November 1-17, 2025 with Bret Whitney
Our little group of 4 birders, François and I continuing from North of the Tropic (Part 1) plus 3 new arrivals for South of the Capricorn (Part 2), assembled for 6:30 dinner at our hotel near the São Paulo international airport. This was a nice, long recuperative night of rest: “marching orders” were to finish breakfast by 8:30, roll bags down to the lobby by 08:45, and depart the hotel by roughly 09:00. 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! Weather looked to be promising, as 3-4 days of overcast, rainy conditions were expected to clear out, making way for several days of overcast but not rainy or windy skies – Perfeito! In fact, weather on the whole tour was very good, generally nice and cool, pretty much as we expect springtime in the southern Atlantic Forest to be.
Intervales State Park was wonderful. Betinho was again our local guide, and he did his usual, truly excellent job. While we didn’t see “everything” (you never do), we scored highly overall, and most of the species that got away from us here (Blue-bellied Parrot, Black-billed Scythebill, White-browed Foliage-gleaner, Pale-browed Treehunter, and had not a whiff of Black-legged Dacnis) were possible on the rest of the tour route (we did get all of them except the dacnis). The Carmo road had a bunch of bamboo and some small trees fallen across it from several days of windy weather just ahead of our arrival (the same storm system that we experienced a week earlier, on Part 1 of the tours), so we couldn’t drive up there, and had to walk the whole morning. This meant we couldn’t even reach the best stretch for piping-guans, and we were super-lucky to see one. A single bird performed a sudden wing display, then sat for a minute or so of nice viewing (whew). White-breasted Tapaculo and the undescribed Slaty Bristlefront were awesome, as were the leks of Dusky-throated Hermit and Purple-crowned Plovercrest. In the “unusual” department, we saw Rusty-breasted Nunlet twice and also a surprise Pavonine Cuckoo at a random spot along one of the lower park roads. Both Temminck's and Buffy-fronted Seedeaters were singing locally, in small numbers. The fruiting tree behind the Pica-pau lodge attracted 7 Pileated Parrots, which was just plain stunning! Night birding was also very good, with Long-tufted and Tropical screech-owls at night and also during the day, Mottled and Rusty-barred owls, and a spectacular pair of Long-trained Nightjars (thanks to great weather and no cars coming by). No sign of Large-tailed or Giant antshrikes, despite ample playback, but White-bearded, Tufted, and Spot-backed showed well.
This year we changed our itinerary for the day of departure from Intervales to include a birding+lunch stop at “Trilha dos Tucanos”, a relatively new lodge on the east slope of the Serra do Mar. It’s a beautiful, comfy set-up and a very birdy place at about 700 meters elevation, with several well-stocked and heavily visited feeding stations, including hummers, and is surrounded by extensive, excellent forest and a marsh. Lunch was great, right on time, and folks really enjoyed this stop; it's a keeper! Cananéia, on the southern coast of São Paulo, was good for Scarlet ibis, the rare Red-tailed Amazon, Blackish Rail, Restinga Tyrannulet, Small-headed Elaenia, Fuscous Flycatcher, Long-billed Wren, and – yes! – Black-backed Tanager once again!
Best on our first full day around Curitiba were nice, repeated views of Marsh Tapaculo (usually gets away "heard only"), Araucaria Tit-Spinetail, and Glaucous-blue Grosbeak. That afternoon, we visited the property of Dr. James Roper, an American who has lived in Brazil for many years, and is now a retired professor of statistics and full-time caretaker of his lovely homestead. In addition to his hummer feeders, Jim showed us next boxes he maintains for numerous cavity-nesting species, everything from Maroon-bellied Parakeets and Tropical Screech-Owl to Buff-browed Foliage-gleaner and Planalto Woodcreeper! His upper deck was a great viewing spot for birds feeding at fruiting trees (Black-tailed Tityras, Swallow Tanagers, et al.), and we had our best view of Olive Spinetail there as well. Thanks, Jim, it was great fun to visit once again!! But the day was far from over…
That evening, we had a fabulous experience with Sickle-winged Nightjars: we did our checklist in the field as dusk was approaching, then made our way out into the grassy marsh where the nightjars live. It was drier than last year, but still held ankle-deep water in a couple of places. We helped everyone along the track, then once we were perfectly in place, and as we were making a plan for which direction to try to get a nightjar to show up… there came the first, spontaneous vocalization! It was still not quite dark. One song playback brought the bird zipping past us, bizarre wing-shape visible in the spotlight. Over the next few minutes everybody got to see the birds well, then one of the males perched on a twig in a fully exposed position (which never happens, but check out the video). We approached it slowly and as quietly as possible, and eventually got to within about 25 feet for truly spectacular views of this mysterious and very distinctive little nightjar. It stayed put, occasionally emitting its quiet, buzzing vocalization, with at least two others nearby, for the whole 20 or so minutes we were there! Less than an hour later, we were back to the hotel for a very nice buffet dinner. Our second day took us down to the coast and into the neighboring state of Santa Catarina, to the Volta Velha Reserve, to bird a mosaic of forest and marshy country right at sea-level. Our first new bird was a pair of Scaled Chachalacas feeding on palm fruits, which Wendy spotted for us even before we made it to the reserve. The rare and local Kaempfer’s Tody-Tyrant was #1 on the list of desiderata at Volta Velha, and fortunately, we managed a very nice view of one, followed a short time later by equally good looks at an Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant. A Scaled Antbird performed beautifully as well, a male Black-backed Tanager showed up (I wished I could save that one up for next year!), and there were a few Azure Jays around. That afternoon, following a 45-minute, rather bone-jarring ride, we embarked on a boat trip into (windy!) upper Guaratuba Bay in search of the nominate (first-described) population of Marsh Antbird. A male Marsh Antwren eventually permitted good views in the cattails, along with Wren-like Rushbird. Next morning, just before our departure from Curitiba, we had one more mission to accomplish: getting good views of one of the most localized and distinctive of the endemic birds of SE Brazil: Canebrake Groundcreeper – a pair of which performed beautifully – thanks Tiago!
As in 2024, we ran the tour a week earlier than we had over the previous 15 or so years, hoping to benefit from perhaps a little more song from resident birds locking down territories just as several southern breeders that winter in central Brazil (Ochre-breasted Pipit, Blacksmith Thrush, Tropeiro and Black-bellied seedeaters, et al.) were just now arriving on territories. We were perhaps a bit less successful this year, dipping on Blacksmith Thrush (one or two barely heard) and Black-bellied Seedeater (we were probably just a couple of days too early), but we enjoyed fabulous views of Ochre-breasted Pipit and, once again, the rare, recently described Tropeiro Seedeater. As we were working on the seedeaters, Daniel and François teamed up to spot two juvenile Chaco Eagles at the remains of a dead deer on a distant hillside – and then we spotted an adult bird starting to rise on late-morning thermals. Soon, all three eagles were soaring dramatically above us, Yip Yip Yip!
Our final days, in Rio Grande do Sul, were also super-productive. On a perfect, sunny, calm late afternoon, the marsh near Bom Jesus produced Plumbeous Rail, Freckle-breasted Thornbird, Straight-billed Reedhaunter, Sharp-tailed Tyrant, Black-and-white Monjita, Great Pampa-Finch, Gray-cheeked Grass-Finch, Long-tailed Reed-Finch, and Saffron-cowled Blackbirds – and even a Maguari Stork flew by. But zero Black-bellied Seedeaters. We stayed til dark on that perfect evening to try for Giant Snipe, but did not even hear one (were we a bit too early this year?). Our morning at the FLONA (National Forest) São Francisco de Paula was outstanding, highlighted by a very close Mottled Piculet (hurrah!), an incredibly cooperative pair of Blue-bellied Parrots, Brown-breasted Pygmy-Tyrant, Short-tailed Antthrush, the undescribed “Speckle-breasted” Antpitta, and Green-throated Euphonia. We drove to Porto Alegre the final morning, leaving time to bird a park where we enjoyed fine views of a surprise Ringed Teal, lots and lots of breeding egrets, herons, and ibises, Gilded Hummingbird, several Grayish Baywings and Red-crested Cardinals, and a very close pair of Rufous-sided Crakes. Check-in for our flight to São Paulo was easy and we had plenty of time for lunch and a little last-minute airport shopping.
Several endemic, range-restricted mammals and other critters encountered along the course of the tour, included:
Brown Howler (Alouatta guariba) heard at FLONA São Francisco de Paula in Rio Grande do Sul
Brown Capuchin (Sapajus apella) Intervales
Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) two seen foraging on short-grass hillsides in Rio Grande do Sul
European Hare (Lepus europaeus) short-grass hillside in Rio Grande do Sul, just one or two this year; an introduced species
Shiny Cavy – apparently Cavia fulgida at the park in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul on our last day
Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Cananéia was really nice and close, but we also spotted a couple off of Itapoá, Santa Catarina
Pampas Fox (Lycalopex gymnocerca) seen nicely a couple of times; Daniel seemed to have a propensity for spotting foxes!
Crab-eating Raccoon – tracks only
Skunk sp. – smelled only
Lowland Tapir – smelled only
Giant Anteater – tracks only (Intervales)
Mountain Lion (Puma) – tracks only (Intervales)
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Tegu Lizard (Tupinambis tegu) – the big, terrestrial lizards we saw on several, especially the sunniest, days
Horned Frog (Proceratophrys boiei) the amazingly well-camouflaged, toad-like frogs we spotted along the trails at Intervales
I want to give a special shout-out to François Grenon, who so ably and conscientiously commandeered the generation of our many eBird lists, often four or more per day. We all thank you very much, François!
Thank you all so much for coming with Field Guides on this tour. I very much enjoyed birding with and guiding all of you along the way, and hope to have the opportunity to do it again at some point in the future.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/452725
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/sb225TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Bret