Day 15 - Boa Nova to Serra Bonita (17Feb2026)

Day 15 was mostly a repositioning day but there was always some goodies planned along the way.  Based on my eBird checklists, it looks like we followed the highlighted path below.

Chestnut-capped Blackbirds were common even at roadside rest stops.

As were Gray-breasted Martins.

Our first planned stop was a place called Mata do Cruzeiro to look for another very range restricted endemic.  It ended up being super fruitful.

Pink-legged Graveteiro!!  

It's alarming how many of these types of endemics are now restricted to a tiny sliver of land.  Go get em before they are gone!

Lineated Woodpecker

Spotted Piculet

Hooded Tanager

Black-eared Fairy

Green-headed Tanager

Tropical Parula

Chestnut-crowned Becard

Sibilant Sirystes

Sibilant Sirystes

Violet-capped Woodnymph

Moustached Wren

Tropical Parula

Planalto Slaty-Antshrike

Blue-chinned Sapphire

White-chinned Sapphire

Scalloped Antbird!!  A very bad picture of an excellent bird.

The range of this endemic is ridiculously restricted although it is in several different patches.

Long-billed Gnatwren

After a long drive we ended up at the foot of the mountain we would be heading up in 4x4s.  This spot at the foot of the mountain is known as Fazenda Paris which is pretty much the only place to hope to see a Banded Cotinga.  Banded Cotingas are super rare and beautiful.  There are probably less than 1000 left in the world.  Part of the reason they are so hard to see is that they have no known vocalizations so you have to luck into them.  Spoiler alert - this was literally the only target bird we dipped on the whole trip.

Yellow-fronted Woodpecker

Red-rumped Cacique

Green-backed Trogon

Piratic Flycatcher

Black-necked Aracari

Cream-colored Woodpecker

Golden-capped Parakeet - A Brazilian endemic, but we ended up seeing quite a few.

Black-capped Donacobius  - a species I was able to crush in the Pantanal.  

Yellow-rumped Cacique

By the time we made it to the top of the mountain where we would be staying two nights, it was dark so we were done birding.  However, there was some great Mothing if your into that thing.

I will spare you most of my moth pics, but this one was good enough to post.

Next day we would spend exploring Serra Bonita.

Day 14 - Boa Nova (16Feb2026)

The Boa Nova area is so good that we spent another full day there.  We started at the same spot we ended the previous afternoon, along a dirt road in the National Park.

Pallid Spinetail - a Brazilian endemic!

Southern Tropical Pewee

Black-throated Grosbeak playing hard to get.  Almost a Brazilian endemic but it does cross over a bit into Paraguay.

Golden-chevroned Tanager - A Brazilian endemic but quite common in the southeast.

Rufous-margined Antwren - another horrible capture, but at least I got the rufous wing in the shot.

Black-billed Scythebill

Forrest photography is tough!

Spot-breasted Antvireo with a Cicada.  This species is another almost endemic of the southeast but it does cross over into Paraguay.

Boat-billed Flycatcher

Atlantic Plain-Xenops

White-shouldered Fire-eye!  Yet another southeast specialty that is almost endemic but crosses over into you guessed it, Paraguay.

We said our goodbyes to the National Park and headed to a gallery forrest that was surrounded by palm plantations.

Black-billed Scythebill

Wied's Tyrant-Manakin!!  A very range restricted Brazilian endemic.  This was our main target bird in this spot.

Narrow-billed Antwren - this one was the cherry on top - another very range restricted endemic that we heard earlier in the trip but now we were able to see it.  Almost looks like a pale headed House Wren.

Wied's Tyrant-Manakin

On the way out in a farm field, I noticed some whistling herons and alerted the driver and guide.

Whistling Heron

White Monjita - staying far away from humans as they do.

Brazilian Teal

In the early afternoon, we headed up an extremely hot and exposed ridge line in a place called Urucu.  The  dirt road was muddy from a recent downpour so we decided to walk up.  I think I lost a gallon of sweat.

Cliff Flycatcher

Swallow-tailed Cotinga!!  This was a young one or female

A male Swallow-tailed Cotinga.

Buffy-fronted Seedeater!!  This was one of the main target birds.  It is fairly rare and classified as Vulnerable per the IUCN.  It prefers native bamboo forests which can make it hard to see as it tends to stay hidden deep in the bamboo. Not an endemic but almost.

Planalto Tyrannulet

Pin-tailed Manakin!  We saw several of these but always females..  This is an endemic to the Atlantic forests of Brazil.

Sombre Hummingbird

Bahia Tyrannulet!!  At the time we were really excited to see this endemic target bird, as we were led to believe this was the best place for it.  However, we ended up seeing several more later in the trip.  Nevertheless a very good bird with less than 3000 adult birds estimated to be alive on the planet.

Azure-shouldered Tanager - Looks a lot like a Sayaca but there are subtle differences including a larger bill and bluer wing.  This is another southeast Brazilian endemic.  We saw many more of these later.

We headed down from the mountain road and set up for our final bird of the day.  The final spot was a marsh off the side of a country road which we walked into as it was getting dark.  Giant Snipes were doing their crepuscular displays all around us and our guide finally got one to freeze in a spotlight.

Giant Snipe!!!  Hard to see from this photo, but it is huge!  Football sized.

The light didn't seem to bother it as it started to forage.  What a day!