When All Else Fails, Friends - Brazil
- Jun 4
- 20 min read
Updated: a few seconds ago
6/2/2026 - 6/13/2026
As I mentioned in my first post, I was not planning to be here. Plans change; fall through. Things do not work out. Luckily, I have friends; not many, but I know some people. This is, of course, an inside joke. The whole point being, I was lucky enough to tag along on a trip some friends already had planned out. I was not going to be sitting at home. I was going to see cool birds in an amazing country. Sometimes, things work out the way they are supposed to.
I am back in Brazil. This post is starts on the day that Rene, of Calyptura Expeditions, picked us up in Sao Paulo and covers our time in Cananeia and Intervales SP (skipping Trilha dos Tucanos, for now). It is worth noting that this is not a photography trip. While every place we visited had feeders, the primary objective here is "boots on the ground" birding. Pictures in the forest are tough; especially when the guide is not a photographer. While we saw a lot of great birds, I have pictures of very few of them. It was just not that kind of trip.
It was still dark when a large, dark vehicle blotted out the view in front of the hotel. Our ride had arrived. This "van" could seat 16 passengers in it. Counting the guide and the driver, we had 7. We each had a row. We would not lack for comfort on this trip. We were heading to Cananeia, south of Sao Paulo and near the coast. We will be staying at an ecolodge down there called Lagomar. It is a quick trip; only a couple of days before we move on.
The trip was uneventful and comfortable as I expected it to be until I spotted a raptor along the road a couple miles away from the lodge. The driver turned around, and the bird turned out to be a Roadside Hawk. Nice bird. We turned around again; except we only made it halfway. The van sunk into the mud at the edge of the road and quickly buried the rear tires. Thankfully, this happened at the beginning of the trip. We were fresh and full of energy still. It was a fun adventure. One could even call it a lark. We got some sticks under the tires and got the van pushed out with relatively little trouble; although Sara got a nice mud spackling for our troubles.
It was early midday when we pulled into Lagomar. The lodge grounds were nice, and we were immediately drawn to the fruit and hummingbird feeders. The cool weather and light rain had the feeders full of activity. Rene pulled us away from them to show us some Azure Jay that were feeding in a palm.
The distraction did not last long, and we were back at the feeders. The stars here were the Blue-naped Chlorophonia and three species of euphonia: Chestnut-bellied, Violaceous, and the "super endemic" Green-chinned. In the words of Rene, we would be seeing a number of "super endemic" birds this trip. Super endemic or not, these were a nice looking group of birds, and the Violaceous was a lifer.
Rene said this would be our one place to find Black Jacobin this trip. They migrate. I am not sure where they go, but he said there may be one or two still handing around the feeders, here. He was right. We saw exactly two. The one with the orange streak is an immature bird.
The other highlight here was a Variable Oriole. It is a subtly attractive bird, and I was happy that it was so cooperative. At one point, the bird came in and stole a flower from a banana tree.
All in all, it was a busy little setup. The lodge is building a new setup that should be much nicer to shoot at - not that I am complaining.
We were eventually hauled away for lunch. A small bit of irony kicked in here. Some of the group are a bit particular about food. Not judging. I do not eat onions. That can make life difficult. The instructions given to the guide when booking the trip were that fish was not an option for meals. Well, the cook at the ecolodge was sick. He had been out for days, and they could not find a replacement cook. Our only meal option was a single restaurant about a mile down the road. The place specialized in oysters and fish. Lunch this first day consisted of some fairly bland chicken strips and fries. It screamed kids meal. Passable, but it was going to get a bit tiring; even for the short time we were going to be here. We went back for dinner that night and had an amazing meal. They basically cooked us a home-cooked meal. Rice, beans, and a protein. Lunch the next day was great and included fried yucca. At some point, we discovered the ice cream cones stuffed with brigadeiro (an amazing chocolate desert) they had for sale, and we cleaned them out of them in two nights.
As for birding, well, it did not go super well this afternoon. The tour ran a fairly typical schedule. We birded early morning. Took a midday break, and then birded in the afternoon until dark. We are not terribly far from the equator. Sunrise-to-sunset was a fairly typical 6-ish to 6-ish. 12 hours of fun, plus any night birding. This first night would feature a little night birding, but we had to get past the rain first. We started a hike at the lodge to look for Black-headed Berryeater. This is a canopy bird. Super endemic. High up and hard to see. We got about 5 minutes into the hike when the skies opened up.
We headed back to the lodge and birded from the feeder area. We did find a rather wet Green-backed Trogon while sheltering there.
After the rains let up, we walked the road a bit. It was getting a bit dark, and the open area gave us a little extra light. We found a nice mixed flock. I got good looks at a beautiful Flame-crested Tanager, another lifer for me. Gray-headed Tody-Flycatcher was feeding in the grasses along the road, and so was a beautiful Chestnut-bellied Seed-Finch. According to Rene, this bird is one of the most sought-after cage birds in Brazil. Apparently it sings well.
This afternoon would start a bit of a running joke for the next day. I have been on the other end of this joke, and it does not feel overly funny, at the time. Spoiler: it ends well. Anyway, we were walking over a bridge, and everyone but Chris and I spotted a Slaty-breasted Wood-Rail as it bounded up the creek bed. Until the morning we would leave, Chris would just-miss every sighting of this bird. It was close to becoming a nemesis. I would spot one on the morning hike the following morning. One would call and run-through the pond area below the feeders. It would show back up and then disappear again. This would happen several times, and Chris would either be elsewhere or just looking in a different direction at the wrong time. He finally got to see one at Trilha dos Tucanos. Then we saw several more throughout the trip. That is how it works.
Night birding was a bust. With the rain, nothing was active. We headed back to our rooms, and I was looking forward to a night of rest. That was not to be, though. Just as I laid down, things got noisy above me. I could here things crawling in the ceiling and making squeaky noises all night. Just as I would drift off, it would all start again. All. Night. Long. I took a recording, and their guess was that it was bats living in the roof. They moved my room, and I slept better the next night. Welcome to Brazil!
The next morning came way too soon. I groggily piled into the van as we set out for some birding. We were looking for Red-tailed Amazon, this morning. Parrots are Rene's favorite bird, and we were searching for one of his favorites. It was going to be a tricky chase, and, if we missed, it was going to complicate the afternoon. We drove some local neighborhoods where Rene has found the bird before. At one stop, we had this cute little Glittering-throated Emerald sitting just outside the van. This is the only one we would see.
We eventually ended up on a sandy road through a small forest. Here, the ant-thing fun started. Antbirds, antshrikes, antvireos - we had them all. Actually we had a few, but it is a bit of a confusing set of birds. I had studied hard before the trip and could at least recognize the bird when we got one in sight. Being tired, I struggled to find birds. Thankfully, everyone was patient as they helped me get on a few birds. The prize one being a female Black-backed Tanager. Another super endemic that I needed for my life list. This would be the only one we saw this trip.
We had quite a few birds, and we had only made it into the woods a couple hundred feet. Suddenly, some parrots called, and Rene called out that they were our target. They had landed in some trees up the road a bit, and we had to quietly approach. This was not our group's strong point. We ended up with the birds sitting on the canopy above us. In other words, they were on top of the trees, and we were trying to find windows in the leaves to see them. They were moving around a bit, which helped. I finally got a look straight up at one.
We had a couple of Bare-throated Bellbird calling from the trees. The calls of these birds is incredible. They basically sound like someone loudly striking a piece of metal. We finally found one, but it was a young male, not the snow-white adult with the teal-blue throat.
Squamate Antbird (a striking bird I wish I had a photo of), Scaled Antbird, Variable Antshrike, Plain Antvireo, Black-capped Foliage-gleaner, Atlantic Plain-Xenops, Lesser Woodcreeper, and Olivaceous Woodcreeper kept us busy. A Greenish Schiffornis played tag with us for a bit. Swallow-tailed and White-bearded Manakin also played hard-to-see. All birds I would have loved photos of. I did not walk away with anything useful, though. We walked on down the road to some mangroves and then up into some pasture land but had little. On the way back, I managed a shot of a Gray-hooded Flycatcher.
At least I had better luck over the midday break. The feeders were not as busy. The day was sunny and pleasant. It allowed me to focus on getting a shot of the Riverbank Warbler. There is a small pond/wet area below the feeders. Maybe 15 feet down a steep incline. A Riverbank Warbler would constantly call from the area; taunting us up above. It would feed and then disappear; never sitting idle for more than a couple of seconds. Of course, shooting down on a bird is never a great option, but you take what you can get at times. The bird would occasionally come up and hop around up, but the minute it spotted someone, it would bolt. More than once, this bird hopped out 5 foot in front of me. I spent too much time getting what is only a marginal photo of this species. As with most things, we had better opportunities later.
Nothing much new at the feeders this day. Pale-breasted Thrush snuck in for some banana crumbs on the ground. A cute little Rufous-collared Sparrow came by, too. Cliff Flycatcher posed on the satellite dishes on the roof, and the Black-crowned Night-Heron continued their sleepy vigilance around the pond.
The evening hike was fun. There was a small trail down the road that leads to a waterfall. We did not even make it onto the trail before I had my next lifer. Long-billed Wren looks like a Carolina Wren with an abnormally long bill. They got the name right on this one. In the same stand of plants, we had a Spot-breasted Antvireo; super endemic.
We were watching the antvireo when everything suddenly exploded. I caught some sudden movement, and then a bird burst through the foliage in front of us. There was a flurry of wings followed by a bird streaking across the road and out of sight. I got "raptor". Others got a little better look and said "accipiter". No one knows what it was, but we were clearly not the only ones there watching the birds. This, of course, quieted things down a bit, and we moved onto the trail.
We spent some time trying to get good looks at a pair of Rufous-capped Antthrush. These birds are ninjas. At one point, I had been staring at a spot for a minute; only to have the bird suddenly bolt across the path from the exact spot I was watching. I never got a good look at one. The highlight of the hike was a Spot-billed Toucanet. It is a beautiful bird. I was happy to also see Gray-hooded Atilla, and the Southern Tropical Pewee was a lifer for me, thanks to a recent split in the species.
The next morning started a little overcast with a bit of light rain. As we were grabbing breakfast (they serve cake for breakfast!), Rene came into the room to announce a Channel-billed Toucan out front. The bird had moved back a ways, but it was amazing to see. There are two forms of this bird. One is white and looks a lot like a White-throated Toucan. The other is a magnificent orange. This was the one I wanted to see. This is the one we had!
The feeders were busy, and we had a little time at them before starting our final hike. I did not shoot much in the way of tanagers here. We had several species, but nothing much of note. This last morning, a nice male Brazilian Tanager came in briefly. Oddly, a Social Flycatcher stopped by, too. Out in the yard, a pair of Scaly-headed Parrots decided to land in the trees. We had had a lot of distant fly-overs of this species, and I was stubbornly not counting them (I can be a bit peculiar when it comes to what I count; just stubborn, really). They were always just dark birds against a sky, and I wanted an identifiable-to-me look before counting one. The group wanted to know if I would count them, now. I would have to say I got a decent enough look.
Afterwards, we took that hike that got rained out on our first night. There is a windy trail full of tree roots leading out the back of the lodge. We walked in and had a few different ant-things. What we were looking and listening for was the Black-headed Berryeater. One could be heard calling distantly. They almost make a call that sounds like "whoop wahoo!" It sounds funny to me. This morning, I was less amused and more anxious. This was our only chance for the bird, and it was a lifer. The bird eventually approached, but it is a canopy bird. We are searching and looking straight up for it. I eventually got an identifiable look at the bird. I would not call it a satisfactory look, but it was good enough to identify.
Wit that, we loaded into the van and headed off to Trilha dos Tucanos. That is where we headed next. This post is going to Intervales SP. Intervales is a large state park that protects a portion of the Atlantic Rainforest. The Atlantic Rainforest covers the southern edge of Brazil's east coast down into parts of Argentina and Paraguay and hosts a large number of endemics species: birds, butterflies, plants, and mammals. Species that have been long thought extinct have re-emerged from the rainforest years (decades) later. We have been in parts of the rainforest this whole trip, but, here, we have a large protected section of it.
We got to Intervales and headed the mile down the road to register our visits over the next couple of days. We did some roadside birding near the entrance gate and had a number of birds. Campo Flicker was a welcome but distant sighting. Southern House Wren, Southern Yellowthroat, and Saffron Finch were common. While here, Rene called a Diademed Tanager that was heard distantly. No response to a call; so, we just hung out and birded a bit more. I caught a flash of blue out of the corner of my eye and said something about it. We could not locate anything and wrote it off as a Sayaca or Azure-shouldered. Thankfully, Sara kept looking. The tanager had flown across the road and was feeding low in the trees. It was the Diademed Tanager.
It moved quickly, and I missed some of the better shots when it was lower. I was happy to get good looks at this bird. It was not a lifer, but my previous views were distant. Here are some other shots from the area.
There was a bit of a running joke along the trip. Rene had promised a lifer a day or our money back. Today looked like it was going to be the day. We had left dos Tucanos without anything new, travelled three hours, and then only had time to bird the gate area of the park. We got back to Betinho's place and were hanging around the feeders until dinner. Rene had spotted a Giant Antshrike in the forest behind the place, and we went to look for it. While looking, I spotted a large woodpecker fly back further into the trees. It alighted on the trunk and turned to look back at me. It was a beautiful Robust Woodpecker. A striking bird, and my single life bird of the day.
I was last in Intervales in 2017 with Carmen. It was the last leg of a trip that also took us to Pantanal and Canastra. Eduardo was our guide, and we had an amazing time touring the country with him. Being here brought back a lot of memories. Eduardo introduced us to Betinho. I remembered him as a guide who was a bit short in stature but was always smiling, and he had some of the best eyes I have found in any guide. I still marvel at how he spotted a Blue-bellied Parrot through a tiny window in the dense foliage here on our first trip. It was good to be back here and bird with Betinho, again.
We birded hard the next morning. The park is full of steep hills, and it was a lot of up-and-down on the roads we walked. We had over 50 species of birds on this first morning. Lifers were Brown-breasted Pygmy-Tyrant and Wing-barred Piprites. That only a couple of them were lifers shows how well I did on my last trip here. It was a lot of walking and then bumping into a mixed flock. The mixed flocks here are insane this time of year. It starts with a couple of Red-crowned Ant-Tanager, usually. Then you start picking out foliage-gleaners of different species; maybe mix in some woodcreepers or a woodpecker. Higher up, there are tanagers, flycatchers (tyrants, tyrannulets, flatbills, etc.), thrushes, and other birds. You will get flocks with 20 or more birds in them. They are moving fast, and it can be difficult to pick out the bird others are on. It is a fun and frustrating experience. Of all of it, I managed shots of a Streaked Xenops and an Oustalet's Tyrannulet.
At the end of our hike, we spotted a bird feeding on some fruit. It turned out to be a Blonde-crested Woodpecker. It is a beautiful bird, and I was happy to see it again.
We had passed a spot on the trail where a Gray-hooded Atilla was feeding on the ground. On our way back, the bird was still there. The bird paid us little attention this time. Rene said it was probably hunting frogs. We would watch it forage and then slowly move closer for better shots. This is one of those birds I "noticed" in the guide when studying. It looked cool in the book, and I was hoping to get good looks of one on this trip. For the record, it is cool looking in person, too.
Often heard throughout the trip but rarely seen is the cute little Swallow-tailed Manakin. We finally found one perched in the open. They are cute, and I was happy to get some decent shots. A little further up the trail, we had a transitioning immature bird.
We got back to Betinho's, and the rain started in. It would be with us for the rest of the day. We just sheltered up in front of the small feeding station there. We still made it out for some birding in the afternoon, but it was a bit limited. We did most of it from the shelter of the old restaurant inside the park. Before that, we took a short walk in the village where Betinho lives. There is a wetland area here, and Blackish Rail were out and feeding. I picked up my lifer Three-striped Flycatcher on this walk. There were three sitting atop an electrical pole. At the end of walk, we visited the roost of a pair of Long-tufted Screech-Owl.
After the walk, we headed into the park and had some Dusky-legged Guan perched on the ground. Slaty-breasted Wood-Rail, as well.
What we were primarily here for was the fruiting magnolia tree. This tree attracts all kinds of birds. The one I was really looking for was the Sharpbill. We had one on the hike this morning that I could not pick out of a large mixed flock. I could never get on it. Rene mentioned that one was regularly coming to this tree to feed, but you just never know. Luckily, it was there when we got there, but, true to form, I was not able to get on it. I was always a half-step behind. Finally, Chris walked out into the rain and found the bird. I ran over, and he quickly got me on it. The Sharpbill is one of those birds from a monotypic family. Nothing else quite looks like it. This bird is definitely unique; half woodpecker, half thrush. I would have loved a better pic of this bird but was happy to get what I did.
We did not stay long after that. The rain continued, and we were losing light. We had one final stop on the way out. A decade ago, I was harassing Eduardo about doing some night birding when we got into the park. He promised me we would see some owls. After we registered, Eduardo walked me over to some trees near the registration office and pointed up. Roosting there was a pair of Tropical Screech-Owl. We did our night birding on a different night, but Eduardo had kept his word about seeing owls. Now, a decade later, Rene had the driver stop the van in front of the same office building. We got out and walked to the same set of trees, and I laughed with pleasure of the memories and the craziness of the species still roosting here. I should have grabbed some shots but had left my camera in the van because of the rain.
The next morning threatened more rain and just as long of a hike as the day before. I decided to leave the camera in the van. As little light as we had, I am not sure it would have done much good, anyway. Our best birding was actually along the road on the way to the trailhead. As we were driving, a raptor flew from along the road. It was large. That is all I caught. The seating in the van is stadium seating. If you are towards the back, where I was, you could see out the front, but you could not really see up any distance. The van edged forward, and the raptor flew ahead of us, swooping just low enough for me to see it and the large white patches at its neck and rump; overall gray otherwise. We tried getting out and stalking it, but it was too wary of us. It was a good enough look to ID, though, and I had my lifer White-necked Hawk. We walked the road a bit more and hit another mixed flock. While it is not a spectacular-looking bird, it was nice to get eyes on my lifer Ochre-breasted Foliage-gleaner that morning.
The hike itself was a little less strenuous than the day before. The trail actually leads to the house where Betinho was born. Our target this hike was a Slaty Bristlefront. This all-dark, mouse-like bird darted through the underbrush around us; giving away looks in quick glimpses and pieces. It took a while to get a decent look at the bird. I am not sure if anyone got a clear shot of it. We played much the same game with a Mouse-colored Tapaculo on the hike back. I was always a half-step behind this bird, too; never getting a look at all. This is the way it goes sometimes. We managed to avoid rain until we got back to the van. Nearby, we had a beautiful nearly eye-level Surucua Trogon waiting for us. I had to run back to the van to grab my camera for it.
We got back to Betinho's place and setup at the feeders for the midday break. The area around the place is quite birdy. Sure, the feeders attract a number of tanagers and ever-present Blue Dacnis, but the place is much birdier than that. Over 240 species have been recorded here. We had two Aurucaria Tit-Spinetail in the Aurucaria trees across the road on the day we arrived. Buff-necked Ibis were also roosting in the tree. I already mentioned the walk with the rail and owls and the Robust Woodpecker, but a little effort always turned up something new. We had a mammoth-sized White-necked Woodcreeper come feed in the bromeliads on the trees there. While looking at it, we found Ochre-collared Piculet and Gray-hooded Flycatcher. Cattle Tyrant, Smooth-billed Ani, Southern Lapwing, and Cliff Flycatcher were generally present. Pale-breasted and Rufous-bellied Thrush would visit the feeders. Black-hooded Siskin and Rufous Hornero frequented the neighborhood gardens. The hummingbird feeders were mostly dominated by a Sapphire-spangled Emerald, but White-throated Hummingbird was a frequent visitor, too.
Two of my favorite photos from the trip come from the feeders at Betinho's. The first is a bit ridiculous, but I love how it looks. The yard features an orange tree near the feeders. The birds like to perch there before heading in. I shot a Blue Dacnis in this tree. The bird is all puffed out and about as round as the oranges. It just looks like a big blue orange stuck in with all the oranges. Or maybe the bird ate a whole orange. Regardless, I like how it came out.
The other photo is of the striking Brazilian Tanager. This species a bit shy, and we had seen it hanging out across the road. I looked up, and the tanager had snuck in and perched in the open at the top of the orange tree.
I was also happy to get a decent photo of the female. There are usually multiple, and they are never far from the male, or maybe it is the male that is never far from them. Either way, I was happy to get a shot of her, too. Not as striking as the male, but a pretty bird, for sure.
There was a lot to see, and we had decent shooting the couple of days we were there.
We had one last hike in the park before the tour would end. It started from near the restaurant. We were told it was a short walk, but it turned into a much longer hike. We were strangely salty about it. Mostly, we were just exhausted. We have done a lot of walking over the past few days. We birded around the trailhead area and finally got good looks at Dusky-tailed Antbird. At the magnolia, White-necked Thrush were feeding on the ground. The Sharpbill was there but flew off as we arrived.
We headed down trail and just kept going, and going, and going. It probably was not as far as it seemed. At one point, I looked up and looked straight at a Rusty-breasted Nunlet high in the trees. It was nice to finally spot my own life bird. On down the trail, we finally, after hearing many, found a Giant Antshrike. Giant is a bit of an understatement in regards to this bird. It is huge. It is raptor-sized. Such an impressive bird. We chased it a ways for photos but never had much luck. Heading back, we were suddenly accosted by a large "whoop" next to us. A Rufous-capped Motmot was sitting next to the trail up in the sunlight.
We hung out at the restaurant and killed time until it started getting dark. We rested. A Southern Lapwing came in and forced me to get up and shoot some pics in the fading light.
We were going to be doing some night birding. The target was Rusty-barred Owl. Things started well, but they ended up in kind of a mess. I had asked Rene about the Long-trained Nightjar prior to heading out. He said it was the wrong time of year. That was too bad. It is an impressive bird to see. We parked along the road and then waited. As we were waiting, this bird flies overhead and along the road. It is a large bird with a long, flowing tail. It perfectly flaired its tail and then flew out of sight. A short while later, a female flew over. The nightjars had returned, and Betinho knew where to find them. A little while later, we had a pair of Mottled Owl. So, things were going well but then went a bit sideways. In short, we were not having any luck with the Rusty-barred Owl, but a Black-capped Screech-Owl was calling in the distance. Betinho started calling it. For some reason, Rene wandered about 100 yards down the road and started calling the Rusty-barred Owl. It finally responded. By the time we got down there, it had disappeared. We next heard it up by where the van was parked but never located it. Both guides went back to playing different owls and eventually gave up. It was not the best way to end what started as a great night. The stars were amazing, though.
We packed up the following morning and were grabbing a quick breakfast (cake!) in the rain. The whole time here, Rene had warned us to keep an eye on the feeders. Chestnut-backed Tanager was known to come in. We are across the road about 30 yards away and downhill a bit from the feeders. Betinho looks up and points out the tanager sitting on the feeder. Amazing eyes on that guy. I grabbed my camera and managed a few shots at it. It is the female, but she is an attractive bird.
With that, it was time to hit the road. It is a long drive back to Sao Paulo and another long drive through Sao Paulo to get to the airport. Traffic is always bad on this road. We were heading towards the airport, but, the story does not end here. We had one more day at Macuquinho we that we had arranged, and I covered in the previous post. The posts do not end here, either. I have one more post to cover our time at Trilha dos Tucanos. I took a lot more photos there, and the place hosts my most-wanted bird for this trip.
Thanks for reading,
Mike