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Having just said our good-byes to the first “Rio Negro Paradise: Manaus” tour group, Marcelo and I had a day to rest up before receiving our second group, ready for another exciting and educational journey, perhaps better-said, “voyage”, through this beautiful, central sector of the Amazon basin. Our opening stroll around the grounds of the stately Tropical Hotel served to introduce numerous common, widespread species that would be familiar companions on many days of the tour, and also produced great views of Variable Chachalaca and Golden-spangled Piculet, both of which are much less frequently sighted. We usually encounter a sloth or two around the forest patch behind the hotel, but we dipped on them this time. After an early but well-appointed breakfast next morning, we were off to the famous Adolfo Ducke Reserve, on the northeast corner of Manaus. We started there with a fine pair of Point-tailed Palm-creepers, certainly one of the most distinctive members of the huge Ovenbird (Furnariidae) family. Soon, Red-bellied Macaws began to pass in small groups, and yelping (White-throated) and croaking (Channel-billed) toucans started sounding off from the forest canopy while both Green and Black-necked aracaris posed for scope views. Just a short distance into the reserve we were treated to a really superb view of a pair of Red-billed Woodcreepers, followed by a pair of Black-spotted Barbets, some perched Red-fan Parrots, Fasciated Antshrike, and an Amazonian Pygmy-Owl being mobbed by a Black-eared Fairy and a White-chinned Sapphire, a Tiny Tyrant-Manakin, and a female White-fronted Manakin. Further down the track, we hit a nice mixed-species canopy flock with a very cooperative Guianan Woodcreeper, Spot-backed Antwren, Mouse-colored Antshrike, Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo, and a pair of Pink-throated Becards. But tops that morning was a prolonged scope study of a young male Harpy Eagle, the same bird we had seen on the first tour.

Our next major venue was the famous INPA research tower, about two hours north of Manaus. We transferred to fairly comfy 4-WD vehicles to make the trip into the tower on a bumpy dirt road, thankful that it was dry and actually in pretty good shape, relative to how it’s been on many previous tours. We had a picnic breakfast at the parking area and scurried down the path and up the (how may is it… 142?) steps to greet the dawning of the day 47 meters (about 150 feet) above the forest floor. It was a gorgeous, birdy morning indeed, highlighted by a fruiting tree that attracted a non-stop parade of birds. We kept an eye on that tree all morning, getting great scope views of Guianan Toucanet and several toucans, Pompadour and Spangled cotingas, and Dusky Parrot, especially. Flock action was good as well, and we eventually tallied Waved and Golden-collared woodpeckers, Curve-billed Scythebill, Ash-winged Antwren, Olive-green Tyrannulet, Guianan Tyrannulet, Short-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant, Yellow-throated Flycatcher, and a male Glossy-backed Becard, along with Red-billed Pied-Tanager and numerous other tanagers, dacnis, and honeycreepers. Guianan and Pied puffbirds, and several Paradise Jacamars also showed beautifully.

After demolishing a fabulous lunch spread in the little town of Presidente Figueiredo, we moved into our home for the next four nights, at Mari Mari. Marcelo and I quickly checked the fruiting acai palms around the lodge dining area, to see if they were still attracting lots of birds, as they had been a couple of weeks earlier, on our first tour. Great news – there was still a lot of fruit and a fine variety of birds! After a little rest, we gathered the group there and the fun started all over again, with four species of toucans, Guianan Cocks-of the Rock of all ages and both sexes, multiple Purple-breasted and Spangled cotingas, Sulphury Flycatchers, saltators and other birds zipping in and out of those trees. Even an immature male Guianan Red-Cotinga showed up for a few minutes. A bit later, we entered the forest proper, where there is an impressive lek of Guianan Cocks-of-the-Rock. The afternoon show was spectacular, as usual, with several males sitting around and doing a little displaying and posturing as we watched, only a few yards away. Also there was a Rufous Nightjar with a recently hatched chick. It must have been sitting on the nest nearby, motionless, incubating its eggs, when we were there on the first tour.

Over the course of the next three days, we birded several forest trails around Presidente Figueiredo, including tall, undisturbed rainforest, lower stature “campinarana” forest, and also the “campina” scrub that the campinarana surrounds. The area is famous for its remarkably pure, blackwater streams and sandstone grottos, and we enjoyed seeing lots of birds and mammals there. There was no sign of the Black-faced Hawk that had graced our bin’s on the first tour, nor the handsome Chestnut-belted Gnateater we had seen, but we were compensated by good views of Guianan Red-Cotinga and Capuchinbird, both of which had been heard only before. Musician Wren performed famously (such a great bird!), as did Rufous-tailed Xenops and Ferruginous-backed Antbird. Spotted Puffbird came quite easily (and close!), but Pelzeln’s Tody-Tyrant and Saffron-crested Tyrant-Manakin took some special effort before they provided good views. It also took a while to get a scope on a male Crimson Topaz at our traditional patch of Isertia trees, but we finally did see a male well. Or, we thought it had been a good view until early the next morning, when we found two males feeding on flying gnats over a stream as the sun was rising, perfectly lighting them up as they chased each other around – that was a real WOW! A Green-tailed Goldenthroat paused for nice views, and Blue-and-yellow Macaws winged by in perfect light. Then, as we prepared to enter a campinarana forest trail, we heard a very distant song we had prayed might fall on our ears: a White-naped Seedeater! This rare finch-like tanager (as it is currently classified) has been very spotty in recent years, with most tours failing to see it. This particular morning, the bird was singing up a storm, and we even watched him chase a female out of sight (at least 2 km straight-line, and rising high above the trees) only to come roaring back to his same patch, right in front of us. We enjoyed superb studies of Bronzy Jacamars and had pretty nice looks at Black Manakin and Rufous-crowned Elaenia. We managed to coax a shy Campinarana Flycatcher into view (Cnemotriccus fuscatus duidae, sure to be officially split from the Fuscous Flycatcher complex), but had no luck with Pale-bellied Mourner. One of the more spectacular mammal encounters we have had on recent tours involved about seven Monk Sakis which, at first, seemed to be performing their usual disappearing act, but which then settled down to begin a prolonged allopreening session (check out the video, below!), some of which Marcelo broadcast live via his Instagram account!

One afternoon, we took the group to a side-road where we had found a male Crimson Fruitcrow on the first tour. Our plan was to stay late and do some owling. Well, we ended up staying late, alright, just not for owling! After we had gone in a few kilometers, a thunderstorm with high, gusty winds came roaring through the forest and toppled a large tree across the road, completely blocking our exit to the highway. We discovered this on our way out, as rain was thundering down, and had to shift quickly to (non-existent) “Plan B” – which evolved into turning back around to continue down that treacherously slippery mud road where we could hope to find a house where someone might be home, and might have a chainsaw because trees must fall across the road now and then, and then might have gas for the chainsaw… in sum, it was not looking good for us making it out of there that night. Quite honestly, I’m amazed that we did – but, sure enough, the rain let up, we were able to drive in (and back out!) on that messy road, far enough to reach a house, and, after talking with some people there, we found a guy with a chainsaw and plenty of gas for it. He soon arrived on the scene via motorcycle, with his young daughter who had insisted on accompanying him for this adventure with a bunch of gringos. It took over an hour to clear the road of that big tree, which was nearly two feet in diameter. We were greatly relieved, of course, and we compensated the fellow well for his tremendous job, but we asked that he follow along toward the highway, just in case we might need his help again… and, yikes!, we soon came to another tree across the road! Fortunately, this one was smaller, only about 8” in diameter, but it was tangled with branches and vines, and it took another hour to get it out of the way enough to squeeze our van through. We finally made it back to the paved highway about 8:00 p.m., very thankful for the helpful hand we had received from our new friend. Check out the video clips at the end of the list ;-). We did manage to get back there to try some owling on our last evening before getting on the boat, and scored a nice Black-banded Owl.

Our four days at Presidente Figueiredo had been great, but now it was time for the boat! Back in Manaus, we found the beautiful Dorinha waiting for us at the Tropical Hotel dock and eagerly descended the steps to go aboard and settle into our rooms. We met our guide for this exciting week on the rivers, Rafael, who later gave us an orientation session covering amenities of the Dorinha and safety procedures. We also had a meet-and-greet with the seven-person crew, which was fun, and very soon we had the bow pointed upriver, toward Anavilhanas National Park. After a jovial checklist/happy hour session and a wonderful dinner that evening, we made a night-lighting excursion a short distance up a small tributary of the Negro in the two long, wooden “canoes” we would use for all of our landings at birding sites. You never know what you might find along these little waterways, but it’s invariably interesting to snoop around at night out there. The water was a good four feet lower than it had been a couple of weeks earlier, on the first Manaus tour. It was a lovely, calm evening as we glided along, spotting a Gladiator Treefrog and a couple of Marine Toads, but not much else. Then, we heard a Crested Owl on a side-branch of the stream, and managed to get the canoes far enough into the area to call it into view – yaHOO! It was getting late and we’d had a big day already, so we called it good and headed back to the Dorinha, spotting a couple of roosting Band-tailed Nighthawks along the way.

Deep in the Anavilhanas Archipelago, the pre-dawn darkness of 23 September found us piling into the canoes for another spot-lighting adventure, the targets this time being Spectacled Owl and both of the species of Band-tailed Nighthawks (which, at present, are considered subspecies of a single species). It looked grim for actually seeing the Spec, which was calling persistently from trees not far back from the river edge, but we eventually maneuvered the canoes sufficiently to get the light on one of the pair, which was great. And sure enough, both of the band-tails were present, responding vigorously each to his own vocalization, cutting circles around the canoes as I gave them appropriate, species-specific playbacks. As I explained to everyone later, the taxonomic/nomenclatural issue attending this case is complex, and is going to require just a little more judicious field work to nail down definitively. We gathered on the top deck for breakfast as the sun was rising through the trees. There were pairs and trios of Festive Parrots on all sides, Crestless Curassows boomed in the still-dark forest (we were not fortunate enough to get to see one), and woodcreepers and antbirds of several species contributed to the dawn chorus. Soon we were back in the canoes and headed off to a trailhead where the crew had just made us a set of mud steps up to the flat terrace where we would walk into the forest. “As advertised”, the Wire-tailed Manakins were there and showing their stuff – what a fabulous bird it is! It was a great start to that morning, which, over the next 2-3 hours, produced a fine assemblage of river-island specialties, such as Blackish-gray Antshrike, Black-crested Antshrike, Ash-breasted Antbird, Black-chinned Antbird, Klages’s Antwren, Leaden Antwren, Streak-throated Hermit and Blue-chinned Sapphire, Snethlage’s Tody-Tyrant, and Long-billed, Straight-billed, Zimmer’s and Striped woodcreepers! Scale-breasted and Crimson-crested woodpeckers also showed nicely.

That afternoon we stopped at the ship-building town of Novo Airão, where there is a floating dock which serves as a feeding station for Amazon River Dolphins (Pink River Dolphin, Inia geoffrensis). The locals started feeding some of the “botos” there nearly 20 years ago, and now there are about 15 individuals which have become accustomed to these feedings at certain hours on 3-4 days a week. We were fortunate to get to participate in that afternoon’s feeding session, and even to get to touch the “beaks” of some of the animals. This initiative has become an important factor in the conservation of the dolphins, as it has certainly helped raise public awareness of the dolphins’ plight. We also got to see Spix’s Night Monkeys at their tradition day-roost nearby, which was greatly enjoyed by all. We then booted it upriver, traveling through the night to guarantee a pre-dawn arrival at the mouth of the Rio Jau.

Sure enough, first light found us anchored at the confluence of the Jau with the Rio Negro. Here, the rivers had not dropped so much, and levels were only 2-3 feet lower than we had experienced a couple of weeks earlier. There were still no sandbars exposed, however, so there were good numbers of Large-billed and Yellow-billed terns around, waiting for them to become exposed so they could commence nesting activities in earnest. Both species of river dolphins were also present, the pink Amazon River Dolphins and also the smaller, gray Tucuxis. As the day dawned behind us, we drifted over to register our entrance into the national park at the floating dock headquarters. Waiting there, we were fortunate to pick up a singing Plumbeous Euphonia and a number of other, more common species. We then motored smoothly up the calm river, spotting a Sungrebe and seeing herons and cormorants and Green Ibis and kingfishers before making our first stop in “chavascal” woodland. This is a strange habitat in which a low diversity of tree species has evolved to survive the severe flooding cycle of these acidic, blackwater river systems, wherein the roots are well underwater for many months in succession. The few species that have evolved to make it here are present in high numbers, such that the density of trees is quite high, and the canopy height relatively uniform, and only about 15 meters tall. We racked up most of the species we were hoping for fairly efficiently, including Lafresnaye’s Piculet, Amazonian Antshrike, Cherrie’s Antwren, Yellow-crowned Manakin, Brown-headed Greenlet, and the still-undescribed, sister-species of Pelzeln’s Tody-Tyrant inhabiting chavascal and campina habitats west of the Rio Negro. Moving up the Jau that afternoon, we spotted a distant Orange-breasted Falcon, which we managed to see pretty well with the scopes. Our traditional owling excursion for that evening started muggily “slow” but kicked into gear bigtime as we threw the lights on both Rufous and White-winged potoos inside of half an hour, the latter cooperating nicely by coming in to the hoped-for snag we had picked out for it, then sitting for leisurely scope study. Back at the river, we pressed our luck with a swing around the margins of the Jau with spotlights, and, just as we were heading back to the Dorinha, we picked up the eyeshine of a Great Potoo high on a dead snag, with, amazingly, a Common Potoo on a snag just below it – thus, we scored a four-potoo evening!!

The next couple of afternoons were unseasonally rainy, which caused us to change our planned stop for an initial night near the first big rapids on the Jau. We would take advantage of the unusually high river level to advance father upriver than we had ever ventured, to reach a stream called “Miratucu”, where we expected to find a mix of chavascal and terra firme forest. We went spotlighting that evening, picking up another Common Potoo that stayed put on a stub just above eye-level as we drifted by in the canoes, but a thick fog and drizzle soon set in, and we had to call it quits. However, early morning on the Miratucu was beautiful. We tied up the canoes at a well-lit bend in the stream and, over the next hour or so, spotted a fine assortment of species along a chavascal/terra firme boundary, and also four Giant Otters. Back down to the rapids that evening, we planned to hit the trail at night, in hopes of finding a Nocturnal Curassow. We did hear one, far off, but it sang only sporadically and we weren’t able to get much closer to it.

It remained for us to transit out of the Jau and all the way down the Negro, to be in position for an important day of birding on the “whitewater” Rio Solimoes, which is the Brazilian name for the Amazon River before its confluence with the Negro. As expected the “furo”, or cut, through the narrow neck of land separating the Negro and the Solimoes, had plenty of water for us to make the passage easily, and we reached our hoped-for position near the upstream end of huge Marchantaria Island by dawn. Somewhat strangely, the landing areas we planned to bird were all complicated by the combination of the dropping river exposing steep banks and then recently exposed mud as well. Still, we managed to get around most obstacles well enough, and improvised a couple of stops to get some of the young-island specialties. Castelnau’s Antshrikes came in very close, providing superb views, and a nesting pair of Red-and-white Spinetails was also really neat. We had lunch over the “Meeting of the Waters”, where the Negro hits the Solimoes, the two forming the great Rio Amazonas. The scene was properly impressive. Rafael explained the dynamics of the meeting of these two massive, but very different rivers, which don’t mix thoroughly for some 400 kilometers downstream. The Amazon is extremely silty, allowing little sunlight penetration, so relatively cold, while the clear, “black” waters of the Rio Negro absorb lots of solar energy, and are thus warmer and less dense – not to mention much more acidic, due to the high concentration of tannins leached out of leaf litter and drained through sand. The “Encontro das Aguas” is indeed an amazing spot on our great planet Earth!

We anchored that evening off the main ferry dock at Manaus, where vehicles cross the Amazon to reach the Transamazon Highway and, eventually, all of southern Brazil. Rising early, we made our way across Manaus to the Ducke Reserve and the fairly new MUSA (Museum of the Amazon) tower. We enjoyed a productive final morning of birding up there, highlighted by a steady stream of parrots and toucans, and woodcreepers and tanagers. Views of the unbroken forest were gorgeous, but we were conscious of the near proximity of the largest city in the Amazon, only a few hundred yards away. That afternoon we made a swing through the public market near the main port of Manaus and then visited the beautiful Manaus Opera House downtown. Back on the Dorinha, we had a couple of hours to rest, clean up, and repack before our final dinner and leisurely transfer to the airport for the American Airlines flight to Miami, and points home.

Marcelo and I thank all of you very much for coming with Field Guides and us for two great weeks of birding in the central Amazon basin, mostly on the beautiful Rio Negro. Please come back for more birding in Brazil, you know where to find us! Marcelo will put together our bird and mammal list and get it out to you with some great imagery very shortly.

Com grandes abraços -- Bret and 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

The Chavascal is the very singular, seasonally flooded habitat, where birds such as the Brown-headed Greenlet live. Photo by participant Rick "The Walrus" Woodruff.

This Rufous Nightjar was a great surprise on the tour! This is one of the adults that were sitting near to the chick at Mari-Mari Lodge. Photo by tour participant Roger Holmberg.

Two majestic male Crimson Topaz were seen hawking insects early in the morning at Cachoeira das Lajes private reserve. Photo by participant Roger Holmberg.

Green Aracari is a Guianan Shield endemic that we saw visiting the açaí palm trees on the Mari-Mari Lodge grounds. Photo by participant Roger Holmberg.

A gorgeous full moon at Jaú National Park. Photo by participant Rick "The Walrus" Woodruff.

This beautiful little Yellow-billed Jacamar was foraging near to the ground at Cachoeira da Onça private reserve. Photo by participant Roger Holmberg.

The group enjoying the birding at Ducke Reserve, north of Manaus. Photo by participant Gerard Tasset.

White-naped Seedeater was a highlight of the tour! A beautiful male entertained us by singing for several minutes. Photo by tour participant Roger Holmberg.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Other nice animals seen during the tour were: Gladiator Tree-frog, Smoky Jungle Frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus), Red-eyed Treehopper, a Coral Snake, Green Iguana, Cane Toad, a big bat using a termite mount to roosting during the day at Presidente Figueiredo.

Totals for the tour: 449 bird taxa and 20 mammal taxa