June 10-25, 2026 with Marcelo Barreiros & Sebastião (CJL guide and boat pilot)
This is, in my opinion, a Top 3 tour in Brazil, going through three habitats and fantastic birding spots. It's been tough to plan the tour due to the flight schedule between Cuiabá and Alta Floresta and we had to use the Sinop airport instead, which is 4 h away by car from Alta Floresta. After this transfer day, we spent 5 great days exploring the fantastic forest around the lodge, including the two canopy towers where we did very well seeing, White-browed Purpletuft, Strong-billed Woodcreeper, White-bellied Parrot, the gorgeous Black-girdled Barbet, our best view in many years of Crimson-bellied Parakeet, and a pair of Black-faced Dacnis feeding on the fruiting tree by Tower I. During a couple of hours on top of Tower II, we were able to see all the Ramphastidae (toucans) species, including the most wanted ones like Curl-crested Aracari and Gould's Toucanet. Along the rivers and the flooded forest trails, we also did very well, going all the way upstream to the Hoatzin, Band-tailed Antbird, Long-billed Woodcreeper, American Pygmy Kingfisher, nice looks at Flame-crowned Manakin, Amazonian-streaked Antwren, Bronzy Jacamar, the rare Razor-billed Curassow and the fantastic Amazonian Umbrellabird seen along the Ariostro Island.
The lodge has many miles of trails to have fun, and we did it, doing the loop trails through the different habitats, mainly on Terra-Firme, where we spent most of our time looking for understory mixed-species flocks and birds like White-eyed Stipplethroat, Para Greenlet (recent split from Tawny-crowned Greenlet), Gray and Long-winged antwrens, Spix's Woodcreeper and the leaders, Cinereous and Saturnine antshrikes. We also got lucky to get some hard species around the lodge this year, like Scaly-breasted Wren, Black-faced Antbird, Chestnut-crowned Foliage-gleaner, Striated Antbird, Collared Puffbird and a bird we have not seen on the tour in many years, the gorgeous Pavonine Quetzal. Going up to explore the dry forest along the "Serra trail," we had one of the greatest mornings on the tour, enjoying the fruiting and blooming trees by the outlook spot where we saw many beautiful tanagers, like Paradise, Blue-necked, Masked and Opal-rumped, the shy Eastern Striolated Puffbird, Natterer's Slaty Antshrike, Southern White-fringed Antwren, Spotted Puffbird and the rarest hummers on the tour, Fiery-tailed Alwbill and a female Black-bellied Thorntail.
Another fantastic birding experience while in Cristalino is to visit the bathing stations, which are very well maintained by the local guides. The best way to spend the afternoons is to sit down and wait for the birds coming to bathe when the light is going down. That's the best chance to see some hard ones like the endemic Bare-eyed Antbird, Black-spotted Bare-eye, Black-breasted Gnateater (split from Chestnut-belted), both Spot-backed and Dot-backed antbirds, the gorgeous Rose-breasted Chat, some manakins like Snow-capped, White-crowned, and Fiery-capped, and the rarely seen Dusky-cheeked Foliage-gleaner.
This time we went to Chapada dos Guiamarães right after Cristalino and we did very well, visiting the great Jamacá das Araras where some friends are feeding nice birds like Amazonian Motmot, THREE SPECIES OF TINAMOUS SEEN: Little, Undulated and Tataupa tinamous, Red-and-green and Red-shouldered macaws, and Large-billed Antwren. We also had a chance to bird along the dirt roads around Chadapa, with nice Cerrado habitat and more great birds such as White-rumped Tanager, both Chapada and Suiriri flycatchers, Black-throated Saltator, Band-rumped Tanager, Western Fire-eye, Saffron-billed Sparrow, Brown Jacamar and a nice male Dot-eared Coquette.
Then it was time to enjoy the majestic Northern Pantanal, one of the greatest places in the world to see wildlife, and the best one to see the third-largest cat in the world, the Jaguar, as we did. Still, we also had some birds to see along the way, starting at the Piuval lodge, right at the beginning of the Transpantaneira road, where we had a great time seeing Great-rufous Woodcreeper, the Pantanal specialty Mato Grosso Antbird, a gorgeous male Scarlet-headed Blackbird, Red-billed Scythebill, a nice Flavescent Warbler, Yellow-collared Macaw, our first pair of Hyacinth Macaws, the regular Red-legged Seriema family who lives near the rooms, and many water birds like Jabiru, Woodstork and hundreds of egrets. We also had a great time on a boat trip along the Cuiabá River and its tributaries, where we saw not only Jaguars, but also White-throated Piping-guan, Boat-billed Heron, Sunbittern, and a nice group of Giant River Otters. Speaking of mammals, we were lucky to get both White-lipped and White-collared peccaries, Marsh Deer, Crab-eating Fox, White-whiskered Spider Monkey, Silvered Marmoset and a group of South American Coati. Our final full day was cold and windy in the Pantanal, driving back towards Cuiabá, with nice birding stops to see the Subtropical Doradito, Rusty-collared and Tawny-bellied seedeaters, and before driving to the airport, we had time to find a few new species for the tour, like Planalto Woodcreeper, Dull-capped Attila and five Maguari Stork.
It was a great tour and there's always more to see!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/543278
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/alp26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Barreiros