Our last full day at Aguape started out on a road further upriver with some nice stands of mature trees which seemed to attract some different species. The usual crew of Macaws bid us a good day as we loaded up the Beast for the short drive.
Hyacinth Macaw
Blue-and-Yellow Macaw
Guira Cuckoos soaking up the morning sun.
Whistling Herons perched in the distance had not yet left the evening roost.
White-fronted Woodpecker - it took all of 10 seconds for the guide and driver to find this specialty when we pulled up to our destination.It has a fairly limited range in South America and only touches the Pantanal in this little area.
Swallow-tailed Hummingbird! This was a quick look but I got better ones at the end of the trip.
Red-bellied Macaw - yet another small species of Macaw that we only saw once and this time only as a fly-by. This is why I typically use my camera first and binocs second when I am traveling in foreign lands. I am most certainly not a photographer first over a birder, but when you only get a couple seconds for some sightings, at least with the camera you can freeze the moment and study it later. Some purists would say enjoying them with the binocs only is the way to go but unless you have a photographic memory I would argue most of what you saw in an instant will not be fully processed.
Blue-throated Piping-guan
Scaly-headed Parrot
Chestnut-eared Aracari
Pale-crested Woodpecker
Great Antshrike
Sick's Swift - at the time I had no idea how the guide was able to ID this chaetura swift but I see now that the other species are pretty distinctive so this bird was easily put into the category of the only one that is not distinctive. It is highly migratory, only being in the Pantanal area in the austral winter. It basically looks like our Chimney Swift.
Blaze-winged Parakeet
Southern Rough-winged Swallow - similar to our Northern counterpart but with a buffy throat.
Blaze-winged Parakeet
Turquoise-fronted Parrot - this parrot was on the highlights of the day, allowing us to approach very close without flying off.
After about a million photos between all of us on the Beast, it finally grew bored of us and joined some friends.
On the way back to the Pousada, the Beast driver took us down a side path and spread out some manioc on the ground in a little clearing and we waited a few minutes.
Undulated Tinamou
Apparently Hyacinth Macaws can get much of their diet from palm seeds that have been trampled by cows exposing the nut that is usually quite hard to open.
We took a side path a little further into some fields with dry scrub and interspersed trees.
Spot-backed Puffbird
Rufous Casiornis
Gray Elaenia
White Woodpecker - this woodpecker was a real crowd pleaser.
Guira Cuckoo - these were back at Aguape where I skipped a siesta and continued to bird hard within the property.
Crested Caracara
Yellow-billed Cardinal
Gilded Hummingbird showing the pure gold in its tail feathers.
Hyacinth Macaw
Shiny Cowbird
Giant Cowbird and Nanday Parakeet
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
I hope to finish Day 4 in one more post.
As I write this its 01Oct and we are just getting ready to clean the yard from Hurricane Ian.
Cheers
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