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This 2019 tour, our inaugural run for the Blue-eyed Ground-Dove and numerous other rarely seen birds, was a beauty, and is destined to be a real “keeper”! As predicted (and ardently hoped), weather was near-perfect on the whole route, and it was a big one, encompassing much of the São Francisco River basin of northern Minas Gerais, and a huge fazenda and surrounding lands in the Araguaia basin of southwest Tocantins state. Daytime highs were about 75-88, with lows at night in the mid-upper 60s, no rain to bother us at all (this was, in fact, a remarkably dry year in northern Minas Gerais). On top of this, birding conditions were especially pleasant for the near-total lack of nasty insects; one morning in Tocantins near the bank of the Rio Formoso, where there were lots of “no-seeums,” was really the only time we had to deal with bugs, including chiggers, which hit just a couple of folks on one day early in the trip.

Everyone arrived into Brasilia to start the tour just fine, no significant delays or luggage problems (which is the usual case in Brazil, but you never know). Our birding got off the ground in Brasilia, with a fine afternoon outing in nearby cerrado and gallery woodland that started immediately as Marcelo pointed out a gorgeous adult male Helmeted Manakin quietly eating fruit in a shrub right beside the trail – a fabulous first bird of the tour, and we ended up seeing several more over the next couple of hours. Other great highlights of that walk were a pair of White-striped Warblers that danced right up to us, a White-vented Violetear taking a bath, and a handsome pair of Whistling Herons that flew in out of nowhere to land near our group. Next morning saw us headed to the airport to get flights to Minas Gerais on a long travel day, which, however, put us into good position for a week of productive birding ahead.

The São Francisco basin of northern Minas, the largest in all of eastern Brazil, was once covered in tall, semi-deciduous forest. Nearly 400 years of (non-native) human occupation has resulted in conversion of much of the land to agriculture and livestock raising, albeit not especially productive practices. Forests and woodlands, especially cerrado woodlands, have been reduced greatly by cutting for production of charcoal, and we saw many large trucks hauling “carvão” on the highways of Minas Gerais. There remain, however, quite a few parks and reserves scattered through the state, and we enjoyed excellent birding at several of them.

Our visit to the Blue-eyed Ground-Dove Reserve outside the little town of Botumirim was certainly among the overall trip highlights, especially because we got to watch a pair of these ultra-rare ground-doves (21 individuals definitely known to exist) for 10-15 minutes in the scopes at very close range. A heart-felt thanks to SAVEBrasil guide Marcelo Lisita, who accompanied us into the reserve, and was extremely helpful in all ways. We are grateful for the creative efforts of both SAVEBrasil and Rainforest Trust in teaming up to secure the habitat for the ground-doves and establish this very important reserve. The overall landscape and habitats at the reserve were beautiful on that bright, clear morning, and we found several other great birds in the immediate environs, most notably a couple of Horned Sungems that were feeding on tiny flowers blooming along the roadsides. The next day found most of us winding our way upwards to a higher-elevation valley called “campima bananal” along a narrow, rocky trail. It was an invigorating hike that paid off grandly with (after quite a bit of effort!) close views of Cipo Canastero, male and female Hyacinth Visorbearer, and Cinereous Warbling-Finch. Our simple little hotel in Botumirim and the private residence where we took our meals were charming, clean and comfortable, and our stay was a delight. We are excited to take our next group back to the reserve, next year!

Some of the other highlight areas we birded in Minas Gerais were Lapa Grande State Park, which yielded a much-wanted Chestnut-capped Foliage-gleaner, Minas Gerais and Reiser’s tyrannulets in the same trees (both of these quite poorly known), Sao Francisco and Saffron-billed sparrows, and the recently described “Dry Forest Sabrewing”; and also Peruaçu Caverns National Park, where we eventually managed to spot Golden-capped Parakeets, Caatinga Black-Tyrant, and a pair of massive Moustached Woodcreepers before high-tailing it to the river itself where we hit a homer in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs as we pulled in a very close Bahian (Plain-tailed) Nighthawk, whew!

The travel day required to transit from Montes Claros in Minas Gerais to Palmas, the capital of Tocantins state, went by much more calmly than expected due to our three flights being right on time, the third of which had actually been moved earlier (the right direction for us!) sometime after we wrote the tour itinerary, so that was most welcome. And that “lost day” was well worth it, we decided, because it led to four days of relaxed but productive birding at Fazenda Praia Alta. The fazenda encompasses some 10,000 acres of mixed agriculture and woodlands right along the Rio Formoso, which is a tributary of the Rio Araguaia. Shrinking wetlands concentrated waterbirds, especially Snail Kites, Limpkins, storks and whistling-ducks, the latter present in the tens of thousands and putting on an unforgettable show at dusk one evening as they restlessly swarmed off to nocturnal feeding areas against a gorgeous, red-orange sunset. Groups of Greater Rheas were a common sight, and we even got to watch a male trying to keep his harem together with hunched, wing-drooping displays. Local specialties Orinoco Goose, Azure Gallinule, Bananal Antbird, Crimson-fronted Cardinal, and an as-yet-undescribed spinetail cooperated nicely as well. It was fun to hear and see a huge Horned Screamer high in a dead tree, Hoatzins several times, Sungrebes a couple of times, and also to spot an Orange-backed Troupial to go with the black-backed Campo Troupials we had seen earlier in the tour. A late-afternoon boat-trip on the Rio Formoso was especially fun, as we sat ringside to a great show of feeding and flying Yellow-collared Macaws, a handsome pair of the cardinals that came in close from a very long way off, migrant elaenias and other flycatchers, and good comparisons of pairs of Rusty-backed and the afore-mentioned undescribed spinetails. Constant river companions around the same sandbar were Black Skimmers, Yellow-billed and Large-billed terns, and Pied Lapwings. It was relaxing and lots of fun staying at Praia Alta, and they took great care of us. I was able to send the drone up for a few minutes of aerial video, which revealed miles of incredibly beautiful underwater sandbars which are probably now exposed, as the river level has continued to drop (I'll include some drone footage in the triplist, below).

We put a wrap on the tour with a final morning in bamboo-dominated woodland, in search of Kaempfer’s Woodpecker. Our first stop was good for several species (especially Manu Antbirds!), and we had stunning views of a male Ochre-backed Woodpecker (recently split from Blond-crested), but there was no sign of the Kaempfer's that Marcelo and I had found there, scouting just ahead of the tour. Happily, “Plan B” worked to perfection as we visited another territory we’d scouted, not far away. A Kaempfer’s Woodpecker responded immediately to our recording, and, after a few minutes of coaxing, we got it to rise into a tree above the dense growth of bamboo where everyone had a great view of it. Then, over the next half-hour or so, we moved it around into several other good viewing angles. It was a brilliant male, an absolutely fantastic bird! After lunch at our hotel and some time to pack up, we visited a new museum dedicated to the history of the establishment of the state of Tocantins (30 years old in May 2019), then made our way to the airport for the flight to Brasilia, from which point we made our international connections.

I know I speak for Marcelo as well when I say Thank You to all for joining us for this first-run tour to a little-birded region of east-central Brazil. We had a wonderful time, and look forward to seeing you again when the time rolls around. Meanwhile, safe travels and happy birding to all! – Bret & Marcelo

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

Noteworthy additional sightings included a fresh-caught Surubim Catfish, which we had for lunch in Pirapora, and some enormous Pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) in the Rio Formoso near the Fazenda Praia Alta boat dock. Also right there were a couple of large Black Caiman. We also saw several large and very large Green Iguanas and Tegu Lizards, especially in Tocantins.

Totals for the tour: 328 bird taxa and 11 mammal taxa