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.
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.
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.
