curso de Mestrado, do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi e Universidade Federal do Pará como requisito para obtenção do grau de mestre em Zoologia. Orientador: Ph.D. Alexandre Aleixo Co-orientador: Dr. Luis Pedreira Gonzaga BELÉM – PARÁ 2009 LINCOLN SILVA CARNEIRO Variação morfológica, vocal e molecular em Hylopezus macularius (Temminck, 1830) (Aves, Grallariidae). Dissertação de mestrado apresentada ao Programa de Pós-graduação em Zoologia, Curso de Mestrado, do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi e Universidade Federal do Pará como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de mestre em Zoologia. Orientador: Ph.D. Alexandre Aleixo Co-orientador: Dr. Luis Pedreira Gonzaga BELÉM – PARÁ 2009 LINCOLN SILVA CARNEIRO Variação morfológica, vocal e molecular em Hylopezus macularius (Temminck, 1830) (Aves, Grallariidae). ________________________________________________ Ph.D. Alexandre Aleixo Orientador Departamento de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi ________________________________________________ Ph.D. José Maria Cardoso da Silva Titular Conservação Internacional ________________________________________________
    [Show full text]
  • REGUA Bird List July 2020.Xlsx
    Birds of REGUA/Aves da REGUA Updated July 2020. The taxonomy and nomenclature follows the Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos (CBRO), Annotated checklist of the birds of Brazil by the Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee, updated June 2015 - based on the checklist of the South American Classification Committee (SACC). Atualizado julho de 2020. A taxonomia e nomenclatura seguem o Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos (CBRO), Lista anotada das aves do Brasil pelo Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos, atualizada em junho de 2015 - fundamentada na lista do Comitê de Classificação da América do Sul (SACC).
    [Show full text]
  • Bolivia: the Andes and Chaco Lowlands
    BOLIVIA: THE ANDES AND CHACO LOWLANDS TRIP REPORT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017 By Eduardo Ormaeche Blue-throated Macaw www.birdingecotours.com [email protected] 2 | T R I P R E P O R T Bolivia, October/November 2017 Bolivia is probably one of the most exciting countries of South America, although one of the less-visited countries by birders due to the remoteness of some birding sites. But with a good birding itinerary and adequate ground logistics it is easy to enjoy the birding and admire the outstanding scenery of this wild country. During our 19-day itinerary we managed to record a list of 505 species, including most of the country and regional endemics expected for this tour. With a list of 22 species of parrots, this is one of the best countries in South America for Psittacidae with species like Blue-throated Macaw and Red-fronted Macaw, both Bolivian endemics. Other interesting species included the flightless Titicaca Grebe, Bolivian Blackbird, Bolivian Earthcreeper, Unicolored Thrush, Red-legged Seriema, Red-faced Guan, Dot-fronted Woodpecker, Olive-crowned Crescentchest, Black-hooded Sunbeam, Giant Hummingbird, White-eared Solitaire, Striated Antthrush, Toco Toucan, Greater Rhea, Brown Tinamou, and Cochabamba Mountain Finch, to name just a few. We started our birding holiday as soon as we arrived at the Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, birding the grassland habitats around the terminal. Despite the time of the day the airport grasslands provided us with an excellent introduction to Bolivian birds, including Red-winged Tinamou, White-bellied Nothura, Campo Flicker, Chopi Blackbird, Chotoy Spinetail, White Woodpecker, and even Greater Rhea, all during our first afternoon.
    [Show full text]
  • Brazil's Eastern Amazonia
    The loud and impressive White Bellbird, one of the many highlights on the Brazil’s Eastern Amazonia 2017 tour (Eduardo Patrial) BRAZIL’S EASTERN AMAZONIA 8/16 – 26 AUGUST 2017 LEADER: EDUARDO PATRIAL This second edition of Brazil’s Eastern Amazonia was absolutely a phenomenal trip with over five hundred species recorded (514). Some adjustments happily facilitated the logistics (internal flights) a bit and we also could explore some areas around Belem this time, providing some extra good birds to our list. Our time at Amazonia National Park was good and we managed to get most of the important targets, despite the quite low bird activity noticed along the trails when we were there. Carajas National Forest on the other hand was very busy and produced an overwhelming cast of fine birds (and a Giant Armadillo!). Caxias in the end came again as good as it gets, and this time with the novelty of visiting a new site, Campo Maior, a place that reminds the lowlands from Pantanal. On this amazing tour we had the chance to enjoy the special avifauna from two important interfluvium in the Brazilian Amazon, the Madeira – Tapajos and Xingu – Tocantins; and also the specialties from a poorly covered corner in the Northeast region at Maranhão and Piauí states. Check out below the highlights from this successful adventure: Horned Screamer, Masked Duck, Chestnut- headed and Buff-browed Chachalacas, White-crested Guan, Bare-faced Curassow, King Vulture, Black-and- white and Ornate Hawk-Eagles, White and White-browed Hawks, Rufous-sided and Russet-crowned Crakes, Dark-winged Trumpeter (ssp.
    [Show full text]