See this triplist in printable PDF format with media only on page 1.

Our adventure on some of the great rivers of the central Amazon began in Manaus, that burgeoning city of 2+ million people(!) at the confluence of the rios Negro and Amazonas. After an early breakfast at the lovely Tropical Hotel, a landmark in Manaus, we made our way across town to the port area, which was bustling as the first sign of dawn colored the eastern horizon. Check-in for the “lancha-ajato” (speed launch) to the little town of Novo Aripuana was quick and easy, and we boarded for an on-time departure, at about 06:00. It was interesting and really quite thrilling to pull away from the city into the main channel of the vast Rio Negro on a perfectly clear, calm morning, and gradually feel the power of those twin 200-horse engines kicking in! In minutes we were near the famed “Encontro das Aguas” (meeting of the waters), where the Negro meets the Rio Solimoes coming down from Peru and Colombia, the two together forming the Rio Amazonas. What a place to be, on the planet Earth! We really couldn’t appreciate the scale of the scene from our low angle in the speed launch, but we would see everything very well from our big, live-aboard boat on our return to Manaus.

The lancha-ajato trip to Novo Aripuana was to be an essentially all-day experience, we knew, but the planned “8-9 hours” ended up at about 11 hours, mainly owing to engine problems along the Rio Madeira portion of the run. We got through it in good enough shape and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset on the Madeira an hour or so before pulling in at Novo Aripuana. Much to our delight, our beautiful, big, white boat, the Tumbira, was there to meet us! We promptly transferred aboard and settled luggage into our rooms, and raised our first toast of the tour with caipirinhas and cervejas in hand, “Here’s to making it to the mouth of the Rio Aripuana and to the real start of a great birding adventure in some wild and little-known forests of central Amazonia!” We then sat down to Dona Eugenia’s first dinner, which was (as always they were!) delicious. That was a wonderful night’s sleep, after a long day of travel (or 2-3 days for some of us).

Next morning dawned lightly overcast and calm. It was delightfully cool on the top deck, where Neuza was serving a scrumptious breakfast. The Tumbira motored so smoothly and quietly up from the mouth of the Aripuana… it was hard to believe where we actually were, even looking at Bret’s satellite image showing our progress route up the river, cruising between several long, narrow islands. Birds were on all sides, vying for our attention as we enjoyed fresh pao-de-queijo, cakes, fruit, porridge, eggs and toast and coffee and tea and juices, and on and on. We were hollering out bird names left and right, and everyone was spotting stuff ahead and behind. Gosh, that was fun! Before long, we called our first stop, at one of these long, forested islands where Bret and Micah had done some scouting a week ahead of the tour. We walked down the gangplank and on to a nice trail they had put into seasonally flooded forest (all of these islands flood completely for several months each year). We soon found the principal subject of our search: a male Amazonian Black-Tyrant! Also of special note was a huge White Witch moth (Thysania agripinna) “hiding” spread-winged on a tree trunk. Following a couple of more birding stops and lunch as we made our way upriver, we dropped anchor at the small community of Nova Olinda, where Bret had birded several times over the past 15+ years, including on Field Guides’s first tour to the Aripuana, in August of 2015. He and Micah had spent a few days here before our tour, to help put in some trails in terra firme forest a short distance behind the village. Those trails were very productive for us! Some of the great birds we picked up over the next several days included Laughing Falcon, Natterer’s Striolated-Puffbird (at the moment, still considered part of “Eastern” Puffbird, but you can be quite sure that this will change), Collared Puffbird, Pavonine Quetzal (a fabulous male and female together), Gould’s Toucanet, Blue-cheeked, Paradise, and Great jacamars; Black-girdled Barbet, Needle-billed Hermit, Kawall’s Parrot, the bizarre but also very beautiful Bald Parrot (restricted to a rather small area of the central Amazon basin), Crimson-bellied Parakeet, huge Red-necked Woodpeckers, Chestnut-winged Hookbill, an immature male Black-necked Red Cotinga, and nesting White-browed Purpletufts. There were several excellent sightings of woodcreepers, among them the endemic Hoffmann’s and Rondonia (the latter recently split as part of the Lineated complex), Ocellated (which is an unnamed population on this bank of the Aripuana), and Curve-billed Scythebill. A Glossy-backed Becard was a rare sighting (rarely documented south of the Amazon), as was a Cinnamon Neopipo, which is fairly widespread but seldom seen anywhere. Antbirds were great as well, with especially good sightings of Fasciated Antshrike, Chestnut-tailed Antbird (an unnamed population having a distinctive song), and three recently described (2013) species endemic to the narrow region between the Aripuana and Machado rivers: Roosevelt Antwren (probably soon to be called Roosevelt Stipplethroat), Aripuana Antwren, and Manicore Warbling-Antbird. Army ants were scarce, unfortunately, but one day we did manage brief views of White-breasted Antbird, and we heard both Pale-faced and Black-spotted bare-eyes. Special mention goes to the remarkably cooperative Banded Antbird that Marcelo called in for us! And speaking of special mentions… how about that Rufous Potoo that Micah miraculously spotted on its day-roost well back from the trail, while we were trying to find a calling Blue-backed Manakin! We were able to walk right up to it, as it relied on its camouflage, which even involves a rhythmic rocking motion it performs to emulate the sway of a dead, rufous-brown leaf in the breeze. And it was on Micah’s birthday, what a rare and wonderful event (present to himself and all of us) that was! Finally, one of our greatest highlights was finding the undescribed shrike-vireo Bret had discovered several years earlier. Wow, it was fantastic to watch it singing its distinctive song – in the scope, no less!!

That evening we hosted a dinner party for a bunch of folks on our boat and from Nova Olinda who had November birthdays. Micah was one of them, of course, and it turned out that he and one of the girls from the village had been born the same day, within a couple of hours of each other! Junior did a fine job as Master of Ceremonies (check out the video, below).

Out along the Aripuana and on side streams, there were many quite different species, perhaps highlighted by eight(!) Agami Herons in one short stretch of a backwater lagoon. Watching the video (below), you’ll enjoy reliving the trip we made in there one afternoon, via a very narrow and shallow entrance! In the Nova Olinda area, it was also very interesting to see several species of North American breeding birds, here on their territories for the winter months. These included Broad-winged Hawk (probably the first record for the Aripuana), hundreds of Common Nighthawks, some perhaps still moving south (flying well above the numerous resident Band-tailed Nighthawks, low over the river); several Eastern Wood-Pewees, and a couple of Olive-sided Flycatchers. We also found several American Golden-Plovers and a few Pectoral Sandpipers, migrants headed for more southerly wintering grounds in Brazil and Argentina.

We also saw some interesting mammals, of course! Common Woolly Monkey, White-nosed Bearded Saki, Prince Bernard’s Titi Monkey, and Gold-and-white Marmoset put in appearances, but we had no luck finding the rare Dwarf Marmoset. We also had fabulous views of a rarely seen Neotropical Pygmy Squirrel, a solitary Ghost Bat that Micah somehow managed to spot as it hung quietly beneath a palm leaf, and several Amazon (Pink) River Dolphins. There were sundry other fascinating critters and bugs, such as those Red-eyed Planthoppers with their impressive, waxy tail plumes, and a rarely seen Agrias genus butterfly, which is highly prized by lepidopterists and butterfly collectors. As he had done on the 2015 Aripuana tour, Micah had deployed several autonomous camera traps at propitious trail crossings and watering holes in the forest. He collected them during the tour, and, like kids in a candy store, we loved checking the video cards to see what might be captured there. There good images of curious Dark-winged Trumpeters (which we did not encounter “live” on the trails, sad to report), Razor-billed Curassow, Brazilian Tapir, and a Greater long-nosed Armadillo. Fantastic!

Our plan was to continue up the lower Aripuana, above Nova Olinda, to bird for 2-3 days along a narrow tributary to the left bank of the river. Bret and Micah had noted that the river was quite low and still dropping a week ahead of the tour, so we had remained hopeful that several rains that had fallen in the interim might have raised water levels enough to permit our passage upriver in the Tumbira… but it was not to be. Indeed, 2017 was an unusually dry year in the headwaters region of the Aripuana (well above us, mostly in Mato Grosso state). Our crew made a valiant effort backed by many years of collective experience, but, after narrowly getting by the first massive sandbar exposed by the falling river, the second one was impassable -- there was less than 1.5 meters of depth at the front of the Tumbira (thus, significantly less directly beneath her) across the main channel. It was a bummer to not reach the tributary stream, where we had hoped to find the recently described Dwarf Manatee, but this setback would not mean missing any species of birds there. This turn of events underscored one of the great advantages of our boat-based tours: flexibility to accommodate shifts in the planned itinerary, whether occasioned by unfavorable conditions ahead, or to take advantage of ephemeral opportunities or novel ideas that may come up.

Thus, we swung the bow downriver to pass Nova Olinda a ways, and explore a recently opened, clandestine logging road through well-developed terra firme forest. A massive rainstorm caught up with us there, but, fortunately, it hit before we had left the Tumbira so all we had to do was enjoy the wind and lightning show, and let it pass, which took an hour or so. Birding was quite productive here (several of the species listed above were found). Our revised tour plan would be to continue down the Aripuana, making a stop or two as we approached the confluence with the Rio Madeira, then make opportunistic stops on islands and on both banks of that great river, en route back to Manaus.

The ensuing week of exploratory birding turned out to be very interesting and productive. Our first morning dawned on the left bank of the Madeira, where we worked a beautiful, level trail through seasonally flooded forest with many enormous trees exceeding 30 meters in height. Highlights included Chestnut-capped Puffbird, Cinnamon-throated Woodcreeper, Lemon-throated Barbet (what a beauty!), and Varzea Thrush, which Bret and Micah had found ahead of the tour, marking an important new locality on the Madeira for this recently named species (Dan Lane and colleagues described it from northern Peru). A couple of this morning’s birds would have been lifers for Marcelo, but he had to miss being with us, having fallen victim to a roughly 24-hour virus that had been steadily working its way through us. This was a lousy and highly unusual hardship that almost everyone except Steve, Bret, and Micah had to deal with on one day or another.

Birding the big island in the Madeira, in front of Novo Aripuana, was made possible by our boat crew having opened a fresh trail through rank, young-island vegetation. The main treat here was great views of Glossy and also Castelnau’s antshrikes (on the Madeira, most authors call the latter Blackish-gray Antshrike). That evening, we continued a short ways down the Madeira to a community near a large lake a few kilometers back from the river, Lago Maraja. The next morning’s birding took place beneath, low, threatening clouds, but just a short distance along the trail we had fine scope views of Amazonian Umbrellabird, Festive and Short-tailed parrots feeding on acai palm fruits, Plain Softtail, and a good bunch of other species, all seen well. We made it back to the Tumbira just as the rain started to pelt down, and we decided to just continue downriver toward the old town of Borba, on the right bank of the Madeira, where Bret and Micah had taken another Field Guides group a few months earlier.

Borba yielded a few special prizes for us, particularly Least Nighthawk (we’re still working out the taxonomy of this complex in Amazonia), White-browed Hawk, Spotted Puffbird, Brown-banded Puffbird, Brown-chested Barbet (the latter two in the same tree!), Amazonian Scrub-Flycatcher, and a fine scope study of a very close Bald Parrot. Not far away, but on the other side of the Madeira, we got on to a trail on private property that the owner showed us, winding about a mile back from the river through manioc fields and second-growth to enter tall, undisturbed rainforest. By the time we made it all the way in there, it was mid-morning, and the forest was very quiet… but the habitat was excellent and we continued walking ahead on a vague little trail. Our efforts soon paid off, as we found a large army ant swarm with a good number of birds in attendance, although most of them were good at keeping themselves largely out-of-sight: Common Scale-backed Antbird, White-throated Antbird, Reddish-winged Bare-eye, and White-chinned, Plain-brown, and fantastic Bar-bellied woodcreepers. A couple of nice mixed-species flocks yielded Madeira Antwren (probably soon to be called Madeira Stipplethroat, a close relative of the Roosevelt Stipplethroat we’d seen on the Aripuana) and Spot-throated Woodcreeper, and we had nice scope views of Golden-collared Toucanet on the way in, and Curl-crested Aracaris on the walk out. Great looks at seldom-seen Pearly Antshrikes was another biggie in there. Another stop on the west (left) bank of the Madeira on the way downriver toward Manaus produced Humaita Antbird, which is seldom-seen species split a few years ago from the Spot-winged Antbird complex.

After a couple of overnight surges on those “river-highways” toward Manaus, we made fun and highly memorable stops at the mouth of the Madeira for Olive-spotted Hummer and Brownish Elaenia, then (nearer Manaus) at Lago dos Reis, inside Carreiro Island in the Amazonas, and on a satellite island off the south side of Marchantaria Island,. Lago dos Reis was absolutely teeming with Large-billed Terns, egrets, herons, some storks, and lots of other piscivorous birds – as Bret pointed out, it was “A bad place to be a fish.” Among those myriad fishes were lots of Red-bellied Piranhas, several of which we managed to catch on baited lines (to save a thousand words, just watch the video). The Meeting of the Waters was a real crowd-pleaser, a very impressive sight as we cruised slowly along the sharp demarcation of the warmer, more acidic, tea-colored Rio Negro with the colder, denser, “café com leite” Rio Solimoes (= Amazon). Our final stop -- which was actually on the Rio Solimoes just above its confluence with the Negro at Manaus -- was a quickie, but it netted us Green-throated Mango, Parker’s Spinetail, River Tyrannulet, Riverside Tyrant, Island Fuscous Flycatcher, and both Bicolored and Pearly-breasted conebills. Back in Manaus, our private van was there to whisk us off to the old downtown area for a lovely tour of the justly famed "Teatro Amazonas" (the Opera House), which Junior ably guided for us. Following some time to relax, repack, and have our farewell caipirinhas and dinner on the Tumbira, we shared good-bye hugs with the crew and made our way over to the international airport in good time for a leisurely check-in to flights home.

When we're checking in for flights, thinking about what's been going on at home and all we have to do when we get back... it's hard to focus on what we have "been at" the past couple of weeks. It was really quite a lot, and it was important, more than just ticking off a list of observed species. So few people (non-residents) have devoted the resources -- time, money, effort, stamina -- required to access remote lands such as these. On the wonderful Tumbira, it seems so easy (and in many ways, it usually is quite comfortable), but, as you lay your heads to rest this night, hark back to those steep river banks, newly cut forest trails, muggy temperatures, (with almost no biting bugs!!), and some mad dashes to shelter ahead of torrential downpours... and I know your hearts will beat that bit harder and faster, just as mine does now, reliving our days afield.

And what a jovial and congenial group we were! Thanks to all for coming with us to explore some very unusual destinations in a remote sector of the Amazon basin. We certainly look forward to seeing everyone again for more fun birding, whenever the timing works out. Here's to us!! Best wishes for a hasty close to winter and a lovely spring and summer ahead!

Bret (writing this intro), Marcelo (doing the main list, his first endeavor!), and our apprentice-guide, Micah Riegner, who did a superb job

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

Here's our hotel, restaurant, and tour bus, oh, and canopy tower, our full-on home away! Photo by Chuck Holliday.

Breakfast on the Tumbira's top deck is always wonderful! Photo by participant Chuck Holliday.

Rufous Potoo - The smallest and most distinctive Potoo in the Amazon was spotted by Micah -- on his 24th birthday!! Photo by participant Chuck Holliday.

Blue-cheeked Jacamar - a colorful individual seen on a logging road. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

Lemon-throated Barbet - WOW! Photo by the guide Bret Whitney.

Bald Parrot -- one of the most beautiful and distinctive parrots in the Amazon. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

Banded Antbird -- This enigmatic little antbird, always low-density and hard to find, gave us a show for several minutes! Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

Roosevelt Stipple-throated Antwren -- described to science by Bret and colleagues only in 2013! Digi-scope photo by guide Bret Whitney.

Bar-bellied Woodcreeper - a rarely seen woodcreeper following an ant swarm on the left bank of the Madeira River. We loved it!! Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

An interesting bird voice being recorded by the leaders. Photo by the participant Chuck Holliday.

Needle-billed Hermit (and What a VIEW!!) - Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

The new species of shrike-vireo Bret found several years ago is still being sleuthed out, in terms of its full distribution. We had amazing scope studies of it, even as it sang!! Digi-scope photo by guide Bret Whitney.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Totals for the tour: 437 bird taxa and 14 mammal taxa