Birding Brazil: Pantanal
In the Pantanal, in the State of
Mato Grosso, we stayed at the Pousada Piuval, a working cattle
ranch, and at
the Pantanal Wildlife Center, a lodge. Both were great places.
Piuval is famous for Hyacinth Macaws.
The Wildlife Center is on the Pixaim River and has great waterbirds.
Our first stop was at Piuval:
Heading off to bird in the pastures and woodlands
Rufous Hornero and nest
Chestnut-bellied Guans
Bare-faced Curassow
Bare-faced Ibis in the sun
Plumbeous Ibis
Buff-necked Ibis
Black-fronted Nunbird
Blue-crowned Trogon
Black-tailed Tityra
Brown-chested Martins
Buff-throated Woodcreeper
Great Rufous Woodcreeper
Campo Flicker
Chestnut-eared Aracari
Coatis
Cocoi Heron
Collared Lizard
Collared Peccary
Crane Hawk
Dark-billed Cuckoo
Black-capped Donacobius
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
Grayish Saltator
Guira Cuckoo
Greater Rhea - male with chicks
Greater Rhea - another male with chicks
Immature Southern Caracara
Jabiru
Limpkin
Long-tailed Ground-Dove
Plumbeous Kite
Snail Kite - male
Monk Parakeet
Orange-backed Troupial
Pearly-vented Tody-Tyrant
Planalto Slaty Antshrike
Purplish Jay
Red-legged Seriema
Rufous-bellied Thrush
Rufous Cachalote
Rufous-tailed Jacamar
Rufous-tailed Jacamar
Saffron-billed Sparrow
Savanna Hawk
Sayaca Tanager
Southern Screamers
White-backed Stilt
White-rumped Monjita
White-throated Kingbird
White Woodpecker
Yellow-billed Cardinal
Yellow-headed Vulture
Birding by boat on the lake
Caiman
The lake - the white birds are Jabirus
Neotropic Cormorants
Rufescent Tiger-Heron
Well, you have waited long enough....
Hyacinth Macaw
Hyacinth Macaw
and, just to liven up your day...
one of the famous pantanal toilet frogs.
We headed south into the true pantanal
along the Transpantaneira
Marsh Deer.
This is an amazing place: 100,000
square miles of seasonally flooded wetlands, one main road, very
few people, and fabulous wildlife.
Muscovy Duck
Purplish Jay
Don't run over the Capybaras!
Or the cattle
The Pantanal Wildlife Center was
our home for the next few days:
Residents included
Yellow-chevroned Parakeets eating the mangos,
Silver-beaked Tanagers,
Saffron Finches,
Jabirus,
[Oh, and Jabirulets. All you had to do to get a photo like this
was to climb up on the platform...
and it was pretty sturdy....]
Southern Lapwings,
Southern Caracaras,
Capybaras,
Picazuro Pigeons,
Baywings (Bay-winged Cowbirds), and
Caiman.
At night, the local wildlife came
in search of treats
Crab-eating Fox
Once we got birding along and on
the Pixaim River,
we found a few more critters including
more Capybaras,
Anhingas,
(some with fish)
Little Blue Herons,
Great Black Hawks,
Gray-necked Wood-Rails,
Large-billed Terns,
Black-collared Hawks,
Capped Herons,
Pale-legged Horneros,
Sunbitterns,
Ringed Kingfishers,
Amazon Kingfishers,
Giant Otters,
Green Iguanas,
Wood Storks,
Black-capped Donacobiuses,
Red-billed Scythebills,
Rufescent Tiger-Herons, and
White-headed Marsh-Tyrants.
In the woodlands and scrub nearby,
Streaked Flycatchers,
Lineated Woodpeckers,
Crimson-crested Woodpeckers,
Cream-colored Woodpeckers,
Hooded Tanagers,
Southern Beardless Tyrannulet
Yellow-tailed Cribos,
Helmeted Manakins,
Red-throated Piping-Guans,
Scaly-headed Parrots,
Purple-throated Euphonias,
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls,
Glittering-bellied Emeralds,
bits of shade (when it is 95F before 9 a.m.),
Rusty-collared Seedeaters, and
Nanday Parakeets (with Picazuro Pigeon).
For those who were up to a 10:00
a.m. walk (at 104F), we were rewarded with a lump on a branch
which is actually a Great Potoo nest with the one nestling.
All you had to do to get this shot was climb another tower...
no problem....
The highlight of this part of the
trip, however, had to be two mammals. The first was sighted along
the river by one
of the boatmen and it took us two tries to find it later. It was
worth the effort.
The Jaguars in the pantanal are very large!
The other great mammal was spotted
by our bus driver as we left the Pantanal Wildlife Center -
Brazilian (Lowland) Tapir - and I managed to get a few photos
through the bus window.
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