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The view of Pousada Rio Roosevelt (on the sand crescent at the left side of the frame) as the plane comes in for a landing. Santa Rita rapids is visible to the right of the pousada as a white streak in the river. The region is heavily forested, just as it was in 1914, when the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition passed through on the survey of the rio da Duvida, or River of Doubt. Photo copyright Bret Whitney.

Our second May/June Rio Roosevelt tour was a great time with lots of superb birds -- rare endemics and recently described species as well as many more widespread ones -- sighted along the way. We were fortunate with weather, too, enjoying clear skies for most of the time, following record-breaking rains that flooded the dining room(!) briefly in April. Thus, the Roosevelt and Madeirinha were unusually high, which had its ups and downs with regard to the overall birding experience.

We started the tour at Porto Velho, capital of the state of Rondonia, with a sunset riverboat cruise on the great Rio Madeira, then kicked off serious birding the next morning as we ferried across the river for the drive along the west bank to the old town of Humaita. Two days and a morning over there was highly productive despite the increasing forest clearing happening in that region. Among highlights were fine views of Ash-throated Crake (heard-only Ocellated Crake this year, darn it!), Azure Gallinule, the newly described Western Striolated-Puffbird, White-eared Puffbird, Curl-crested and Ivory-billed aracaris, Golden-collared Toucanet, Bar-breasted Piculet (thanks, Chuck!), Scale-breasted and Red-necked woodpeckers, White-shouldered Antshrike, Predicted Antwren and Inambari Woodcreeper (both newly described species!), Point-tailed Palmcreeper, Cinereous-breasted Spinetail, Sharp-tailed Tyrant, Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher, the newly described (and very rarely seen!) Inambari Gnatcatcher, White-rumped Tanagers, and Tawny-bellied Seedeater. Habitats around Humaita, especially the extensive enclaves of Amazonian cerrados, were fascinating to bird. It is clear, however, that the wonderful forest area our tours have visited for the past several years that has sometimes yielded a number of additional good birds has now reached "the point of no return," and we will have to scout new venues.

Our charter flight to the Rio Roosevelt was a beauty and the pilots performed a nice swing around the region of the pousada and Santa Rita rapids to allow us make photos. It was exhilarating to step off the plane onto the dirt-and-grass runway, and walk to the lodge under a tall rainforest canopy along the portage path originally opened by the Roosevelt-Rondon expedition -- gives me goosebumps every time! The lodge was fantastic, a perfect base for a week of birding, the staff very friendly and efficient, and the food great -- and, as always, we had the place to ourselves!

Among birding highlights were Razor-billed Curassow (good spot, Barb!), a fabulous adult Harpy Eagle perched atop a huge tree on the bank of the Roosevelt (yahooo -- but we couldn't get it to fly!), a nice view of a Sungrebe (lucky when water is that high), several good views of bizarre Hoatzins, a close Pavonine Cuckoo, handsome Sand-colored Nighthawks, a couple of Black-bellied Thorntails from the canopy tower, excellent views of several species of trogons, very close Pied Puffbirds and Paradise Jacamars from the tower, fabulous scope studies of the rarely seen Natterer's Striolated-Puffbird, wonderful views of a pair of Collared Puffbirds (at about the last minute!), good looks at Brown, Blue-cheeked, and Bronzy jacamars, Black-girdled Barbet, Red-necked Aracari (nice spotting by Kent), Gould's Toucanet (to match the Golden-collared from the other side of the Madeira), glowing Crimson-bellied and Santarem parakeets, Chestnut-fronted, Scarlet, Red-and-green, and Blue-and-yellow macaws (always!), and great views of Orange-cheeked Parrots and Kawall's Parrots at the clay lick.

Among passerine specialties were Glossy Antshrike (what a knockout it was!), Natterer's Slaty-Antshrike, Pearly Antshrike, Roosevelt Stipple-throated Antwren, Manicore Warbling-Antbird, Aripuana Antwren (these last three all described to science just in June of this year!), Ornate Antwren, great looks at Pygmy and Sclater's antwrens, Ihering's Antwren (now considered endemic to the Madeira-Tapajós interfluvium), a fantastic Banded Antbird, the distinctive local population of Chestnut-tailed Antbird, and Spot-backed and Dot-backed antbirds. Special accolades go to a couple of central Amazonian endemics always high on everyone's "want list": White-breasted Antbird and the gorgeous Black-bellied Gnateater; a fine male allowed us really tremendous views. Chestnut-belted Gnateater also performed really well for us. Best among a host of woodcreepers were Spot-throated, Hoffmann's, Uniform, and Strong-billed. Rufous-tailed Xenops was seen nicely, and we got good views of Rufous-rumped, Chestnut-winged, and Para Foliage-gleaners. The roster of flycatchers was headed by the newly described Chico's Tyrannulet, which really put on a show this year (after almost skunking us in 2012), and all enjoyed seeing it so well, even if is IS a little green flycatcher! Also great were Buff-cheeked Tody-Flycatcher and Zimmer's Tody-Tyrant, a female Black-necked Red-Cotinga, Spangled Cotinga (wow!), White-browed Purpletuft (far away, but neat in the scope), an elusive Musician Wren that we heard and finally did see really well, White-winged Shrike-Tanager, Paradise Tanager, several fine views of Short-billed Honeycreepers and relatives from the tower (great flowering tree up there!), and a dapper pair of Rose-breasted Chats.

Our biggest misses were Dark-winged Trumpeter and Zigzag Heron (first time for both; we heard a Zigzag fairly close but couldn't get it to budge from the swamp), and Pale-breasted Antbird continues to be very scarce (and ant swarms were almost non-existent this time around). Manakins and raptors were also disappointing except, of course, for the Harpy!

Mammalian highlights were Prince Bernard's Titi-Monkey, Neotropical Pygmy-Squirrel (rarely seen anywhere), a very close, exciting encounter with a big group of Giant Otters (amazing animals, one taking it easy and eating a fish while the others complained about our close presence), a huge Brazilian Tapir swimming across a branch of the Roosevelt (check out the video!), and Red Brocket Deer at the clay lick. Amazingly, we did not encounter Common Woolly Monkeys or White-nosed Bearded Sakis (these heard far off one time), which is highly unusual, probably due to fruiting trees being different from the usual distribution this year.

Ours was a fun and interesting group of people, and I very much enjoyed birding with all of you, every day! I am sorry this list is getting out to you several months post-tour; thanks for your patience, I hope it pulls up lots of good memories, as it did for me putting it together.

Grandes abracos, Bretche

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

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Special mention for a couple of the big fish caught/seen/eaten must include the Peacock Bass, or tucunare; that enormous Pirapitinga the guys caught at dusk one day; and of course the wonderful ones served daily at the pousada!

Totals for the tour: 372 bird taxa and 15 mammal taxa