Birdwatching Holiday Brazil

Wednesday 8 July to Sunday 19 July 2009

with Judy Davis and David Fisher as leaders.

Cost: £2400 plus about £1090 for flights
Single room supplement: £250

Click here for explanation of price breakdown

The Southeast Atlantic Rainforest and the Pantanal & Mato Grosso Rainforest combined Cost: £5630 plus about £1090 for flights

Single room supplement: £510

Maximum group size: 7 with 1 leader; 14 with 2 leaders

The second named leader will only join the tour if there are more than 7 participants.

Bird List

Tour Map

Booking Form

"I would like to express thanks to Judy Davis and Sunbird for yet another first class birding experience. This was my third holiday with Sunbird, the first two with Judy and David and this one with Judy as sole leader." Keith Morrell, 2006.

"I thought Judy Davis’s philosophy of how a tour should be run was very well thought out. It was very well paced." Denis O’Connor, 2005

"Both leaders were outstanding in all aspects of the trip. Highly professional." Peter Brewster, 2005

Home to almost a fifth of the world’s birds (over 1600 species), of which more than 175 species are endemic, Brazil offers one of the most varied avifaunas of any country on earth. New species are being described each year and, as more birders and ornithologists explore this bird-rich country, species previously thought extinct are being rediscovered.

This tour offers superb birding experiences in the Atlantic rainforest, one of the most threatened habitats in South America with only 5 percent of the original forest remaining. Our time will be spent enjoying the immeasurable array of birdlife while searching for some of the more threatened and endemic species. In Serra dos Orgãos and Itatiaia National Parks and remnant forest areas outside the parks, we’ll find a vast diversity of bird families including hummingbirds, cotingas, woodpeckers, woodcreepers, antbirds, tapaculos and tanagers. Different habitat zones from coastal cocoa plantations with remnant forest to subtropical and montane forest will provide new bird species daily as well as frequent encounters with some of the more common species, thus allowing ample opportunity to become well acquainted with the area’s splendid birdlife.

As a first or repeat birding experience in Brazil, this tour, with its diversity and its emphasis on endemics and threatened species, holds a special attraction for birders interested in the Neotropics.

Judy and David first visited Brazil together in 1995 and this will be their 12th tour there.

Day 1: The tour starts in London with an overnight flight to Rio de Janeiro which will arrive before 7am.

Day 2: After arriving in Rio, we’ll drive northeast to Teresópolis where our base for two nights will be a hotel close to Serra dos Orgãos National Park. With a list of more endemics than any other reserve in Brazil, jetlag will soon be forgotten as we immerse ourselves in the birdlife of the park. We’ll spend the afternoon birding the lower stretches of the park where our first Brazilian endemics await us – Pallid Spinetail, White-collared Foliage-gleaner, and Star-throated Antwren are all possibilities. Tanager flocks providing kaleidoscopes of colour and insectivorous furnariids creeping along branches and foraging in dead leaf clusters will have us examining every call and leaf movement for new species. Night in Teresópolis.

Day 3: After an early breakfast, we’ll drive northeast of Teresópolis to a remnant area of dry forest that continues to support a good selection of birds including the Three-toed Jacamar. While our focus will be on locating this endangered species, the day will be spent acquainting ourselves with typical birds of Southeast Brazil including a mixture of tanagers, flycatchers, furnariids and woodpeckers. Night in Teresópolis.

Day 4: Carrying packed lunches, we’ll spend the morning and early afternoon walking a trail in Serra dos Orgáos National Park. This will take us through different altitudinal zones, providing opportunities to see species we may not have previously encountered. We’ll listen for the distinctive call of Hooded Berryeater, a striking endemic cotinga, and will watch for flocks moving through the dense bamboo in hope of Tufted Antshrike, Ferruginous and Ochre-rumped Antbirds, Black-billed Scythebill, and White-browed Warbler. Trailside streams and small waterfalls may yield Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper. In the afternoon we’ll drive to Itatiaia National Park where we’ll spend four nights in a comfortable hotel surrounded with grounds full of birds.

Days 5-7: Located only 125 miles from Rio, Itatiaia is Brazil’s oldest national park with a variety of habitats ranging from Atlantic rainforest to the treeless summit of Agulhas Negras, the second highest mountain wholly within Brazil. Our days will be spent birding the entrance road and an excellent trail system in the park through elevations ranging from 2,700 to 5,200 feet. From the cacophony of parrots screeching overhead at dawn to the musical song of Slaty Bristlefront, the forest birds will hold our attention throughout our stay. Our efforts should be rewarded with sightings of birds large and small, from Dusky-legged Guans to numerous hummingbirds, including Frilled Coquette, Violet-capped Woodnymph, Brazilian Ruby, and White-troated and Swallow-tailed Hummingbirds. White-throated and Planalto Woodcreepers, Giant Antshrike, Spot-breasted Antvireo, and a variety of trogons and toucans including Saffron and Spot-billed Toucanets, will entertain us in the forest throughout each day, while birds that come to the feeders and nearby fruiting trees in the hotel garden will fill any free moments. One day will be spent exploring the higher reaches of the park where we’ll drive above the treeline to the top of Agulhas Negras. Here we’ll concentrate on finding Blackish Rail, Itatiaia Spinetail, Araucaria Tit-Spinetail, Plovercrest, Black-and-gold Cotinga, Mouse-colored Tapaculo, Gray-capped Tyrannulet, Diademed Tanager, and other species that are not normally found lower down. Nights in Itiatiaia National Park.

Day 8: Following a final morning birding in Itatiaia National Park, we’ll spend the afternoon driving to Perequê, with birding stops on route. Night in Perequê.

Day 9: Our focus this morning will be on locating the recently re-discovered Black-hooded Antwren. While visiting sites where this attractive endemic has been found, we’ll also have opportunities to see other species including White-shouldered Fire-eye, Gray-hooded Attila, Brazilian and Red-necked Tanagers. Night in Ubatuba.

Day 10: During our time in the Ubatuba area, we’ll visit one or two local fazendas (farms) where patches of forest have been left among the cocoa plants. We’ll seek southeast Brazilian endemics including Saw-billed Hermit and Buff-throated Purpletuft while Sharpbill, Blond-crested Woodpecker and Bay-ringed Tyrannulet are just a few of the other species we hope to encounter here. Clearings will give us opportunities to scan the sky for raptors, with possibilities including Bicolored and Mantled Hawks. Night in Ubatuba.

Day 11: Following some early morning birding in Ubatuba, we will drive to São Paulo and connect with an overnight flight back to London where the tour ends on Day 12.

The ground arrangements for this tour are organized by our American associates WINGS.

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Last updated August 2008