Bulletin 422 - Brazil 2023 #3 - rails, plovers, snipe

 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.

We notched an astounding 5 species of rails on the trip and 4 were new for me. The  11" Blackish Rail (Pardirallus nigricans) was the one I had seen in Colombia. It has a charcoal head and breast with brown wings and a yellow bill.

Blackish Rail 

There were 2 new species of wood rails. These are the easiest to see as often they are  walking around  in the open. The 15" Grey-cowled Wood Rail (Aramides cajaneus). This rail is IDed by the brown body and grey neck and head. It was split from Grey-necked Wood Rail.

Grey-cowled Wood Rail

His cousin the Slaty-breasted Wood Rail (Aramides saracura) is similar but is completely grey on his breast and belly.

Slaty-breasted Wood Rail

The most exciting were a couple of crakes coming to a feeding station in Intervales Park. They are normally exceedingly difficult to see. The 6" Red-and-white Crake (Laterallus leucopyrrhus) is a sparrow-sized rail with a rufous head and back with a clean white breast and barred belly. The legs are pink. He has a short bill.

Red-and-white Crake

His cousin, the 6" Rufous-sided Crake (Laterallus melanophaius) has a grey-brown head and back. The rusty flanks appear faded compared to the previous one. His bill and legs are dark. You can see form the background that they were both at the same place. Seeing these 2 crakes in the open for a period of time was one of the highlights of the trip. There are 13 crakes in this genus in the Americas and these were the first 2 I have ever seen. 

Now that this place has shown that these elusive birds can be trained to come for free food - I hope other sanctuaries will attempt to make these rails easier to see. This is the same as with the antpittas that were found to come for worms to a feeding station, so many other places set up feeding stations for their local antpittas.

Rufous-sided Crake

The final member of the rail family was a group of 3 12" Purple Gallinules (Porphyrio martinica). One was an adult, but the other 2 at first we thought were Azure Gallinules. But the buffy face and some purple on the flanks show it is an immature. We do not see the molting birds like this in the USA

Purple Gallinule - molting juvenile

The elegant 14" Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) is an easy ID with his wispy crest, black breast and red legs.

Southern Lapwing

The dapper 9" Pied Plover (Hoploxypterus cayanus) is a South American bird found around ponds and on sand bars along rivers, as was this one in the Pantanal.

Pied Plover

Lastly, another new snipe, the 11" Pantanal Snipe (Gallinago paraguaiae). The name was recently changed from South American Snipe. Like all snipes, the guide book says it is difficult to see. However with my luck, it was in the open on a muddy area about 10 yards away. We watched him for about 15 minutes.

Pantanal Snipe

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

I have photos of 24 of the 132 species of Rails, Coots, Gallinules.

I have photos of 31 of the 67 species of Plovers

I have photos of 52 of the 93 species of Sandpipers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2023 David McDonald

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Bulletin 280 - Colombia #3 - Marsh Birds, Cracids, Night Birds

Pablo Florez, the main guide, has co-written a book where to bird in Colombia. In it, he has a list of the Top 30 Most Sought-after Birds by a group of 40 birders visiting Colombia. I saw 12 of them on the trip and got photos of 10. When I show one of these birds,  I will mention its placement on the list.

So the next of these most sought after birds is the 35"  Northern Screamer (Chauna chavaria). Screamers are a small family of just 3 species in South America. They are closely related to ducks and geese. We saw 2 pairs way out in a field. But they responded to the tape and flew closer. This bird is only found in Colombia and Venezuela. With the current political situation in Venezuela, Colombia is only place this species can be seen.They have a black body, white throat and red face with a wispy crest. It is #22 out of 30 on the above list.

Northern Screamer

Here is a bird in the air. Notice the spur on the leading edge of the wing.

Northern Screamer

We found a couple of waders. The 21" Bare-faced Ibis (Phimosus infuscatus) is a dark bodied ibis with a bare red face.

Bare-faced Ibis

The 49" Cocoi Heron (Ardea cocoi) is similar to our Great Blue Heron. He is paler and lacks the rusty thighs of the Great Blue Heron

Cocoi Heron

The last of the marsh birds was a treat to see, a rail. The are usually so secretive, but this 12" Blackish Rail (Pardirallus nigricans) walked out of the reeds for his photo. He is brown above, black below with a long yellow bill.

Blackish Rail

The cracids are a new world family of large turkey like game birds with 55 species in 3 broad categories - chachalacas, guans and curassows. The curassows are the largest, most threatened and rarest. I have photos of only 1 curassow so far.

The 20" Colombian Chachalaca (Ortalis columbiana) is brown with a pale belly. It is endemic to Colombia.

Colombian Chachalaca

The 23" Sickle-winged Guan (Chamapetes goudotii) is brown above and rufous below.

Sickle-winged Guan

The 25" Cauca Guan (Penelope perspicax) is another Colombian endemic. It is listed as endangered. It is brown with speckling underneath and a red throat wattle.

Cauca Guan

The 2 nocturnal birds were both spectacular, despite the fact I did not get any owl photos, but not from lack of trying. The owls would just not respond to the tape. 

So here is the 16" Common Potoo (Nyctibius griseus). Potoos are a small family of 7 species of birds in Latin America and the Caribbean, closely related to nightjars. What makes them unique is that they perch on top of a broken snag or tree and sit motionless all day sleeping, so as to become almost invisible. Here is a photo of a roosting bird I took in Panama 2 years ago.

So what  was so special about the Common Potoo here. Well, as well as roosting on the broken off tree, they lay their single egg in a depression on top of the snag as well. No nest is built.  We found a Common Potoo with the fluffy white baby both on top of a snag and sitting absolutely motionless. My guide had never seen a baby before, so this was a very rare find. I had to climb up about 100 feet on a 45 degree slope to get these photos.

Common Potoo with baby

Here is a close up of the baby. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Common Potoo - baby

The other nocturnal bird was a lifer, the 18" Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis). Oilbirds are a separate family themselves, but are also related to nightjars and potoos. However, the big difference is that they are fruit eaters. Also, they are unique in that they roost during the day in caves like bats. They also use echolocation similar to bats.. This was the first time in all my travels to be at an oilbird cave. Here is a bird on a ledge on the wall of the cave.

Oilbird

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2016 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.