Brazil The Atlantic Forest Introtour 17 – 24 July 2010 Tour leader: Nick Athanas Report and photos by Nick Athanas Photo left: Swallow-tailed Manakin at Guapi Assu Winter can be a beautiful time to bird Southeast Brazil. There was a bit of rain for the first couple of days before the clouds retreated and we had fantastic clear, balmy days for the rest of the tour, which certainly helped the bird list. We saw over 300 for the first time on this tour, exceeding even the typically more productive spring tours. Of course numbers are only one aspect of any tour, and the great lodges and cheerful group combined to make it thoroughly enjoyable. My apologies for such a brief report, but time has caught up with me, and I’m writing this the day before my next Brazil tour. It was a very ominous start with torrential rains in Rio the night before the tour; one news report said that some areas got more rain in one day than they normally do in all of July and August! The rains eased off as we drove north out of the city, and apart from some tolerable showers on the first couple of days, we had beautiful weather for the rest of the trip. We spent the tour based only in two lodges, Guapi Assu Bird Lodge and Serra dos Tucanos lodge. Our first destination was Guapi Assu, which has become like a second home to me in recent years. This beautiful lodge gets better every year, and it’s a joy to stay here. It helps that a few minutes walk from the lodge you are birding one of the best freshwater marshes in the entire state, and those wetlands are becoming surrounded by a lush regenerating native forest that can be jammed with passerines. We spent every afternoon in and around the wetlands, and it was a lot of fun, with tons of cool birds like Masked Duck (photo left), White- faced Whistling-Duck, Rufescent Tiger-Heron, Capped Heron, Purple Gallinule, Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift, Amazon Kingfisher, Crescent- chested Puffbird, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, White-barred Piculet, Wing-banded Hornero, Yellow- chinned Spinetail, Chestnut-backed Antshrike, Gray-headed Tody- Flycatcher, Yellow-browed Tyrant, White-headed Marsh-Tyrant, Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 1 Crested Becard, Long-billed Wren, Hooded Tanager, Chestnut-vented Conebill, Yellow-backed Tanager, Turquoise Tanager, and Chestnut-capped Blackbird. Sometimes we stayed out until dark, and this paid off with great views of Scissor-tailed Nightjar, Striped Owl, and Common Potoo. The banana feeders near the lodge were a bit quieter than normal, but they did bring in Rusty-margined Guan, and the hummers were quite good. There were always a least a couple Swallow-tailed Hummers standing guard near the feeders, but we also had Rufous-breasted and Reddish Hermits, Violet-capped Woodnymph, Glittering-throated Emerald, and Brazilian Ruby. Even the farmland near the lodge had some nice birds like Guira Cuckoo, Burrowing Owl, Campo Flicker, and Whistling Heron. However, it’s the Atlantic Rainforest that the reserve was created to protect, and there are many miles of trails to explore. We spent two whole mornings working these trails finding many of the great birds this region is well known for, like Surucua Trogon, Spot-billed Toucanet, Yellow-eared Woodpecker, Rufous-breasted Leaftosser, Planalto and Lesser Woodcreepers, Spot-breasted Antvireo, Star-throated, White-flanked, Unicolored, Rufous-winged, and Streak-capped Antwrens, Scaled Antbird, Black-cheeked Gnateater, Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant, Russet-winged Spadebill, Gray-hooded Attila, Sharpbill, Bare-throated Bellbird, Pin-tailed and Swallow-tailed Manakins, Olive-green, Black-goggled, Rufous-headed, Azure- shouldered, Golden-chevroned, Green-headed, and Red-necked Tanagers. Whistling Herons in a field near Guapi Assu. A handsome Swallow-tailed Hummer guards the Guapi Assu Bird Lodge feeder, and a male White-flanked Antwren, an endemic subspecies that will be split eventually. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 2 On one of our mornings at Guapi Assu, we took an excursion to the Atlantic coast, birding a pretty stretch of beach with ocean on one side and dense coastal scrub on the other. The critically endangered Restinga Antwren was once again easy to find as well as some other endemics, Sooretama Slaty- Antshrike and Hangnest Tody-Tyrant (photo right), though we all enjoyed the fiery red Brazilian Tanagers that spiced up that drab cast of characters. The ocean had some surprises of it’s own, highlighted by several Black-browed Albatrosses that flew amazingly close to shore, a first for this tour. Squadrons of Brown Boobies cruised back and forth among these ocean wanderers, and the odd tern flew by, including South American and Cayenne. The day we left Guapi Assu, we didn’t head straight to our next lodge, but rather took a long detour into drier habitat north of the mountains. Our humorous driver Alcenir proudly stopped the van unexpectedly at what I quickly found out was a new and ridiculously easy place to see the endemic and frenetic Three-toed Jacamar. Soon after, the cartoonish Toco Toucan stopped the show, and over the rest of the morning we had a steady stream of birds. Working the open areas interspersed with patches of forest was easy and fun, and we saw great stuff, much of which we didn’t see elsewhere on the tour: Dusky-legged Guan, Aplomado Falcon, Blue-winged Macaw, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Planalto Hermit, Sapphire-spangled Emerald, White-eared Puffbird, Green-barred Woodpecker, Rufous-capped Spinetail, Rufous-fronted Thornbird, Scaled Woodcreeper, Ferruginous Antbird, Eared Pygmy-Tyrant, Crested Black-Tyrant, White-rumped Monjita, Streamer-tailed Tyrant, Moustached and Long-billed Wrens (which strangely seemed to have paired up), Cinnamon Tanager, Pileated Finch, Chopi Blackbird, and Purple-throated Euphonia. Moustached Wren (left) and Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (right) Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 3 In the afternoon we arrived at Serra dos Tucanos, where we would be based for the rest of the tour. This comfy and well-run lodge has really birdy grounds and makes a good base to visit the higher elevations. Feeders in the garden brought in Plain and Maroon-bellied Parakeets, an endless stream of tanagers and euphonias, and once even a Gray-necked Wood-Rail, while hummers included the endemic Saw-billed Hermit and Sombre Hummingbird. A jaunt on the trails one afternoon finally got us the pesky Rufous-capped Motmot after having utterly failed on previous attempts as well as a Black- throated Trogon and the rare Blue-bellied Parrot. The Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper that lives under the bridge called us over one evening and we had great looks. Sombre Hummer was the dominate species at the Serra dos Tucanos hummer feeders, while Chestnut-bellied Euphonia was one of the many colorful birds coming into bananas. The next day we birded the forest around Macae de Cima, enjoying a number of colorful birds like White-browed Woodpecker, Bertoni’s and Ochre-rumped Antbirds, Hooded Berryeater, another Bare- throated Bellbird, Black-and-gold Cotinga, Rufous-crowned Greenlet, Brassy-breasted Tanager, and Green-winged Saltator. Mixed species flocks kept us busy sorting through Pallid Spinetail, White- collared Foliage-gleaner, Pale-browed Treehunter, Gray-capped Tyrannulet (photo left), and others. We had lunch in David Miller’s orchid reserve, enjoying his coffee and the hummers coming to his feeders, including Scale-throated Hermit and White-throated Hummingbird. The highest elevations can be accessed by a steep cobbled road that goes most of the way up to Pico da Caledonia. This site has become popular with birders lately after a small population of Gray-winged Cotinga was discovered here some years ago. It’s got a miniscule range, and it used to be you could only get this bird by hiking for six hours up a steep trail. Now you can drive right to it – or almost! Near the top, a landslide had taken most of the road away, and we weren’t about to drive around it with the sheer cliff on the other side. It was safe enough to walk around, and we did see the cotinga along with other high altitude specialties like Plovercrest, Itatiaia Spinetail, Large-tailed Antshrike, Rufous-tailed Antbird, Diademed Tanager, Thick-billed Saltator, and Bay-chested Warbling-Finch. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 4 One of the benefits of Brazilian flight schedules is that you can cram a lot of birding into an eight day tour. On our last day, no one had to be at the airport until late afternoon, giving us a whole morning to enjoy. We walked an overgrown trail that follows an old railway, about 20 minutes from the lodge. It’s not the sort of trail you see lots of birds on, but it was great for skulkers, including Rufous-backed Antvireo, both Such’s and Rufous-trailed Anthrushes, Black-billed Scythebill, and Greenish Schiffornis, but the undoubted highlight was a Slaty Bristlefront that just about walked over our feet. It was a nice bird to go out on. We had lunch back at the lodge, then had a chance to shower and pack up before driving back to the airport, enjoying the sites of Rio from the 12 km long Niteroi Bridge. We bid goodbye to some of the group, while a few of us flew to Cuiabá to start the Pantanal and Amazon tour. Ochre-rumped Antbird Rufous-crowned Greenlet Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 5 BIRD LIST This list includes all the bird species that were recorded by at least one of the group, including the leader. Taxonomy and nomenclature follow: Clements, James F.