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The blue-green water of the Aripuana seen from Boca do Juma. Photo by Micah Riegner.

In the late 1990s, Dutch primatologist Marc van Roosmalen received a tiny monkey in a milk container at his doorstep in Manaus, Brazil. It was clearly a marmoset, but which one? He immediately realized it belonged to a new species, but didn’t know where it came from—the people who brought it to him just said it was up the Rio Madeira. This launched a search that lasted several years until van Roosmalen reached the turquoise waters of the Aripuana. Upon reaching the community of Nova Olinda upriver, he interviewed the local people, and sure enough the Dwarf Marmoset was in their backyard!

So, this is where we started the tour, at Nova Olinda, the type locality of the Dwarf Marmoset. Actually, we started in Manaus and took the speed boat to reach the Aripuana, but we’ll skip that part. We walked the trail below the community and within a few minutes heard the high-pitched screams of the marmoset. It took a little while to actually locate them in the trees, since they’re not much larger than a rat, but eventually we found them huddled on the side of the trunk. Just awesome! In the afternoon we continued upstream to an area called Prainha where we staged for an afternoon walk on a dirt road. Here we saw Bat Falcon, Red-throated Caracaras and a Linnaeus' Sipo (snake) poking its head out of grass. At night we went back onto the road and saw Bare-tailed Woolly Opossums along the forest edge and a spectacular Spectacled Owl sitting silently above the road.

The next day we walked the road in the early morning and continued up as far as we could until we hit a sand bar that marked the upper limit of our travels on the Tumbira. We canoed up a creek nearby and saw a couple Agami Herons and all 5 American Kingfishers. That night we netted bats and caught Chestnut Sac-winged Bat, a small, chocolate-colored bat that roosts on fallen logs. Fiona saw them roosting and set up a net to catch them.

Our canoe ride to Boca do Juma the next day brought us a Harpy Eagle, the most iconic bird of the neotropics. When we first saw it, an Osprey flushed it from its perch, but we were able to relocate it and get it in the scope. Just fabulous! We continued on to Boca do Juma and spent the day there looking for primates and scanning the creek for any sign of manatees. The local people there said they had seen them there recently. In the afternoon we walked some of the trails around the fishing camp and saw a few Dark-winged Trumpeters, Golden-backed Squirrel Monkeys and a few capuchins.

The next few days we spent around the community of Nova Olinda seeking the remaining primates of the Aripuana. First, we spent a morning on a logging road across from the community where we saw Ashy-gray Titis. These showed much more rufous than the illustrations in the field guide--perhaps an undescribed subspecies. Our final day at Nova Olinda we saw both Prince Bernhard’s and Manicore Marmoset, both of them well. An added bonus was the troop of Red-nosed Sakis that zoomed by through the canopy.

The next leg of the trip we worked the great Rio Madeira, stomping grounds of Johann Natterer, one of the great explorers of the Amazon Basin. He spent 18 years collecting specimens and sending them back to Europe to be described by museum scientists. Many of the species he sent ended up being new to science. A few years ago, on another great rivers tour, we stopped at the community of Matamata along the Madeira and asked about birding the sustainable development reserve behind the community. They denied us access because we didn’t have the paperwork from Manaus. This year, I managed to get the permits, so they let us in--our goal to see Red-bellied Tamarin. The people at the community said they see it on a regular basis. They call it “macaco bilhete” because it looks like it has a little white ticket on its mouth. We spent the morning searching, but unfortunately didn’t make contact with the monkeys. We saw a troop run by, but they didn’t stick around for decent views.

We continued on down the Madeira and spent a day around Igarape Luci, where we saw the Baptista Titi, a very localized species found only between the Parana Uraria, Madeira and Rio Amazonas. We also had great looks at the Gold-and-white Marmosets. Here they seem to be a lot tamer than the ones on the Aripuana. After a mid-morning breakfast and bat show-and-tell, we walked the road where we saw a fabulous ant swarm with Black-spotted Bare-eyes, Common Scale-backed Antbird and Plain-brown Woodcreeper. These birds are often very tough to see, but the swarm being close to the road allowed us to have great views.

The final days of the trip we worked the mighty Rio Amazonas. We spent a morning at Miracaueira on the north bank. We saw Brown Capuchins, heard the howlers and saw lots of birds, including Varzea Piculet, Horned Screamers and Plain Softtails. We also stopped at Ilha Grande, a river island in the Rio Amazonas, and saw the Giant Tree Rats. They’re about the size of a rabbit and have the face of an otter! Before returning to Manaus we spent a day on the Rio Negro. We had a productive night walk and saw several Red-nosed Tree Rats. In fact, Jon squeaked, and one came running down to our feet! I’ve never seen a response to playback from a mammal like that. Before wrapping up the trip, we visited the dolphin platform at Ariau had a remarkable time with these incredible animals. I want to thank Fiona Reid, and Marcelo Marcos, Jon Hall, the boat crew and all of you for making this trip possible. Happy mammal-watching!

Micah

P.S. I've included only the highlight birds we saw on the tour and have left out some of the Tyrannulets and Greenlets.

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

Greater White-lined Bats roost on the sides of tree trunks. Photo by Micah Riegner.

The Baptista Titi occupies a small area between the Parana Uraria, Rio Madeira and Rio Amazonas. We saw this one near Nova Olinda on the Rio Madiera. Photo by Micah Riegner.

We saw this White-winged Dog-like Bat roosting in a fallen log. Photo by Stefan Lithner.

We had great views of this Gold-and-white Marmoset near Nova Olinda on the Rio Madeira. Photo by Micah Riegner.

Pied Tamarins are restricted to a tiny area around Manaus. We saw them super well at the old Hotel Tropical.

Ashy Titis occupy a small area in the Central Amazon. We saw them on the right bank of the Rio Aripuana.

Hairy Spear-nosed Bats glean insects in the understory. We caught this one along the Rio Madeira. Photo by Fiona Reid.

One of the highlights of the tour was seeing this spectacular Amazonian Horned Frog near Novo Aripuana. Photo by Micah Riegner.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Totals for the tour: 80 bird taxa and 53 mammal taxa