October 24-November 3, 2024 with Marcelo Padua
The Atlantic forest is one of the most exciting places to bird in the world and this tour allows us to explore a variety of habitats and elevation ranges without ever needing to change base.
We started things off at the Rio de Janeiro International Airport amongst hundreds of Magnificent Frigatebirds and quickly made our way up to Mariza Lodge, our base for the next several days, and the quite productive birding site where we found the likes of Orange-eyed Thornbird, Swallow-tailed Cotinga, Common Potoo, White-collared Foliage-Gleaner and Rusty-barred Owl, just to name a few. Our comfortable and charming home away from home was very birdy indeed, but we also enjoyed wonderful home cooked meals each night, and even took advantage of the comfortable temperatures to do our checklist around the fireplace each night.
We ventured away from our lodge each day in search of different habitats, different altitudes, different climates, and ultimately, different birds. From the lowlands of REGUA, where we found species such as White-flanked and Unicolored Antwrens, Rufous-sided Crake, Blond-crested Woodpecker, Chestnut-backed Antshrike, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher and lots of waterfowl, passing through the gorgeous CEDAE trail and Tres Picos State Park, where bromeliad-clad trees sheltered colorful tanagers such as Brassy-breasted and Red-necked and unique birds like the Pale-browed Treehunter that specializes in foraging in bromeliads high up in the canopy, to the upper reaches of Pico Caledonia where Blue-billed Black-tyrants, Rufous-tailed Antbirds, Large-tailed Antshrikes, Serra do Mar Bristle-Tyrants and Itatiaia Spinetails spend much of their time immersed in cloud cover.
We also ventured further inland to bird in drier habitats and found the unique Three-toed Jacamar (the only bird in its genus) and coaxed out the shy Ash-throated Crake and Crescent-chested Puffbirds in the patches of forest between pasture land that harbored a plethora of widespread, yet wonderful birds such as Toco Toucans, Campo Flickers, Red-rumped Caciques and too many more to list here.
When the weather turned on us we took time to enjoy the feeders at Sitio Virtuoso and fully appreciate the beauty of Brassy-breasted Tanagers, Burnished-buff Tanagers, Golden-chevroned Tanagers, Black Jacobins, Violet-capped Woodnymphs, Rufous-capped Motmots and Rufous-bellied Euphonias visiting the feeders as we watched comfortably seated.
This was indeed a wonderful tour and we were fortunate to have pleasant temperatures, wonderful food and a fantastic group of people to share the experience together. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope that all of you enjoyed it as much as I did.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/289374
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/tuc24TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Padua