June 9-24, 2025 with Marcelo Barreiros & CJL guide Francisco
This Rainforest & Savanna tour was a bit different this year, due to the flight schedule changes. We had to spend only one night in Chapada dos Guimarães instead of two and, unfortunately, we did not have enough time to visit all the regular places. Nevertheless, we managed to see most of the most wanted species in the area, like White-eared Puffbird, White-rumped Tanager, Collared Crescentchest, White-eared Puffbird, the rare Dot-eared Coquette, Planalto Slaty-Antshrike, Large-billed Antwren and Curl-crested Jay. We also had time to visit the nice Jamacá das Araras private area, where some tinamous sometimes show up, but maybe, due to the weather, the birds were shy on that morning, but one of the stars of the place, the Amazonian Motmot, was there and gave us a fantastic show.
After that, we flew to Alta Floresta to spend one night on the great Fazenda Anacã hotel with our friends Fernão and Viviana. We did not have too much time to explore the area but in the afternoon we were able to walk on one of their trails and we managed to find 4 species of primates, White-bellied Spider Monkey, Brown Capuchin, Alta Floresta Titi and Common Squirrel Monkey and later, just before sunset, by the lake, we saw Point-tailed Palmcreeper, Blue-and-yellow Macaw, Glossy Antshrike, Little Cuckoo and Chestnut-fronted Macaw. As we had one extra morning in Alta Floresta this time, we went to a nice forest fragment not too far from the town and it was quite productive with great new birds for us, including Amazonian Antshrike, Rusty-margined Antwren, a pair of Short-tailed Nighthawk roosting, Blue-cheeked Jacamar, Spangled Cotinga and our first Razor-billed Curassow.
We arrived at the majestic Cristalino Jungle Lodge (CJL) for 6 days of great experiences, great food, accommodations and, of course, birds. This year we had our friend Francisco as a local guide, the most experienced birding guide in the area, and he helped a lot. As usual, the two canopy towers were amazing, with fantastic birds like Curl-crested Aracari, White-browed Purpletuft, Yellow-bellied Parrot, Red-necked Aracari, Spangled and Pompadour cotingas, Brown-banded and Eastern Striolated Puffbird, Kawall’s Parrot, White-browed Hawk, and a female Bare-necked Fruitcrow building its nest near tower 1. Along the trails, we had nice moments with the rarely seen Cryptic Forest-Falcon, Rufous-necked Puffbird, Plain-throated Antwren, Collared Trogon, Flame-crested Manakin and the gorgeous Collared Puffbird. Another fantastic experience in CJL was the bathing stations maintained by the local guides, where we spent three fantastic afternoons enjoying some rare birds like Fiery-capped, Snow-capped and White-crowned manakins, Spot-backed Antbird, White-winged Shrike-Tanager, Rufous-rumped Foliage-gleaner, Spot-winged Antbird and two of the most wanted ones for the area, Bare-eyed Antbird and Black-spotted Bare-eye. It was very nice to see all those birds relaxing as they came to bathe late in the afternoon right in front of the group. We also had a good time finding mammals like the White-whiskered Spider Monkey, Brown Capuchin, and the largest mammal in South America, the Tapir.
Before saying goodbye to the Amazon Forest, we still had time to see the male Amazonian Umbrellabirds displaying on Ariostro island for a couple of hours and then, drive back to Alta Floresta and fly to Cuiabá where our van was waiting for us to head straight to the northern Pantanal. Even before reaching the Transpantaneira road, we saw our first Giant Anteater and later, along the Aymara Lodge entrance road, a few Common Pauraque and Little Nightjars. We had 6 great days in the Pantanal to explore different habitats, starting with the forest around Aymara Lodge where we had our first Hyacinth Macaw, Planalto Slaty-Antshrike, Red-billed Scythbill, Mato Grosso Antbird, Fuscous Casiornis, and two nice surprises, Bicolored Hawk and a Puma seen by a couple of people running across the trail. We also visited the Rio Claro lodge, where we did a nice boat trip to see White-throated Piping-Guan, a nice Toco Toucan, Great Black Hawk and Rufous Cacholote. The entrance road had some great additions like Great Rufous Woodcreeper, Golden-green Woodpecker, Green-backed Becard, Planalto Woodcreeper, Nanday Parakeet, Scaly-headed Parrot, Rusty-backed Antwren and Crimson-crested Woodpecker.
On our way to Porto Jofre, along the 150km of the Transpantaneira road, we made a few stops to see important birds like Southern Screamer, Jabirus on the nest, lots of Monk Parakeet, and Roseate Spoonbill. Closer to our destination, in a very productive stop, we saw Fawn-breasted Wren, Gray-headed Tanager, Plain Tyrannulet and Golden-crowned Warbler. Our main target for the Porto Jofre area was the Jaguar and we were very lucky to find 5 different individuals during two days cruising along the Cuiabá and Três Irmãos rivers. Besides the majestic cats, we also saw Chotoy Spinetail, Pale-legged Hornero, Orange-backed Troupial and more Hyacinth Macaws. We still had two days left when we started to drive back towards civilization with time to stop and see the rare Subtropical Doradito, Cinereous-breasted Spinetail, Double-collared, Rusty-collared and Tawny-bellied seedeaters, Yellowish Pipit, White-crested Tyrannulet and later on that day, a female Giant Anteater carrying a baby went across the road in front of our car. Our last night was at the nice Pousada Piuval where we had our first Red-legged Seriema, Long-tailed Ground-dove, Chestnut-eared Aracari and at night, a nice Great Potoo during our safari truck ride.
I hope to see you guys soon!
Abraços.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/402484
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/alp25TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Barreiros