July 4-15, 2026 with Marcelo Barreiros
Both the Garden of the Amazon lodge and the Northern Pantanal are two of the best birding (and general wildlife sighting) hotspots in Brazil, places to enjoy nature and see fantastic birds like the Cone-billed Tanager, Hyacinth Macaw, as well as mammals like the fantastic Giant Anteater, Lowland Tapir and the powerful Jaguar. As usual, we started our journey driving from Cuiabá to the surroundings of São José do Rio Claro, where the Garden of the Amazon is. The property has a nice forest fragment right at the southern edge of the Amazon with some Cerrado influence, with birds from both biomes. Along the Claro River there's a perfect habitat for one of the most wanted bird species in the area, the rare Cone-billed Tanager, which lives in seasonally flooded forest with lots of sand in the soil. Even before getting to the spot for the Tanager, during a boat ride, we saw a male Amazonian Umbrellabird, a mother and a cub Lowland Tapir swimming, a pair of Blue-and-yellow Macaws and three Tapajos Saki Monkeys. We also explored the trails on the property, seeing some stunning birds like Black-Girdled Barbet, a gorgeous male Gould's Toucanet, Rufous-capped Antthrush, a pair of Chestnut-tailed Antbirds, the elusive Broad-billed Motmot, and some great looks at Brown Jacamar.
We were also lucky to find a fruiting tree with some Bare-necked Fruitcrows having lunch, and some Red-necked and Lettered aracaris that also came in to feed. The first day walking along the trails was kind of tricky because of a strong cold front that hit the area coming from the south, and stayed around for the rest of our tour. We did everything we could to get as many species as possible, such as Rondonia Warbling-Antbird, Dusky-capped Woodcreeper, a stunning male Fiery-capped Manakin, Scaled Pigeon in the scope, and a group of Red-necked Aracari responding very well to the recording. Right at the property's entrance, we stopped at a man-made lake where, every afternoon, lots of macaws come to roost, especially the beautiful Blue-and-yellow Macaw. The pairs come in during the "golden hour" to take the best spots to roost on the dead Mouriche Palm trees and, sometimes, a few pairs of Red-bellied Macaws do the same, making the show even better. Not too far from there, we saw a pair of the rarely seen Razor-billed Curassow, a male Rufous-bellied Euphonia and a very vocally responsive Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl.
Then it was time to leave the great Garden of the Amazon lodge and head to the Northern Pantanal, a place for more adventure and great encounters with Jaguars, Hyacinth Macaws, and Giant Anteaters. We started by visiting the Rio Claro lodge for our first Pantanal experience, finding a huge flock of Nanday Parakeets feeding on a mud bank, a giant pair of Jabiru on their nest with Monk Parakeets as some loud tenants, two responsive Yellow-collared Macaws, Rusty-backed Antwren, Mato Grosso Antbird, White-lored Spinetail, Chotoy Spinetail, and the weirdly beautiful Red-billed Scythbill. After that great day, it was time to drive along the Transpantaneira road and see some Marsh Deer, including a long-antlered male, the stunning Scarlet-headed Blackbird, more Jabiru nests, big flocks of other water birds like Southern Screamer, Wattled Jacana, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, and lots of Paraguayan Cayman. The three nights we had around Porto Jofre were just amazing, starting with a full day riding along the Cuiabá and Três Irmãos (Three Brothers) rivers and after a few minutes riding, we saw a group of twenty or so Band-tailed Nighthawks eating for the last time before going to roost, and later, we made a stop on one of the creeks, Corixo Negro, where we saw our first Jaguar laying down on a tree, enjoying the first sunlight. After some time taking pictures, we left the cat alone and kept going along the rivers to see nice birds like Striped Cuckoo, Green-and-rufous Kingfisher, Orange-backed Troupial, Capped Heron and Subtropical Doradito.
Still around the Porto Jofre area and along the rivers, we had some more interesting species like White-throated Piping-Guan, Rusty-backed Spinetail, Aplomado Falcon, Straight-billed Woodcreeper and Golden-green Woodcreeper. We experienced rain on our second morning while on the boat, so we had to come back earlier to our lodge. In the afternoon, the plan was to walk along the Transpantaneira road near our lodge, and it was very productive, with a few more species added to our list, such as Fawn-breasted Wren, Large-billed Antwren, Gray-headed Tanager, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, our best look at Southern Antpipit, and a great surprise when an Undulated Tinamou walked across the road close to the group. We still had one more day in the Pantanal, and it was a cold and windy day along the Campos do Jofre while we were looking for Rusty-collared and Tawny-bellied seedeaters, Cinereous-breasted Spinetail and Yellowish Pipit. Our last night was at Piuval lodge, another great lodge in the Pantanal where we found hundreds of Nacunda Nighthawks, Spot-backed Puffbird and on the way back to our lodge, we found an amazing Giant Anteater looking for food along the fields. The majestic mammal stayed with us for about 10 minutes before going into the woods and disappearing, giving us a perfect farewell for the tour.
Thank you guys for the great tour!!
Abraços!
Other critters seen during the tour:
Proboscis Bat
Greater Bulldog Bat
Hooded Capuchin
Black-and-gold Howler
White-bellied Spider Monkey
Tapajos Saki Monkey
Giant Anteater
Greater Capybara
Common Red-rumped Agouti
Crab-eating Fox
South American Coati
Central Neotropical River Otter
Giant River Otter
Jaguar
Lowland Tapir
Collared Peccary
Marsh Deer
Common Red Brocket
Common Brown Brocket
Giant Ameiva
Golden Tegu
Spectacled Cayman
Paraguayan Cayman
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/554628
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/jag26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Barreiros