Bulletin 440 - Brazil 2023 #21 - Storks, Trogons, others

  After 3 trips to Colombia with diminishing returns, it was time to go further afield. Pablo Flores the guide in Colombia is now leading trips to Brazil as well. So my birding buddy Martin Jackson and my daughter Chantel and I decided to go there. We visited the Pantanal, the Atlantic forest in the Sao Paulo area and had 1 day in the Chapada. The Pantanal is the largest wetland in the world, so it is teeming with wildlife. The Atlantic Forest is a unique ecosystem from sea level to about 1 mile elevation. It contains 800 species of birds (225 endemic) and 26 species of primates. Unfortunately it also contains 2 mega cities - Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and the resulting sprawl and clearing for agriculture since the Portuguese arrived 500 years ago, has wiped out 90%+ of the original forest. About 250 species of amphibians, birds and mammals have gone extinct in the past 400 years. The good news is that many preserves and parks have been set aside to try and preserve the remaining biodiversity.

There were 3 storks for the trip - none were lifers but 2 were new for photos.

The smallest is the 37" Wood Stork (Mycteria americana). This is also in the USA so should be familiar to everyone.

Wood Stork

The next is the 42" Maguari Stork (Ciconia maguari). It is a white stork with black wings, red lags and red facial skin around the eyes.

Maguari Stork

The giant is, of course, the 55" Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria). It is an easy ID due to its size. It has a white body, black neck with a red collar at the base of the neck.

Jabiru

Of course a bird this size builds a gigantic nest.

Jabiru - nest

There were 3 trogons for the trip. The 11" male Green-backed Trogon (Trogon viridis) has green back, blue hood, yellow belly and pale yellow eye ring.

Green-backed Trogon

The new one was the 11.5"  Surucua Trogon (Trogon susucua). This is a female with the gray body. In the field guide it shows that this trogon has 2 color forms - red bellied and yellow bellied. I have not seen this in any other trogon that I have encountered. Maybe it is 2 separate species??

Surucua Trogon - female

The 10" male Blue-crowned Trogon (Trogon curucui) has a green back, red belly and blue head.

Blue-crowned Trogon - male

The female is gray instead of green.

Blue-crowned Trogon - female

The only tinamou was the 17" Solitary Tinamou (Tinamus solitarius). It was coming to a feeding station at a lodge in the mountains. This is only my 4th tinamou species to photograph.

Solitary Tinamou

At the same time at that lodge, they fed the 11" Spot-winged Wood Quail (Odontophorus capueira). The rufous on the face is a good ID, but it is the only quail in this area of Brazil.

Spot-winged Wood Quail

I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 10 of the 19 species of storks

I have photos of 18 of the 43 species of trogons

I have photos of 4 of the 47 species of tinamous

I have photos of 10 of the 34 species of New World  quail

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2024 David McDonald

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