1-888-990-5552
info@rockjumper.com
This October Rockjumper’s Founder Adam Riley, together with a group of friends and fellow Rockjumper Tour Leaders David Hoddinott and Tuomas Seimola visited the ultra-diverse region of NE Brazil. Famous for its vast array of mega specials and rare endemics their trip produced an extraordinary variety of the regions very best and most beautiful birds. If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit NE Brazil yet we couldn’t recommend it more highly.
Fortaleza in the north was their starting point with the first key site being Icapui. This area of mangroves and coastal bush produced the special Little Wood Rail and Mangrove Rail while the first Jandaya and Caatinga Parakeets were also found. Guaramiranga’s beautiful forests then produced many great species including the endangered Grey-breasted Parakeet. Others such as the striking Band-tailed Manakin, Ochraceous Piculet, Ceara Gnateater, White-browed Guan and Caatinga Puffbird were also enjoyed. Moving further south to Quixada the specials continued to flow with caatinga targets such as Pygmy Nightjar, White-naped Jay and Ochre-backed Woodpecker. Further south and more caatinga specials continued to show well with Great Xenops, Spotted Piculet, Campo Troupial and Silvery-cheeked Antshrike. A new site was then explored and produced the mega Moustached Woodcreeper while further Broad-tipped Hermit was another highlight.
The next day would produce one of the region’s most spectacular targets – the beautiful Araripe Manakin. Discovered in 1996 the Araripe Manakin is still only known from an extremely small area in NE Brazil and is one of the most decorated of all the regions birds. As if the manakin wasn’t enough the following day yielded another of NE Brazil’s most sought-after species – Lear’s Macaw. This impressive bird was an avian mystery for over a century. And while it was known from specimens and even live birds in the 1800s, the locations were only listed as ‘Brazil’. After extensive searches Lear’s Macaw was finally rediscovered in 1979 when it was nearly extinct with less than 100 known individuals. After concerted conservation efforts the numbers are up to about 2000 but just at a few remote cliff side breeding colonies.
Next on the adventure was the scenically spectacular Chapada Diamantina area which also holds a plethora of NE Brazilian endemics and several more must see species. High on that list is the Hooded Visorbearer a spectacular hummingbird with a small distribution. We had some fabulous views of this dry country gem! Other highlights included Sincora Antwren (only described in 2007!), Gilt-edged Tanager and Grey-backed Tachuri. Later around Mucuge the newly described (2007) Diamantina Tapaculo was seen very well and we also enjoyed the spectacular Horned Sungem and finally the rare and difficult Sao Francisco Sparrow.
Boa Nova is a birding paradise with an incredible habitat variety and as is almost always the case in NE Brazil, many rare and endangered species. We thoroughly enjoyed the hummingbird gardens where Ruby Topaz, while rather widespread, stole the show with amazing views. We also nailed the endemic Stripe-breasted Starthroat and several others like Swallow-tailed hummingbird, Sapphire-spangled Emerald and Planalto Hermit. The range-restricted Slender Antbird is one of the regions flagship species for conservation and we enjoyed excellent views while other highlights from the area included Narrow-billed Antwren, Small-billed Tinamou, White-bibbed Antbird, Three-toed Jacamar, Wied’s Tyrant-Manakin and Atlantic Black-throated Trogon. Further south and east we enjoyed many additional Atlantic Rainforest specials like Swallow-tailed Cotinga, White-eared and Golden-capped Parakeets, Pink-legged Gravateiro, White-winged Cotinga (David Hoddinott’s 7000th species!), Yellow-faced Siskin and Brazilian Tanager.
We were also treated to another of NE Brazil’s most gorgeous and rare species, the Banded Cotinga. This stunning bird is sadly critically endangered due to habitat loss however our tours to the area have an excellent track record for finding it. Serra Bonita then produced some more fine specials with the still undescribed ‘Bahia’ Treehunter, Spot-billed Toucanet, Red-necked Tanager, Brown Tinamou and Black-throated Grosbeak all being highlights.’
Our final site on the tour was near Porto Seguro which yielded several more top-class species such as Hook-billed Hermit, Black-capped Screech Owl and Black-headed Berryeater. In total we recorded 520 species but the ultimate goal was finding the rare endemics and did they ever deliver!
