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The 2016 Rio Roosevelt tour was a beauty -- especially after Bill and Sue received their days-late luggage! The dry season had just come into full swing and we had almost no rain to deal with, yet the river levels were perfectly fine for moving around on both the Roosevelt and the smaller Madeirinha. Our tour opened with birding on the west side of the Madeira, where there are many species not present on the Roosevelt. Our only “rain-out” happened there, closing us out of one morning’s venue in some of the best remaining tall forest near the town of Humaita. Still, the Humaita area was very good to us, highlighted by a truly fabulous Ocellated Crake that, after teasing us with several flashes in the grass, paraded out into the open for several seconds of great viewing for all. That is a mega-rare event, my friends! Other specialties of the isolated grasslands in that region included Azure Gallinule, White-eared Puffbird, Rusty-backed Antwren, Cinereous-breasted Spinetail, Sharp-tailed Tyrants, Black-masked Finches, Tawny-bellied and Dark-throated seedeaters, and a host of open-country flycatchers. Forested tracks yielded Amazonian Pygmy-Owl, Bluish-fronted Jacamar, Gilded Barbet, Brown-banded Puffbird, Golden-collared Toucanet, Bar-breasted Piculet, great views of the recently described Predicted Antwren, Peruvian Warbling-Antbird, White-throated Antbird, the rarely seen Humaita Antbird, an as-yet-undescribed species of tody-tyrant (related to Snethlage’s Tody-tyrant), exceptional views of Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher, Fiery-capped Manakin, White-browed Purpletuft, Paradise Tanagers, and a passel of Short-billed Honeycreepers. Least Nighthawks put on a good show, and a Spot-tailed Nightjar joined us for a predawn breakfast at the hotel, foraging on bugs attracted by the lights; check out Daphne’s photo, below!

What a delightful morning we had on the day we made our charter flight to the Pousada Rio Roosevelt. It was great to sleep in a bit, then make our leisurely way to the airport, board our comfortable little plane, and enjoy the ride, leaving behind the cities and roadways to immerse ourselves in the wilds of the south-central Amazon, based for the next week at the lovely Pousada Rio Roosevelt. Life is GOOD! At first, we paralleled the great Rio Madeira, visible out the left-side windows, then we turned well to the east, crossing the Rio Machado, then traversing a vast mosaic of natural campos and forest patches before once again passing over vast tracts of unbroken forest. Then, quite suddenly, we were over the venerable “River of Doubt”! Our pilots made two wide loops over the river and the foaming Santa Rita rapids, to give folks on both sides a macaw’s-eye view of this incredible landscape, quite unchanged in the 100+ years since the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition made its laborious way around the dark, mysterious curves of this uncharted river. Seconds later, we were on the ground. HOORAY! And just a couple of hours later, after settling into our cabins and enjoying that first delicious lunch, it sank in that we were in a truly special place, where populations of all the myriad plants and animals of the south-central Amazon were perfectly intact. On our first birding outing that afternoon, for some added perspective, I had our boatmen pull the boats up to the base of Santa Rita rapids, which was thundering away through a narrow gorge. Unable to hear even the boat motors revving to hold us in position, we could easily sense the power of that concentrated volume of water: “Awesome!” And to think: there were catfish decades old and weighing 200 pounds swimming around in the dark depths just below us.

Mention of just a few birding highlights must include the Ornate Hawk-Eagle on a hunting perch, visible from the veranda of the dining room after our first breakfast at the pousada, multiple good views of (gorgeous!) Black-bellied Cuckoos, that Pavonine Cuckoo that performed so nicely late one afternoon, scope views of both White-winged and Rufous potoos, good looks at all of the five kingfishers on the list, the vying White-necked and Pied puffbirds seen from the tower, super views of rarely seen Striolated Puffbirds, a stunning Blue-cheeked Jacamar, Black-girdled Barbets, Golden-green and Red-necked woodpeckers, a fantastic Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon, and a bunch of beautiful Crimson-bellied Parakeets. Among a lengthy roster of ant-things, outstanding were Glossy and Pearly antshrikes, Roosevelt Stipple-throated Antwren (name soon to be changed to Rio Roosevelt Stipplethroat; all Epinecrophylla will become “stipplethroats”), the pair of Sclater’s Antwrens that approached us to within six feet (atop the tower!), nice views of Aripuana Antwren and Manicore Warbling-Antbird, both described new to science only in 2013, a breathtakingly close Ferruginous-backed Antbird, and a pair of endemic White-breasted Antbirds at a big army ant swarm. Hoffmann’s, Uniform, and Rondonia woodcreepers were all seen well. Some tricky little tyrannids put on very nice shows as well: Buff-cheeked Tody-Flycatcher (really a tody-tyrant), Zimmer’s Tody-Tyrant, and the newly described (2013) Chico’s Tyrannulet, which refused to show up until I was literally seconds from calling it quits. Cotingas were relatively few, but we enjoyed nice views of male Pompadour and Spangled. A flashy male Snow-capped Manakin was tops in that department. We had a rare sighting of the Amazonian endemic subspecies of Plush-crested Jay, which was a very impressive bird. The treetops held many smaller gems in the forms of tanagers and honeycreepers, and we had a nice view of Tooth-billed Wren as well.

We saw three(!) Brazilian Tapirs, one at really close range. White-nosed Bearded Sakis, really handsome primates, paraded across the trail for us on our first morning on the Roosevelt, and it was great fun to watch a trio of Giant Otters catching fish trapped in a small backwater pond off the Roosevelt one afternoon. I’ll drop in some video of these and many others of our sightings, with thanks, too, to Daphne for contributing some of her excellent photos from the tour.

Thanks so much for joining me for this visit to the pristine Rio Roosevelt; we had a lot of fun in our two weeks. Until we meet again, happy and safe travels to all -- you know where to find me for our next birding adventure! -- Bret

KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Among other creatures we encountered were a couple of enormous Black Caiman, a few smaller, Spectacled Caiman, the little Myotis nigrescens bats doing their dusk patrols of sections of forest trails, and, of course, lots of Peacock Bass (the "tucunare" - would you believe, 11 big ones caught in about 15 minutes!), and the "corvina" schooling fish that grind three "rocks" (calcium stones) in their heads, quite easily audible from our seats in the boats!

Totals for the tour: 391 bird taxa and 13 mammal taxa