For an informative overview of all our Brazil birding tours, see Brazil: Field Guides Tours.

The far northeastern edge of South America harbors one of the most poorly known avifaunas in the Neotropics. In 2011, we will operate our eighteenth tour to this "Brazilian Outback." Our route has been copied by many (actually, everyone), but none can match our year-over-year performance or level of comfort and "survivability" (we use quiet, luxurious Greyhound-size buses whenever possible and stay in the best hotels).

Much of the northeast is seasonally quite arid and covered with a low, thorny woodland and scrub characterized by abundant cacti and terrestrial bromeliads. This strange habitat, stark and hauntingly beautiful, is the caatinga, one of the most extensively altered habitats in South America. Many of its endemic birds rank among the most poorly known and rarest in the New World. Foremost is the magnificent Lear's Macaw: fewer than 500 pairs are known to exist. If the rain, tire, and radiator gods are with us (meaning we make it to the area), we will see Lear's Macaws, not a moment too soon. But not all of northeastern Brazil is covered with caatinga. Semi-deciduous woodland and cerrado scrub in a magnificent setting of ancient buttes and mesas are also important habitats. Specialties to be sought here include the spectacular Hooded Visorbearer, Great Xenops (there is only one Megaxenops!), and the gorgeous Araripe Manakin. And then there are the isolated, endangered Atlantic Forests of eastern Pernambuco and Alagoas, the last stronghold for many other rare endemics such as the elusive White-collared Kite, ultra-rare Fringe-backed Fire-eye, bizarre Pink-legged Graveteiro (described in 1996; Bret was a co-author), and the stunning Seven-colored Tanager.

Hummingbird fans! See our Hummer Slideshow plus a listing of all our best itineraries for 30, 40, even 50 or more hummingbirds on a tour.

We'll close the tour with a festive evening and dinner in the beautiful, colonial part of Salvador, Bahia, one of the oldest cities in the Americas and the capital of Brazil for more than 200 years. It's an amazing, spiritual place.

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