January 28-February 11, 2026 with Marcelo Barreiros
Brazil has 27 states and Bahia is certainly one of the Top 3 states for birding in the country due to its variety of habitats (Caatinga, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest), with almost 800 species of birds to find. We started in the capital, Salvador, driving north with a brief stop in a small patch of Cerrado habitat to find some hard birds like Golden-fronted Parakeet, Plain-crowned Elaenia, Glittering-bellied Emerald and a gorgeous male Blue Finch. From there, we drove for about one hour to visit a completely different habitat, a lowland Atlantic Forest, home to several endemic (and endangered!!) species and our main target was the rarely seen Fringe-backed Fire-eye and we had huge help from our friend Cóe to do it. We walked along the trails for a couple of hours and a few other good species were found, like Bahia Antwren, Sooretama Slaty-Antshrike, and Golden-spangled Piculet (Bahia subspecies), Atlantic Plain Xenops and a roosting Rufous Nightjar. Right after the nightjar, a male Fringe-backed Fire-eye responded to the playback and finally showed himself very well. Still in the lowlands, we made another stop in a nice forest fragment to see Pale-bellied Tyrant-Manakin, Blue-backed Manakin and the mega rare Pernambuco Foliage-Gleaner, which was seen briefly and we did a second visit to the place to see it again. Even further north, at Conde we did very well seeing the small population of Gray-breasted Parakeet along the mangrove, and also great looks at Planalto Woodcreeper, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Rufous Crab Hawk, Golden-capped Parakeet, Pinnated Bittern, Aplomado Falcon and Azure Gallinule. After those great days, we started going south, towards Itacaré and along the way, we had time to find Stripe-necked Pygmy-Tyrant and the great Pectoral Antwren.
Back to the lowlands, we had big challenges and also great rewards, starting near Itacaré, where we made a quick but very productive stop and had Red-headed and White-crowned manakins, the gorgeous Yellow-backed, Opal-rumped and White-bellied tanagers, both Green and Red-legged honeycreepers and the greatest bird of the morning, Striped Manakin displaying for us. Later on that day, we had time to visit a nice road to find more new species for us, like the White-fronted Nunbird, Yellow-green Grosbeak, Red-stained Woodpecker, Scaled Antbird and a gorgeous male Bare-throated Bellbird. Itacaré has many great birds, but one is more special than the others, the Bahia Tapaculo, a little bird that likes to live by the creeks in the middle of the forest and does not like to be seen. Thanks to some friends who had been in the area earlier than us, we had fresh news about the good territories and found a very responsive bird that came into the recording and showed itself a couple of times for the group. Beyond the biggest target, we also found other great species like the Least Pygmy Owl, Green-headed Tanager, Streak-capped Antwren, Eared Pygmy-Tyrant, Chestnut-backed Antshrike and Band-tailed Antwren.
From Itacaré, we drove to one of the most special places in Bahia, the city of Boa Nova, which is located exactly between two Biomes, the Caatinga and Atlantic Forest and due to this, a unique habitat may be found around the town, the viny forest. That's a location where we can find humid forest birds like Black-billed Scythbill, Rufous Gnateater, Crescent-chested Puffbird, Striated Softtail, Fork-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant and some Caatinga species like Spotted Piculet, Hangnest Tody-Tyrant, Planalto Slaty-Antshrike, Narrow-billed Antwren, and Gray-headed Spinetail. Between those two great biomes, we have a very special forest called the Viny Forest, dense, thick and with huge bromeliads on the ground. Those plants are called "gravatá" in Portuguese and that habitat is home to a special bird, the Slender Antbird. We visited the Lajedo dos Beija-flores, a place with several feeders, lots of flowers and now they are also feeding other species with worms like Slender Antbird, Silvery-cheeked Antshrike, Great Antshrike, Sooty-fronted Spinetail and Planalto Slaty-Antshrike.
From the mountains we drove south, but before that we stopped to get another endemic; the Bahia Tyrannulet was seen very nicely along the way and we kept going to the lowlands of Porto Seguro, the first place where the Portuguese ship arrived in Brazil, in 1500. The Veracel reserve is still great, a place to see many rare species like Black-headed Fruiteater, Ochre-marked Parakeet, Red-browed Parrot, Ringed Woodpecker (endemic Black-breasted subspecies) and the rarely seen White-winged Potoo, and this is the nominate subspecies, which means this is the first described and the Amazonian one is probably something else.
This year, due to the logistic issues, we had to finish our tour in Camacan, with 2 fantastic days along the trails of the Serra Bonita reserve, but before going uphill we made a very productive stop at Fazenda Paris for another huge target, the Banded Cotinga. I heard from some friends the bird hasn't been seen feeding on the palm trees in a while but we stopped anyway and after a couple of hours waiting, an immature male showed up for us and we were able to scope it for everyone. In addition to that gorgeous blue and purple bird, we also saw Maroon-faced Parakeet, lots of Yellow-rumped and Red-rumped caciques and a family of Cream-colored Woodpecker, which is another rare bird in the lowlands. When our heart beat went back to normal after the Cotinga, we arrived on the reserve to enjoy the beautiful forest and its treasures like Sharpbill, Spot-billed Toucanet, Buff-bellied Puffbird, Rufous-brown Solitaire, Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, a Mantled Hawk soaring over the reserve, Star-throated Antwren and some of the rarest birds in the area, Salvadori's Antwren, Plumbeous Antvireo and pair of Pink-legged Graveteiro.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/474628
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/bbh26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Barreiros