July 6-17, 2024 with Marcelo Barreiros
Another great tour along the Southeast Amazon and Northern Pantanal, fantastic birds, mammals and landscape through those great biomes combined in a single tour. We had a great time at Jardim da Amazônia lodge where we saw special birds like the Cone-billed Tanager, Orange-cheeked Parrot, Amazonian Umbrellabird and other nice ones. In the Pantanal, despite the cold front, we were able to find great things like Hyacinth Macaw, Subtropical Doradito, Chotoy Spinetail and some Jaguars as well.
We arrived at Jardim da Amazônia with a nice weather, common this time of the year where cold fronts from the south may hit that part of the country and it happened again this year but it hasn't affected our birding in general. The boat trips along the rio Claro were great to see both male and female of the rare Cone-billed Tanager, Blue-and-yellow Macaw nesting, Bat Falcon, Grey-headed Kite and more. We also had a great time walking along the trails near to the lodge where we saw Razor-billed Curassow, Amazonian-barred Woodcreeper, Blue-cheeked Jacamar, Flammulated Pygmy-tyrant, Fiery-capped Manakin, Chestnut-tailed Anbird, Gould's Toucanet, Black-girlded Barbet and nice surprises like Black-bellied Thorntail. One of the greatest things to see at the lodge is the group of Orange-cheeked Parrot coming to a cashew tree and remaining there for over one hour eating the bark of the tree and while we were waiting for the parrots, an adult Amazonian Umbrellabird flew over our heads and landed in a huge tree near to the lodge. Despite the nice birds, we also had amazing mammals like Brazilian Tapir, and the new primates recently described to science, Mittermeieri's Saki Monkey and Mato Grosso Titi Monkey.
After those great days we drove south towards the Northern Pantanal for more adventure and we definetely got it! As soon as we got there we noticed the weather was different with a strong wind blowing which is unusual for that time of the year. In the following morning it was cold, windy and cloudy so we decided to stay near to the cabins at Aymara Lodge and it was quite productive with Hyacinth Macaw, Yellow-collared Macaw, Subittern, Planalto, Great-rufous, Buff-throated woodcreepers and Red-billed Scythbill. Before driving all the way to Porto Jofre we did the loop trail to get Mato Grosso Antbird, White-lored Spinetail, Planalto Slaty-Antshrike, Plain Antvireo, Helmeted Manakin and a few other good ones. Our time on the Porto Jofre areas was also great with many great looks at the Jaguars, Subtropical Doradito, White-throated Piping-Guan, Crane Hawk, Chotoy Spinetail, Boat-billed Heron and more Hyacinth Macaw. We still had one more day driving back to the beggining of the Transpantaneira road to see Double-collared, Rusty-collared and White-bellied seedeaters, Scarlet-headed Blackbird, Paraguayan Snipe, Whistiling Heron and along the roads of our last lodge, Piuval, we had fantastic looks of Red-legged Siriema, Spot-backed Puffbird, Greater Rhea and more Sunbittern.
Thank you guys for the great tour!
All the best
Marcelo Barreiros
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/266733
Marcelo Barreiros