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Cherry-throated Tanager Cherry-throated Tanager is one of rarest birds of the world and we got it! Congratulations, guys, for that moment! Photo by participants David and Judy Smith.

Our two Spectacular Southeast Brazil tours this year were again truly wonderful trips, scoring a very high percentage of the 170+ species (and then many subspecies) endemic to the Atlantic Forest (AF) biome. That said, both tours had more than half of the days both wetter and colder than average, which made our birding all the more challenging. On “North of the Tropic,” the only truly regrettable consequences of inclement weather were loss of significant owling opportunities at Linhares Reserve and rainout on Pico de Caledônia. It hit us hardest on “South of the Capricorn,” at Intervales State Park, where owling was practically impossible. Enough of the gloom, let’s get to the good stuff!

WE GOT CHERRY-THROATED TANAGER – now twice in succession, and thanks in large measure to our great friend and awesome fieldman, Gustavo Magnago!! This year, a pair of birds with a mixed-species flock foraged in a couple of treecrowns for several minutes, allowing good scope views for everyone, and some pretty cool photos and video (see below). This is one of the most Endangered birds anywhere in the world, and may be the single rarest passerine (among those definitely known to be extant) on a continent. Everyone thoroughly appreciated our great good fortune on that second morning of the tour – we were off to an amazing start! A Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, scope studies of nesting Swallow-tailed Cotingas, regally ornamented birds, a pair of huge White-throated Woodcreepers, a highly territorial Mouse-colored Tapaculo, and a massive Robust Woodpecker were also greatly enjoyed by all, as was a trio of Saffron Toucanets, an elusive Black-billed Scythebill, a scope-friendly Sharpbill, a drab-plumaged but quite rare Weid’s Tyrant-Manakin and handsome pairs of Scaled and Serra antwrens. We squeezed in an owling excursion as well, coming away with excellent Rusty-barred Owl and Mottled Owl (seldom-seen AF endemic subspecies borelliana). The hummer feeders at Augusto Ruschi’s “Museu Mello Leitão” in Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo (ES), properly blew everyone away, especially for their dozens of flashy Black Jacobins and several gorgeous male Frilled Coquettes.

Highlights at the justly famed Linhares Reserve, now in the ES lowlands, were many, from Endangered Red-billed Curassows, Red-browed Parrots, Ochre-marked Parakeet, Ocellated Poorwill, and Tawny-browed Owl to wonderful views of Minute Hermit, Ringed Woodpecker (distinctive AF endemic subspecies tinnunculus), Cream-colored Woodpecker (rarely seen AF endemic subspecies subflavus), and the increasingly difficult Black-headed Berryeater. Among other “megas” of that first week in ES were scope studies of a pair of Pygmy Nightjars during the day, a singing male Crescent-chested Puffbird, very close, cooperative pairs of White-bibbed and rare Rio de Janeiro antbirds, and a pair of Mangrove Rails (split from Clapper Rail complex) literally “at our feet”. Onward to Rio de Janeiro!

Gray-winged Cotinga is certainly among the naturally rarest continental birds in the world, occurring in a small area of central Rio de Janeiro state, centered on the Serra dos Órgãos, a range of jagged, heavily forested mountains. The bird lives in the highest, windswept, stunted forest zone, further limiting its available habitat. Needless to say, seeing this species is a great birding challenge. Our Spectacular Southeast Brazil tour had an almost incredible record of 8-1 on seeing Gray-winged Cotinga. Now it’s 8-2, darn it! We have only a single morning to devote to the effort, which is considerable, involving multiple 4-WD vehicles negotiating a rather treacherous piece of “road” up the side of Pico de Caledônia to reach rarified heights… and this year it just “was not to be”. After much effort, we made it to the best area for the bird, and even got one male to vocalize close by on a miserably wet and windy morning, but seeing it was simply not possible. Fortunately, weather improved greatly as we drove into the lower elevations of the Rio Paraíba do Sul and on to the mountains around Teresópolis, seeing Three-toed Jacamars, White-browed Woodpecker, Tufted Antshrike, Dusky-tailed Antbird, Hangnest Tody-Tyrant, Blackish-blue Seedeater, Chestnut-headed Tanager, Brassy-breasted Tanager, topped off with a stunning male Large-tailed Antshrike. Bring on Itatiaia National Park!

We finally got the break we were hoping for at Itatiaia, which is perhaps the single most likely place to hit lousy weather on the whole SE Brazil tour route. Our morning in the high country of Agulhas Negras, on the highest-elevation road in all of Brazil, was unforgettable. We made it up there nice and early and thoroughly enjoyed birding tall, undisturbed forest and up the road to eventually enter the dwarf bamboo and grassland zone, above natural treeline. Birds were all over the place most of that day, and it was exhilarating to experience multiple, fast-moving mixed-species flocks full of lifers the likes of Rufous-backed Antvireo, Diademed Tanager, Black-capped Piprites, both Buff-throated and Bay-chested Warbling-Finches, and Thick-billed Saltator, among numerous species foraging solitarily, like Green-crowned Plovercrest, Itatiaia Spinetail, Rufous-tailed Antbird, Serra do Mar Tyrannulet, Velvety Black-Tyrant, Serra do Mar Tyrant-Manakin, and White-browed Warbler. A Gray-backed Tachuri responding to our recordings was a first-ever sighting for this tour; it has been found very rarely in the Itatiaia region (but is likely regular, just under-recorded due to lack of coverage by birders familiar with detecting it). In a class by itself, however, was a perfect male Black-and-gold Cotinga that Marcelo finally spotted through a gap in a couple of treecrowns. The bird eventually worked its way up to sing for several minutes on an exposed snag, where we all enjoyed prolonged scope viewing. Lower elevations in the park were also super-productive. After days of rain ahead of our arrival in the park, a sunny midday thermal was all it took to get a fabulous pair of Mantled Hawks wheeling just over the hotel rooftop! Next morning, we thrilled to a pair of Black Hawk-Eagles calling loudly as the male performed flight displays low overhead. Lower-elevation, mountain trails yielded wonderful repeat encounters with Robust Woodpecker and Black-billed Scythebill (there you go, Jill!), and also Ferruginous and Ochre-rumped antbirds, Slaty Bristlefront, Rufous Gnateater, Gray-hooded Attila, Brown Tanager, and scope studies of several Buffy-fronted Seedeaters, which have become quite scarce following a massive fruiting and die-off cycle in the extensive bamboo stands. White-breasted Tapaculo is seldom recorded in Itatiaia, but we managed to get pretty nice views of a bird this time around. And, of course, the feeders at Itatiaia provided streaming enjoyment, as various hummers, tanagers, and other species were present at all hours.

Black-hooded Antwren, like Cherry-throated Tanager, is among the rarest continental passerines on Earth, but it’s a whole lot easier to find than is the tanager. That doesn’t mean Marcelo and I were feeling at all complacent as we began our hunt for this Endangered species on a sunny, post-Itatiaia afternoon. A beautiful Fork-tailed Tody-Tyrant showed up first (wonderful!) followed only a few minutes later by gorgeous male antwren that rose from the dense undergrowth to allow perfect views over the next few minutes, a deeply soul-satisfying encounter. We continued south along the coast to Ubatuba, where we would have three days in lowland forest, with a lot of species on everyones’ “wish list”. Hopes were fulfilled, I would have to say, thanks to star performances by the likes of Spot-backed Antshrike, Unicolored Antwren, Spotted Bamboowren, Black-cheeked Gnateater, Orange-eyed Thornbird, and, last but not least, Buff-throated Purpletuft! Jonas’s hummingbird feeders were simply fantastic, with truly non-stop action on 10 fronts at once. Saw-billed Hermit and Festive Coquette, many of each, were probably the most-appreciated, as it’s especially difficult to see these two so well away from feeders.

Our final venue on “North of the Tropic” was an important stop to search for the recently described Parana Antwren, in São Paulo state represented by the taxon Formicivora acutirostris paludicola, considered a subspecies by the SACC (South American Classification Committee) and, by the CBRO (Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee), a distinct species, Sao Paulo Antwren. Whatever, it’s a very rare little beast, and highly unusual in being a cattail marsh-inhabiting antbird! Happily, we found a pair that permitted us excellent views, and without delaying our continuation to our hotel in São Paulo, where we were met by participants newly arrived for “South of the Capricorn”.

Intervales State Park is one of the finest birding spots on the continent of South America, more than worth the half-day drive it takes to get there from São Paulo. In fact, a couple of fortuitous stops along the way produced Red-legged Seriema and a spectacular, displaying pair of Streamer-tailed Tyrants! Despite our four days in the park requiring raincoats and umbrellas most of the time, the large number of AF endemics to be found there – many being lifers for the participants newly arrived for “South of the Capricorn” while others were new for folks continuing from the North – appeared on cue, one-by-one. A couple of slow-moving mixed-species flocks were especially appreciated, as, over a couple of exciting hours of birding, something like two dozen AF endemics seemed to materialize “out of the woodwork” around us, with some of the more similar-looking species (e.g., multiple foliage-gleaners and tyrannulets) allowing close comparisons to help cement identifications. At the top of individual Intervales highlights was a nest of Gray-bellied Hawk, the adult female perched nearby, shown to us by our trusty local guides, a very rare sighting indeed – and also a pair of Ornate Hawk-Eagles at their nest, which was breath-taking! Among many other top-shelf sightings were a Black-fronted Piping-Guan Marcelo spotted feeding on palm fruits, a family of Spot-winged Wood-Quail and also a Red-and-white Crake which have become accustomed to getting handouts of cracked corn from our guides, a Long-tufted Screech-Owl that we managed to get into view one evening, singing Dusky-throated Hermits and amazing Purple-crowned Plovercrests, Saffron Toucanets, great scope studies of a pair of Red-capped Parrots, gorgeous Blond-crested and Robust woodpeckers, a Giant Antshrike at point-blank range (Bret later found its nest!), a couple of White-bearded Antshrikes, nesting Squamate Antbird, Rufous Gnateater (here the distinctive, southernmost subspecies, anomala), scope views of a Short-tailed Antthrush on a song perch, excellent looks at Rufous-breasted Leaftosser (dark, dreary weather helped us there!), Black-billed Scythebill, Scalloped Woodcreeper, Orange-breasted Thornbird, Royal Flycatcher (distinctive AF endemic subspecies swainsoni), Rufous-tailed Attila, handsome Hooded Berryeaters, a couple of excellent encounters with Red-ruffed Fruitcrows, bonging views of Bare-throated Bellbirds, incredible Swallow-tailed Manakins, and nesting Golden-winged Caciques and Golden-rumped Euphonias. It was also great fun watching the trees around the entrance station early in the morning, with something like two dozen species of birds snapping up moths of various sizes that had been attracted by the lights the night before.

We had performed a clean sweep of the tapaculos on the first half of the tour, getting the northern Mouse-colored, White-breasted, Spotted Bamboowren, and Slaty Bristlefront, no mean feat. Heading into “South of the Capricorn,” the stakes were going to climb a notch. We stayed on track for a repeat of the perfect score we registered on the 2016 tours by getting the Mouse-colored Tapaculo and Slaty Bristlefront at Intervales (both critically important, as they represent as-yet undescribed species), and also another Spotted Bamboowren there (we had to settle for a heard-only White-breasted). That left just Wetland and Planalto tapaculos to pick up farther south…

The second leg of the tour took us to the coast of São Paulo, this time in the extreme south of the state, around the picturesque fishing and tourist town of Cananeia. Most unfortunately, rainy weather followed us there, effectively shutting us out of our traditional, lovely late-afternoon happy hour and reading of the list against an estuarine, Atlantic Forest sunset – and it proceeded to rain all night as well! Our mission there was seeing the extremely local Red-tailed Parrot, with a fighting chance for the recently described Restinga Tyrannulet, the rare and beautiful Black-backed Tanager and perhaps some Scarlet Ibis, which seem to be staging a comeback in coastal São Paulo state. Somehow… we nailed all four (whew)!

Southbound for Curitiba, we finally left the rain in the rearview mirror. Two full days in that region (book-ended by additional half-days) gave us ample time to continue our impressive build of AF endemics. Birding a mosaic of marshlands and forest patches in the lowlands yielded beautiful views of Scaled Chachalaca, a soaring pair of Mantled Hawks, Crescent-chested Puffbird, Yellow-fronted and Yellow-throated woodpeckers, Spot-backed Antshrike, Parana Antwren (here near the site of the species’s discovery in 1995), the rare and little-known Kaempfer’s Tody-Tyrant (super-close!), our first (of many!) Azure Jays, and a nesting pair of the elusive Black-legged Dacnis. Montane forests and grasslands closer to Curitiba produced White-necked Hawk (a gorgeous adult soaring below eye-level against seemingly endless forested slopes), Mottled Piculet (what a fabulous experience with this difficult bird!), White-spotted Woodpecker, Canebreak Groundcreeper (great views, at last, yip yip yip!), spritely Araucaria Tit-Spinetail and Olive Spinetail, gorgeous Chestnut-backed Tanagers, dapper Gray-throated and Black-and-rufous warbling-finches, and very cooperative Glaucous-blue Grosbeak and Green-chinned Euphonias. Also memorable was a Short-tailed Nighthawk that zoomed low through our group as it snapped up mass-emerging winged termites at dusk (check out the video, below). Later that evening, we managed to get a Sickle-winged Nightjar to vocalize once, fairly close by, but the bird was not interested in showing itself (courtship was probably over, incubation underway). Speaking of birds showing themselves, we did our dead-level best to trick a Wetland Tapaculo into coming into view… and it finally worked, with several folks getting a quick look or two, which is far better than average for this little bird -- mostly because of the tall, very dense marsh grass in which it maintains its precarious existence; the habitat itself quite endangered due to burning and conversion to agriculture.

Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, also marked the terminus of our journey through Spectacular Southeast Brazil. We had done extraordinarily well on forest-based endemic birds, still lacking views of the undescribed species of antpitta (related to Speckle-breasted), Blue-bellied Parrot, Red-spectacled Parrot (both species rare and difficult to find), perched views of Vinaceous-breasted Parrot (yes, we are greedy), Striolated Tit-Spinetail, Gray-bellied Spinetail, and Eastern Slaty-Thrush. Luck was with us, and we made good on seeing all of those, although we had to settle for our Vinaceous-breasted Parrots only in flight. On the not-to-be-hoped-for (realistically) side of the ledger was a Brown Tinamou that we pulled across a forest track, and those dashing, smashing views of a pair of Planalto Tapaculos whose territory had been trashed since our last visit (it will now probably improve as vegetation regrows), which gave us a repeat sweep of Rhinocryptids.

Grassland and open-country species rounded out our roster of special birds of the Far South. One by one (or two-by two, sometimes!), we enjoyed seeing beautiful Whistling Herons, Slaty-breasted Wood-Rail, Plumbeous Rail, Chaco Eagle (Wow, a pair of adult birds soaring over a verrry distant ridge – but that’s what scopes are for!), Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle (much closer at times), Buff-necked, Bare-faced, and White-faced ibises, muchos Chimango Caracaras, Field Flickers (here replacing the Campo Flickers, a different subspecies we had seen several times, farther north), Rufous-capped Antshrike, Long-tailed Cinclodes (a highly distinctive furnariid described to science only in 1965), snappy Sharp-tailed Tyrants, Crested Black-Tyrant, dashing (and rare) Black-and-white Monjitas together with equally flashy and rare Saffron-cowled Blackbirds, Ochre-breasted (Yesss!) and Hellmayr’s Pipits, Long-tailed Reed-Finch, Lesser Grass-Finch in direct comparison with widespread Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch, Tawny-bellied and Back-bellied seedeaters, and last but definitely not least, the very rare Tropeiro Seedeater in the company of our great friend, Márcio Repenning, who described the species new to science in 2013. Many of the members of our group generously donated (unsolicited) funds to Márcio to help him buy tiny geolocators with which to tag his birds, and we look forward to seeing his migratory-route maps in due course!

We always run our Spectacular Southeast Brazil tours during the austral breeding season, and it’s fun and educational to pay close attention to behaviors associated with breeding, especially nesting. We enjoyed pursuing this every day, keeping track of species we observed nesting (gathering or carrying nesting material, at an active nest, or feeding fledglings), or performing behaviors closely associated with nesting in the immediate vicinity (such as courtship displays and copulation). This year, we tallied 68 species actively nesting or certainly in the process of nesting very near our point of observation (perhaps the third-highest total across all previous tours)!

The following list designates N for birds seen only on “North of the Tropic”, S for those seen only on “South of the Capricorn” (no letter means seen on both tours), and asterisks denote species heard only. Marcelo and I greatly enjoyed birding and traveling with all of you! THANK YOU very much for choosing to bird Spectacular Southeast Brazil with Field Guides – these two tours truly are among the greatest birding tours on the planet, and we loved showing off to you all of the MANY endemic birds of the verdant Atlantic Forest. Come back for more of Brazil with us, and sign up early (now!) to guarantee your space as the time for tour deposits draws close.

Grandes abraços para todos! – Bretche e 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 group enjoying a male Green-crowned Plovercrest at Itatiaia National Park. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

This female Red-billed Curassow was foraging with her mate at Vale Natural Reserve. This was our best view on the tour. Photo by participants David and Judy Smith.

Red-and-white Crake - A great moment captured by participant Bill Byers.

Ornate Hawk-Eagle is one of the most beautiful raptors in the country. Great picture by participant Craig Caldwell.

Festive Coquette (Festive) is a fantastic little hummer that we saw very well at Ubatuba. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

This Three-toed Jacamar was captured nicely by participant Becky Bradley.

We saw the very endangered Black-fronted Piping-Guan at Intervales State Park. Photo by participant Bill Byers.

A very cooperative female [Sao Paulo] Antwren that we saw on the way back to São Paulo. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

This Planalto Tapaculo was one of the fantastic moments on southern part of the tour. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

Green-headed Tanager - How many colors can you see in it? Photo by participant Linda Rudolph.

After several days trying to find one during the regular tour, this Buff-bellied Puffbird was the first bird we saw on the extension! Photo by participant Craig Caldwell.

A nice Araucaria Pine tree. Photo by participant Linda Rudolph.

This fantastic photo of a male Swallow-tailed Cotinga incubating was made by participants David and Judy Smith.

Participant Bill Byers captured the flight display of this Ochre-breasted Pipit.

A beautiful adult male Tropeiro Seedeater was seen very well during the southern part of the tour. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

This Frilled Coquette was another tiny jewel seen during the northern part of the tour. Photo by guide Bret Whitney.

These White-tufted-ear Marmosets were nicely captured by participant Bill Byers.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Totals for the tour: 543 bird taxa and 13 mammal taxa