October 26-November 11, 2024 with Bret Whitney & Marcelo Barreiros
Our group of 12 birders, 10 continuing from North of the Tropic (Part 1) plus 2 new arrivals for South of the Capricorn (Part 2), assembled for 6:30 dinner at the Hotel Panamby near the São Paulo International Airport. Marcelo lives nearby, and his wife and 6-year old daughter joined us; it was great to see them! This was a nice, long recuperative night of rest: the morning plan was to have breakfast at leisure, finishing by 8:30; roll bags down to the lobby by 08:45; and depart the hotel by roughly 09:15. Thus, we commenced the half-day drive to Intervales State Park after the morning rush hour had abated, smoothly navigating the largest city in South America -- and the city with far more vehicles than any other on the planet. São Paulo firmly in the rearview mirror, we rolled into Intervales mid-afternoon, checked into our rooms… and came out for our first birding venture… in full raingear. A drizzly rain had set in, which is not uncommon at Intervales, but it didn’t deter us from seeing some good birds with a short walk around the clearing, including a pair of Three-striped Flycatchers and, especially welcome, a pair of Pileated Parrots in a fruiting tree that allowed close approach.
As always, we kept a close eye on the weather. Unfortunately, it was looking “wet and wetter” as a rare, subtropical “bomb cyclone” was centered off the coast of Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, and trending northward. Such a big, slow-moving cyclone could potentially wreck us for weather, but our hope was for bands of precipitation and wind alternating with calmer, even sunny intervals – and that is pretty much how things played out during our three full days at Intervales. Our excellent local guides, Betinho and Gerson, were with us every step of the way, and, among other gems, they showed us a Variegated Antpitta on its nest, which they had found a week or so ahead of our arrival – lucky us! They also gave us truly incredible studies of Solitary Tinamou and Spot-winged Wood-Quail (these two being fed cracked corn, 15 feet away!), Black-throated Piping-Guan, Dusky-throated Hermit, and Purple-crowned Plovercrest on their respective leks, Red-and-white and Rufous-sided crakes (more cracked corn producing incredible views of these difficult birds), Atlantic Black-throated Trogon, Rufous-capped Motmot, Ochre-collared Piculet, Robust Woodpecker, Black-cheeked and Rufous gnateaters, White-collared and White-browed foliage-gleaners, Orange-breasted Thornbird, Serra do Mar Tyrant-Manakin, beautiful Swallow-tailed and Pin-tailed manakins, Hooded Berryeater, Red-ruffed Fruitcrow (one even on its nest!), Bare-throated Bellbird, the rare Atlantic Royal Flycatcher, Sao Paulo Bristle-Tyrant, Oustalet’s and Bay-ringed tyrannulets, Brown-breasted Pygmy-Tyrant, Rufous-tailed Attila, Green-throated Euphonia, Golden-winged Cacique, the rare Black-legged Dacnis, Sooty Grassquit, gorgeous Chestnut-backed Tanagers and a host of other tanagers. Special accolades are due the fine views we had of White-bearded, Tufted, and Giant antshrikes (whew!) at Intervales!
The cyclone moved offshore as we departed Intervales, and made our way toward the coastal plain. A couple of perfectly timed (and fortuitous!) stops in magnificent forest produced exciting views of soaring (and briefly perched) Mantled Hawks (#5000 for Tom Evans!), then breathtaking views of Pavonine Cuckoo, a species we had not seen well on tour in many years. Our morning on the southern coast of São Paulo, around Cananéia was perfect. We enjoyed seeing a couple of flocks of Scarlet Ibis moving in on a high tide, then wonderful scope studies of several pairs of rare Red-tailed Parrots followed by a low, close Restinga Tyrannulet and stunning views of rare Black-backed Tanagers. Bands of rain trailing the Atlantic cyclone persisted for our days out of Curitiba in Paraná state and continued spotty through the far south in Rio Grande do Sul. Marsh Tapaculo was the only southern endemic that got away “heard only”. Although practically at our feet beside an opening we had chopped into the tall marsh grass it inhabits, swampy conditions created by the recent rains and too-heavy-for-birding rain falling on us as we made the attempt, combined to shut us out. Still, looking back on it, everyone got to see ALL of the other tapaculos: the undescribed species of “Slaty” Bristlefront, the undescribed species of “Mouse-colored” Tapaculo, and Planalto Tapaculo, and we even managed a repeat of the great views of White-breasted Tapaculo we’d had on Part 1 for the two new folks on Part 2, which I think is the first time we’ve seen that bird well on both tours. Due to rain, owling effort was relatively “lighter” than usual, but we did get Rusty-barred Owl, Long-tufted Screech-Owl, and good views of Sickle-winged Nightjar thanks to most – but thankfully not all -- of the main marsh having burned recently. Unfortunately, our day down on the coast was miserably rainy. We had good views of Scaled Chachalaca and Small-headed Elaenia (a recent split from Highland Elaenia) early on, but, as we moved to “Plan C” for Kaempfer’s Tody-Tyrant, our chances were looking grim, and wet. Hey, “Never say never”! Our good friend and local guide Tiago Machado pointed us to another territory he knew of, and, with patience, we (miraculously) pulled up a Kaempfer’s Tody-Tyrant that ended up being quite cooperative. Tiago also paved the way for us to enjoy truly awesome views of Canebrake Groundcreeper, Yip Yip YIP!!
One drizzly afternoon we paid a visit to the home of Dr. James Roper, an American friend who has been teaching in Brazil for many years. Jim gave us a tour of his lovely property, including the hummingbird feeders on his deck. He then showed us some of his ongoing nest-box projects involving various species of birds, which was fun and educational, as always.
Happily, rain had let up by the time we made it to São Francisco de Paula, in Rio Grande do Sul. Some of the highlight species we found in those last few days included a Brown Tinamou crossing the trail in front of us, Chaco Eagle (three soaring over a deep canyon), a pair of Mottled Piculets that came in below eye-level, gorgeous Vinaceous Parrots, rare Red-spectacled Parrots, the highly distinctive and also secretive Blue-bellied Parrot, Speckle-breasted Antpitta and Short-tailed Antthrush (these two heard at close range but seen by only parts of the group), Long-tailed Cinclodes, Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper, Scalloped Woodcreeper, Black-and-white Monjita, Glaucous-blue Grosbeak, and handsome Saffron-cowled Blackbirds. While this 2024 running of South of the Capricorn was much wetter-than-average, temperatures were normal and quite pleasant, in contrast to the wild swings of the past two years (2022 was very cold, 2023 extremely hot!).
We ran the tour a week earlier than we have over the past 15 or so years, which worked well, as resident species were locking down territories and nest-building while several southern breeders that winter in central Brazil (Rufous-tailed Attila, Ochre-breasted Pipit, Blacksmith Thrush, Tropeiro and Black-bellied seedeaters) were just now arriving on territories (let’s hope this holds up in years with “later” springs). Overall, we scored essentially all of the Atlantic Forest endemics breeding mainly from São Paulo south to Rio Grande do Sul! Marcelo and I hope to see you all for lots more fun and educational birding experiences in Brazil. We send our best to everyone for wonderful holidays, and a healthy and birdy 2025 just around the corner!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/311192
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/sb224TRIPLIST.pdf