Brazil Day 19 - The road to Porto Seguro (21Feb2026)

We had one more long drive ahead of us as we made our way to our final destination of Porto Seguro where we would be flying home from.  Part of the drive is through Conduru, a State Park so you can bet that we made a ton of stops.

Our first roadside stop was to look at some Swallow-winged Puffbirds that were hawking insects.

Swallow-winged Puffbird

White-bellied Tanager

White-winged Cotinga!  This time a male. A Brazilian endemic restricted to the coastal Atlantic forest.

Orange-bellied Euphonia

Blue Dacnis

Reddish Hermit

Southern Rough-winged Swallow

Bare-throated Bellbird from about a mile away.  Even at this distance you can tell it is a striking bird.

Southern Lapwing

Grayish Mourner

Flame-crested Tanager

Wedge-billed Woodcreeper

Yellow-fronted Woodpecker

Yellow-throated Woodpecker

Golden-headed Lion Tamarin!! This was the bird of the day.  This amazing monkey has an Endangered status on the IUCN Red List.

A rare monkey with a shrinking range.

Awesome!  At lunch I celebrated and bought some local liquor.

Cachaca is the key ingredient for Caipirinhas, the national drink of Brazil.  Bem-Te-Vi is the Great Kiskadee and also translates to 'Nice to See You'.  This is also onomatopoeic for the bird's call.  I am still nursing this bottle now but I can say it is delicious with hints of banana flavoring. 

Next post is all about Porto Seguro.

Day 18 - Itacaré (20Feb2026)

On the last few days of the trip, I started to notice the lifer birds were coming much more slowly.  Itacaré was a really nice town and the forests were full of birds, but it seemed that we were seeing more of the same.  We also had some heavy rain early in the morning which made it a challenge to get forest birds. Once the rain stopped, it became quite active.  Although some of these pictures are terrible, I am posting them because it will give you an idea on how difficult forest birding can be and how frustrating it is to see a bird in poor light.  

Cinereous Antshrike

White-lored Tyrannulet - stayed very high in the canopy.

Band-tailed Antwren!! Brazilian endemicand extremely range restricted.

Plain-Winged Woodcreeper

Eared Pygmy-Tyrant!  Not endemic to Brazil, but endemic to the southeast Atlantic Forest.

Bahia Tapaculo - the light was so low that although I took over 100 photos of this fast moving bird, 99% of them were speed blurs.  Lesson learned, video is far better than photos in low light situations.  This Endangered (IUCN criteria) species was believed to be extinct until recently.  Very little is known of this species, but our local guide has been working to train it by giving it worms on a regular basis.

Ringed Woodpecker - A Near Threatened species with two disjunct populations with the Atlantic Forest ones being different enough that they might be split in the future.

Black Hawk-Eagle

Red-headed Manakin

Least Pygmy-Owl

Bran-colored Flycatcher

Brazilian Tanager - you would think this is a Brazilian endemic but its not.  It crosses over into northeastern Argentina.

Yellow Tyrannulet!

Golden-spangled Piculet

Straight-billed Woodcreeper

Gray-headed Elaenia!

White-fronted Nunbirds!  At the time I thought these were the same species we saw in the Pantanal but they were not.  

Screaming Piha - these birds have an amazing call which they can throw like a ventriloquist. 

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Kinglet Manakin

Before lunch, we headed to our local guide's house where he had a couple treats for us.  By stroke of luck, he had a nesting pair of Golden-tailed Parrotlets nesting on his property.  

Golden-tailed Parrotlet!  This is a Vulnerable Brazilian endemic.

I took a walk to the beach in Itacare during the siesta break.

In the afternoon we visited another gallery forest along a dirt road.

Blue-backed Manakin

Sooretama Slaty-Antshrike

Bare-throated Bellbird - we only saw males at a great distance, but this female was more confiding.

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

The next day was a repositioning day to our last destination Porto Seguro.