Left to Our Own Devices - Brazil
- Jun 2
- 11 min read
6/2/2026 - 6/13/2026
This is the first of several posts about my time in Brazil. I was not even planning to go to Brazil. I was going other places this year - then I was not. Plans fell through, and I was unsure of what to do. Last year, my friends Chris and Amy had mentioned they were going to Brazil with another couple I know, Adam and Sara. Their trip happened to feature a stay at a place where Saffron Toucanet could be photographed. This is a bird that I have wanted to see for a long time. Long-story-short, I happened to think of the bird one day, and it reminded me of their trip, and everyone was nice enough to let me join their group. Vacation - solved.
We are touring with Rene Santos of Calyptura Expeditions and visiting various areas around Sao Paulo: Lagomar, Trilha dos Tucanos, and Intervales SP. I have previously birded Intervales with the incomparable Eduardo Patrial and the amazing local guide, Betinho. I was pleased to hear that we would be staying at Betinho's place and birding with him at the park this trip.
Before we get there, though, we had some downtime to deal with. We planned to arrive in Sao Paulo a couple days before the tour started; just to be safe. With flight times, we also had a whole extra day after the tour to kill before our 10 PM flight the next day. Prior to the trip, I had already done a bit of research and found a nearby lodge called Sitio Macuquinho. They did not have availability to stay, but we could easily do w daytrip from Sao Paulo. Chris came across the same lodge on his research and reached out to Rene about a day-trip. Rene put us in touch with Thomas from Atlantic Forest Expeditions.
I am still just a bit ahead of myself, though. We head to Macuquinho on our first full day in Brazil. Our flight gets into Brazil at like 5 AM. Sure, we are tired, but there are birds! Of course, the entire conversation up to this point has been: "Sao Paulo is not safe", "We should not leave the hotel in this neighborhood", "We need to take the day to rest." Logical concerns shared by everyone in the group. Right across a very busy road from the hotel was a small "park". Greenspace might be a better term. There was nothing there but some grass and trees. This is, of course, enough for a number of city birds. Once the group saw them, caution was thrown to the wind and about everyone was across the street shooting Rufous Hornero. Once the Red-crested Cardinal showed up, I joined them. By the time I got my camera out of my pack, things had settled down. I took some amazingly poor shots of the cardinal. The group made its way back across the street and contacted Rena about a place to bird. He sent us to the Ecological Park of Tiete.
Two Uber rides later, we found ourselves walking through the park. The Tiete is the river that runs though Sao Paulo. Largely exclaimed by Eduardo, a decade ago, as being one of the most polluted rivers in the world, Rene would eerily repeat this same sentiment later on our trip. The park here, though, was really nice and patrolled, which made it seem pretty safe. Shortly after getting into the park, a small pack of masked bandits strolled by. The coati here is the South American Coati, which looks a bit different than the White-nosed Coati found in Costa Rica.
The park was very birdy, and we had a hard time convincing ourselves to even step away from the parking lot. There were flowering bushes there that were attracting Glittering-bellied Emerald and Bananaquits. The park had a few highlights and even a few birds we would not see elsewhere on this trip - such as: Creamy-bellied Thrush, Brazilian Teal, and a Harris's Hawk that Chris later identified from a flight photo. Plain Parakeets were busy feeding in a tree and hardly paid attention to us. Not that they made photos easy, but at least they did not fly off. Masked Water-Tyrant were plentiful along the edge of the pond. The pond itself was mostly busy with Neotropic Cormorant, but there were some Great Egret and Anhinga, as well. Large numbers of raptors (mostly Black Vulture) were circling in the air. Crested and Yellow-headed Caracara were present, too. The underbrush was alive with various thrushes, and Saffron Finch were plentiful in the trees. Sayaca Tanager were consistently calling throughout the park. We finished our visit with walk down a trail, where we lucked into a Green-barred Woodpecker; my second lifer for the day. A little further down the trail, we had a family of Common Squirrel Cuckoo.
The next day we started the day-trip with Thomas. I had a number of targets at the lodge were were heading to. One of the specialties of the location is a subspecies of Marsh Antwren, known locally as the Sao Paulo Marsh Antwren. The bird frequents a wetland a couple miles from the lodge, which, coincidentally, is part of the Tiete River and flows to Sao Paulo. The antwren proved uncooperative. While we heard a couple, we never got eyes on one. The antwren would be a bit of an omen for the day.
We got to the lodge, and it was slow. My impression is that they had not prepared for anyone to be there that day. Hard to say. It could have just been one of those days. I had a number of targets to see here. Not all of them were life birds, but a few were. Brown Tinamou, Brazilian, Gilt-edged, and Brassy-breasted Tanagers, Black Jacobin, Festive Coquette, Red-and-white Crake, Half-collared Sparrow, and a few other species were at the top of my list. Expectations where high. The lodge has blinds and feeders setup for most of these species; so, I was excited to see what we could photograph.
There is not much to tell about the day. Generally, things were slow. Upon arrival, the tanager feeders were vacant. Thomas immediately took us to the tinamou blind, but there was nothing there, either. There was a bug light, but it had not been turned on. No bugs. Eventually, a Black-goggled and Ruby-crowned Tanager showed up. We left here and went back to the fruit feeders. Things had picked up, and the nearby hummingbird feeders were busy. We walked trails a couple of times, but we saw very little. We had one area with a sizeable mixed flock, but the birds were moving quick and were hard to see against the glare of the overcast sky. We visited another blind and had a single White-browed Warbler. We finally broke for lunch, and it was amazing. I do not think I have ever had a bad meal in Brazil, and the food here was better than most.
In spite of all of this, it really was not a bad trip. The day may have been slow, but we had some good birds.
Brassy-breasted Tanager is a far more beautiful tanager than the field guide gives it credit for. It is stunning.
While I was disappointed to miss Gilt-edged Tanager, I was overjoyed with thy hybrids we saw. While photographing these birds, Thomas pointed out that we were shooting Brassy-breasted/Gilt-edged hybrids. I honestly had not noticed, but the difference we obvious once he pointed it out.
The extensive gold hood and bright teal flanks come from the Gilt-edged Tanager. Here is a shot of a Gilt-edged Tanager from a previous trip.
We had 8 total species of tanagers. We dipped on Brazilian, but there was: Black-goggled, Ruby-crowned, Sayaca, Azure-shouldered, Golden-chevroned, Burnished-buff, Green-headed, and the Brassy-breasted, above.
We had 5 species of hummingbirds. Black Jacobin had already migrated and was absent, and I missed pics of my lifer Festive Coquette, but the Planalto Hermit there put on a show. These were some of my favorite shots of the trip.
Other hummingbirds included Scale-throated Hermit, Violet-capped Woodnymph, Versicolored Emerald, and my lifer Brazilian Ruby. I needed to spend more time photographing the hummingbirds, but I was distracted with the fruit feeders.
The fruit feeders saved the day, here. Blue Dacnis was ever-present, but we would get other birds mixed in. Chestnut-bellied Euphonia is a beautiful bird. Golden-crowned Warbler would flit through looking angry that other birds were eating its bananas. Shy Rufous-collared Sparrow would sneak in for a quick bite and then skulk back into the nearby brush. Tanagers would come through in waves. You could watch them stage in the tree tops before bombing down to the feeders. Golden-winged Cacique looked stunning on the perches.
The trails provided a few shots, too. We saw my lifer Red-and-white Crake at the feeding station, but the birds trampled though a lot of corn meal; so, I did not save any of the shots. It just looked weird with corm meal all over their feet. The one blind did provide a nice look at White-browed Warbler.
We also had a pair of cute little puffballs on the trails. Once was my lifer Drab-breasted Pygmy-Tyrant. The second was the Ochre-faced Tody-Flycatcher. The pygmy-tyrant, in particular, took a lot of work to see. We heard several but only briefly saw the one.
All in all, the place was really nice, and I would have welcomed more time here.
The day was not over yet. After lunch, Thomas asked us if we wanted to see a Brazilian Tanager. Ummmmm. Yeah! We reluctantly packed up and said goodbye to the feeders. It was not easy to walk away from such a nice setup. On the other hand - Brazilian Tanager. We drove to an unremarkable location along a dirt road, got out of the van, and Thomas called in a Brazilian Tanager.
It was pretty cool and a fun way to see my life bird. This bird would be a lot easier to see and photograph the rest of the trip, but it made for a highlight of the afternoon.
We made one more stop for the antwren, but we did not have any better luck. The highlight was a pair of beautiful Black-capped Donacobius. They stayed a bit distant but were great to see. We walked past the marsh and into a wooded area. There, we had good looks at Surucua Trogon. A Sharp-tailed Streemcreeper surprised us as it called from a nearby ditch. On the way back through the marsh, we got some decent looks at Double-collared Seedeater.
Thomas was not done with us yet. We still had a bit of daylight to burn. We loaded back into the car and drove to a bus stop. Yes, a bus stop. The driver dropped us off at the side of the road and headed somewhere safe to park. The road was quite busy, but it was worth a stop. The area overlooked a large marshy area. Western Cattle Egret flew by as they headed to roost. Two of my favorite birds from last trip were found here: Streamer-tailed Tyrant and Yellow-rumped Marshbird. Both are iconic wetland species, and we got good looks at both.
With this stop, it was finally time to head back to Sao Paulo. Rene would be there to pick us up early the next day, and the sun was setting as we drove off. We had a good day with Thomas, and I would definitely bird with him again. In fact....
Time passes. We are nearing the end of our tour with Rene. It has been a good tour. We are tired. We are happy. The tiny voices in my head have started working. "We can get one more day in." We can have Thomas pick us up and take us back to Macuquinho on the day we fly out. I mention this to the group. We do not have to be to the airport until 10 PM. Plenty of time. There are, of course, concerns. But, messages are sent. Conversations are had; then, it is a done deal. Adam and Sara are going to take the day to relax. Chris, Amy, and I are going to squeeze in one last day. It was worth it.
We are skipping the antwren this trip. The others have decided to count it based on call. I do not want to waste time on trying, again. We are going to go straight to Macuquinho and get the birds we missed last time. That was the plan, anyway. This time around, we were not the only group there. So, feeders were full when we got there. The bug light was on. We had a local guide prepping everything. There were positive vibes. It just did not work out. The tinamou were a no-show, again. We eventually moved to the blind for the Half-collared Sparrow. Again - the bird is a no-show. While there, the local guide ran into the blind to tell us the tinamou had shown up at the other blind. They were gone when we got back. The trails were still slow.
In defense of the lodge, we are there at the beginning of winter. This is not the prime time to visit the place. It is just the time we had. Also, all our targets were there the day before. It is just the type of place that you need a few days at to catch everything. Gilt-edged Tanagers were common at the feeders the day before. This day, we had none. We did not have a lot of birds that we had before. On the other hand, we had a number of new birds. Burnished-buff Tanager was a quick in-and-out our first trip. This day, we had both males and females coming in regularly.
Those Red-and-white Crake I discarded all the pics for last time? Well, this time we just happened to be walking by the area, and they (yes, two!) were out in the open. We took a lot of shots, and then fed them.
I, again, did not do great at getting hummingbird shots. I did get a picture of a Brazilian Ruby showing off his gorget, but the pose is pretty comical.
We saw our only male Festive Coquette of the trip this day. Unfortunately, I only have shots of him sitting on a feeder. He is beautiful, though.
Shortly before lunch, Thomas asked if we wanted to go on a walk. I felt a little bad about it, but I asked how far. We did a lot of hiking the past week, and we were all a bit exhausted. Amy and Chris stayed back, but Thomas and I took a walk down the road. We were looking for Gray Sheartail, Glaucous Grosbeak, and a few other birds. It was very windy though, and things were still slow. The highlight was a family of White-eared Puffbird. Thomas was nice enough to go back and fetch Chris and Amy after we found them.
While we missed our targets, it was still a good trip. I got some of my better photos of some species here.
Again, I would love to spend a few days here. I think it is just a place you need to be at in a better time of year and give some extra time. Also, lunch was amazing, again. Hard to complain about that.
Thomas asked if were interested in chasing some birds. He promised it would be easy car-birding. We packed up and drove out. As with the tanager, we stop at another seemingly random spot along a dirt road. Orange-eyed Thornbird. A life bird, for me. We headed from there to a small farm-road along a tiny wetland. This road became known as "the magic road". The new birds just kept coming. We must have walked a 100-foot section of this place for an hour. Lifer Wing-barred Hornero? Check. Is that a Double-collared Seedeater? No. Lifer Lined Seedeater, check! Thomas kept pointing out bird-after-bird, and we had a great time.
I got one of my favorite photos of the trip here. Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch was calling from a nearby hillside. Thomas called it in, and we got good looks before moving on to something different. The bird, however, just hung out. We had been looking at something else for a little bit and turned around to find the finch had perched up on this flowering branch right next to the road.
Curl-crested Jay, Yellow-chinned Spinetail, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Rufous-browned Peppershrike, Chalk-browed Mockingbird, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Crested Oropendula, Crested Black Tyrant, and a final Yellow-rumped Marshbird were some of the other birds that kept us here. It was a good time.
Thomas tried to keep the luck rolling with one last pre-sunset stop. We were looking for Toco Toucan and White Woodpecker. We struck out on both. At this point, it was time to start the drive back to Sao Paulo. It was an amazing way to end what was an overall great trip. Our guides worked hard and worked us hard, but it paid off.
I recorded 245 species for the trip. 46 of those were life birds. It was a fun trip, and I was happy that everyone let me tag along. A big thanks to Chris and Amy for mentioning the trip to me originally. And a big thanks to Adam and Sara for all their eBird work and excellent spotting skills. I appreciate all of you.
I have two more posts from this trip. They will cover the tour with Rene. Both should be significantly shorter. Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading,
Mike
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