Northeast Brazil - Part 4

Cipo Canastero

In case you missed it: 

Northeast Brazil - Part 1

Northeast Brazil - Part 2

Northeast Brazil - Part 3

eBird Trip Report

Day 12 - Cavernas do Peruaçu National Park to Montes Carlos (Lapa Grande State Park). After our amazing visit to the caverns of Peruaçu we were off to another area with dry forest and limestone geology, and new endemic birds. Lapa Grande State Park protects the watershed for the local area and thus the habitat for birds and animals. By comparison to several previous days this was an easy drive and we were there by mid-morning. We did two outings to the park with a mid-day break for lunch in town. The real prize here was São Francisco Sparrow. The little skulker was tough to see well, and impossible for me to photograph with limited time, but we got it. 

Birding Lapa Grande

Another limestone cavern!

Ochre-Faced Tody-Tyrant

Pearly-breasted Cuckoo

Outcrop Sabrewing

White-bellied Nothura (a Tinamou)

Day 13 - Montes Carlos to Botumirin. A chance to see one of the rarest bird in the world? Sign us up. For 65 years the Blue-eyed Ground-Dove of eastern Brazil was thought to be extinct. Its habitat is unaltered white sand savannah in Cerrado with water nearby and the species has always been rare. In 2015 it was rediscovered. I'll let BBE tell the story (from our pre-trip itinerary): 

How could we talk about Botumirim without talking about the rediscovery of the Blue-eyed Ground Dove, one of the most exciting findings of the century! In 2015, a good friend of ours, Rafael Bessa, was on an environmental consultancy in the Botumirim area. As usual, when we do this type of work, we have designated coordinates to go for the bird surveys. To get to one of the coordinates, Rafael decided to take a shortcut and passed exactly in front of what is today the Blue-eyed Ground Dove Nature Reserve. He told us he was astonished with that beautiful and somewhat different habitat that grasped his attention. Although curiosity had already aroused, he could not stop since he had to get to the coordinate to proceed with the surveys. As soon as the field campaign finished, Rafael decided to visit that interesting location early the next day. As soon as he jumped out of the car, he heard something quite different, that sounded a bit like a frog, but not quite: surely something he had never heard before, so he decided to record the vocalization and play it back to reel in the thing that was making that sound. As soon as he played it back, the Blue-eyed Ground Dove instantly jumped right in front of him. Rumors say that he could hardly hold in his physiological needs… Today, this species is still only found in Botumirim and one of the main areas where the Ground Doves live is a Nature Reserve managed by Brazilian NGO SAVE Brasil. The Reserve, together with the Botumirim State Park, protect an area of 35.000 hectares of preserved Cerrado and Campo Rupestre. Botumirim is a very interesting area of ecotones; here we can find Caatinga, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest specialties.

For more, click this link to the American Bird Conservancy There are estimated to be less than 40 individuals in the wild.

We arrived mid-morning and drove straight to the reserve where our local guide had just minutes before heard a dove calling. After an hour of searching we had no luck. These little doves don't fly around, preferring to walk around on the ground in the thick grass and shrubs. Ciro and our local guide decided to try a different know territory a few miles away. Here we had much better luck after a long search finding a pair which we got to see perched briefly in a small shrub. Pretty darn cool. There were many other great birds to be seen in this unique and interesting habitat and we had a fantastic day. 

Close, but not quite. This is a Long-tailed Ground-Dove

This is it! Blue-eyed Ground-Dove

Blue-eyed Ground-Dove

Glittering-throated Emerald

Ultramarine Grosbeak

Day 14 - Botumirin. We weren't done in the Botumirin area with much still to see. The next morning we hiked a mountain for a very special endemic, the localized and threatened Cipo Canastero. This ground dwelling species is only found in rocky areas on peak tops. In addition to some great exercise the views were fantastic. For the rest of the day we poked around the lower elevations continuing to add new birds. It was late in the afternoon when we spotted on of my top birds from the trip, a Frilled Coquette. These tiny Brazilian endemic hummingbirds can be tough to find, not typically coming to feeders. And wow, that a beauty!

Off we go to the top of the mountain

I don't think Nancy is too happy... 🙂

Nor Linda, but they made it!

Great views!

And excellent flowers!

Cipo Canastero

White-wedged Piculet

Oh boy, another Manakin. This time a Helmeted Manakin

Hepatic Tanager. This species is seen all the way up into the southern U.S., but this subspecies is much different in coloration looking more like a Summer Tanager.

Amethyst Woodstar

Frilled Coquette

Frilled Coquette

Day 15 - Botumirin to Boa Nova. It was time to start moving toward the Atlantic coast. This was a very long travel day, especially after getting stuck in a big traffic jam for two hours behind an accident that closed the highway. 

Birding the traffic jam!

Boa Nova was pretty amazing, so I'll leave that for the next post!