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. dextralis), Long-tailed Ground Dove, Hoatzin, Pavonine Cuckoo, Silky- tailed and Blackish Nightjars, Streak-throated, Long-tailed and Cinnamon-throated (Maranhao) Hermits, 1 BirdQuest Tour Report: Brazil’s Eastern Amazonia 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com Crimson Topaz, Racket-tailed Coquette, Rufous-throated Sapphire, Blue-necked, Green-tailed, Paradise and Great Jacamars, Pied, Spotted, Collared, Eastern Striolated, Caatinga and Rufous-necked Puffbirds, Rusty- breasted and Rufous-capped Nunlets, the localized Brown-chested Barbet, Lettered, Red-necked and Black- necked Aracaris, Gould’s Toucanet, Bar-breasted and Spotted Piculets, White-throated, Yellow-throated, Golden-green, Waved, Chestnut, Ochre-backed, Cream-colored, Red-necked, Crimson-crested and Kaempfer’s Woodpeckers, Black and Red-throated Caracaras, Cryptic Forest Falcon, White-winged, Golden-winged and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets, the endemic Vulturine Parrot, Yellow-crowned, Orange- winged and Southern Mealy Amazons, Red-fan Parrot, Peach-fronted, Santarem and endemics Pearly and Jandaya Parakeets, Hyacinth, Scarlet, Red-and-green and Chestnut-fronted Macaws, the uncommon endemic Golden Parakeet, Ruddy, Chestnut-throated, Ochre-cheeked, Chotoy, Rusty-backed and Speckled Spinetails, Chestnut-crowned and the endemic Para Foliage-gleaners, Slender-billed Xenops, Long-billed, Cinnamon-throated, endemic Brigida’s, Strong-billed (ssp. carajaensis), rare endemic Moustached, Amazonian Barred (both subspecies concolor and retentus), endemic Hoffmann’s, Black-banded, Planalto, Elegant, endemic Spix’s, Buff-throated, Narrow-billed, Rondonia and endemic Layard’s Woodcreepers, Curve-billed and Red-billed Scythebills, endemic Glossy, Natterer’s Slaty, Planalto Slaty, Amazonian, Saturnine and Spot-winged Antshrikes, White-eyed, Ornate, Plain-throated, Amazonian Streaked, Long- winged, Ihering’s and Grey Antwrens, the uncommon Banded Antbird, Black-capped, rare endemic Pectoral, Rufous-winged, Dot-winged, Southern White-fringed and Rusty-backed Antwrens, Blackish and Manu Antbirds, endemics Spix’s Warbling and Rufous-faced Antbirds, the rare Wing-banded Antbird, the localized Harlequin Antbird, spot-backed and Xingu Scale-backed Antbirds, Black-spotted Bare-eye, Rufous-capped Antthrush, Variegated, Snethlage’s and Amazonian Antpittas, Chestnut-belted, endemics Black-bellied and Hooded Gnateaters, Rusty-belted Tapaculo, Wing-barred Piprites, Amazonian and Southern Scrub Flycatchers, Snethlage’s Tody-Tyrant, the new species ‘Maranhao-Piauí’ Pygmy Tyrant, the rare Black-and- white Tody-Flycatcher and Black-chested Tyrant, Zimmer’s Flatbill (ssp. sucunduri, proposed as new species), White-crested Spadebill, Blackish Pewee, Dusky-chested Flycatcher, Rufous and endemic Ash- throated Casiornis, Purple-breasted, Spangled and endemic White-tailed Cotingas, White and Bearded Bellbirds, Guianan Red Cotinga, Purple-throated Fruitcrow, Pale-bellied Tyrant-Manakin, Fiery-capped, Snow-capped, endemic Opal-crowned, Band-tailed and Red-headed Manakins, Sharpbill, White-browed Purpletuft, Pink-throated Becard, Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo, endemic White-napped Jay, White-banded and Black-collared Swallows, Coraya Wren, Eastern Slaty Thrush, Golden-sided Euphonia, Olive and Green Oropendolas, Screaming Cowbird, Campo Troupial, Pale Baywing, Red-cowled Cardinal, endemic Para Gnatcatcher, Black-faced, Red-billed Pied, Fulvous-crested, White-rumped, White-winged Shrike, Turquoise, Spotted, Bay-headed, Masked and Red (Lowland Hepatic) Tanagers, Coal-crested Finch, Grey Pileated Finch, Wing-barred, endemic White-throated and uncommon Blackish-blue Seedeaters, Rose-breasted Chat, Sooty Grassquit and Yellow-shouldered Grosbeaks. This second edition of Brazil’s Eastern Amazonia started on August 8th with group arrival (for the pre-tour extension) at Hotel Vila Rica in Belem, the capital of Pará state. The birdwatching began in the afternoon right at the hotel grounds, with large groups of White-winged Parakeet feeding on palms in the garden, plus few other nice birds - Fork-tailed Palm Swift and Spotted Tody-Flycatcher - and some of the common species such as Black and Greater Yellow-headed Vultures, Yellow-headed Caracara, Great Kiskadee, Palm and Blue-grey Tanagers and Tropical Kingbird. Later we visited the small zoo-park Mangal das Garças near the old downtown by the large Guama River. Besides all the loose captive birds around there, we found Sulphury Flycatcher and our main target endemic species, Buff-browed Chachalaca. The chachalaca lives in a little corner of tall second growth just behind the park. After some play-back at least two birds provided long and decent views, indeed very cooperative. We also enjoyed a little the lookout by the river with some White-winged Swallows, Great Egret and more Palm Swifts. Back to Vila Rica Hotel, we had a nice meal in the evening and a good night of sleep. August 9th. With our flight to Itaituba only in the afternoon, we had almost the whole morning to explore the surroundings of Belem. With a local help (ornithologist friend Sidnei Dantas) we visited the Gunma Ecological Park in Santa Barbara do Pará, a nice portion of forest only 45 km from the hotel. We had a good morning of birding, starting lucky with the sought-after Willis’s Antbird, a male Racket-tailed Coquette that appeared at the place, and a very obliging pair of Amazonian Scrub Flycatcher. Later at the path in the forest 2 BirdQuest Tour Report: Brazil’s Eastern Amazonia 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com we found Lettered, Black-necked and Red-necked (threatened ssp. bitorquatus) Aracaris, Paradise Jacamar, Green-backed Trogon, Golden-sided Euphonia, Southern White-fringed Antwren, Grey-chested Greenlet, Guianan Tyrannulet, Purple Honeycreeper, White-browed Purpletuft, Layard’s Woodcreeper and Black- spotted Bare-eye. We also glimpsed a pair of Sapphire-rumped Parrotlet passing over the clearing but unfortunately too fast. Forest edge on the way out still provided another sighting of Buff-browed Chachalaca and the lovely Slaty-headed Tody-Flycatcher. In the beginning of afternoon we had our flight to Itaituba with arrival around five pm. From Itaituba we drove south about an hour along the west bank of Tapajos to reach the nice front-river ground of Pousada Portal do Parque Nacional, just beside the Amazonia National Park. The climate conditions were very dry and the road very dusty. We got there just before dusk, in good time to check in. The homemade dinner was good and we could go early to bed. Below some of the images taken in Belem and Gunma Ecological Park (Eduardo Patrial): White-winged Parakeet Amazonian Scrub Flycatcher The Brazilian endemic Buff-browed Chachalaca August 10th was our first full day at Amazonia National Park (ANP). We had a very productive morning doing the nearby Tracoá Trail that margins the Igarapé (small river) Tracoá until its mouth on the large Tapajos, a nice trail of dense terra firme forest and also a stretch of igapó (floodable) when close to the Tapajos. We began the trail with splendid sightings of a Bar-breasted Piculet family and also the impressive Long-billed Woodcreeper. Deeper on the trail then we found the Brazilian endemic Glossy Antshrike, also a flock with Cinereous Antshrike, White-flanked and Grey Antwrens, Rufous-tailed Foliage-gleaner and Speckled Spinetail; later an Elegant Woodcreeper, White-browed Purpletuft, a couple of Amazonian Streaked Antwren, Chestnut-backed Antshrike, plenty of Black-fronted Nunbird, a pair of Band-tailed Antbird, the uncommon White-browed Hawk, a Brazilian Tinamou luckily on the trail, and few more species at the igapó stretch, including Cream-colored Woodpecker, Black-capped and Cinereous Becards, Forest Elaenia, Zimmer’s (Sucunduri) Flatbill, Olivaceous and Striped Woodcreepers and the beautiful Green-tailed Jacamar 3 BirdQuest Tour Report: Brazil’s Eastern Amazonia 2017 www.birdquest-tours.com (the last two on our way back). We also checked the bushy