Brasil02

Veterans as we were of the Palearctic, Nearctic and Indo- and Afrotropical zones, it was clearly time to make a foray into the Neotropics, fabled destination for birders, and home to a greater avian diversity than anywhere else on earth. Simon had been to Brasil for one week (!) back in 1995, and had a Brasilian list of precisely 96 (it wasn't a birding trip....), so it was a pretty level playing-field! We shopped around, looked at various options like Costa Rica and Peru, but eventually decided that a great way in would be to 'do' some selected portions of Brasil.

Brasil is massive. We couldn't cover more than a fraction of it, but we did pretty well! We started in the Atlantic forests near São Paulo, then transferred inland and 'did' the epic Pantanal, before flying to the Amazon basin and Alta Floresta, and finishing up in the chapada and cerrado habitats at Serra das Araras. It was simply incredible. We ended up seeing 630 species, which amounts to over 5% of the entire global avifauna! How to pick highlights? Near-impossible: but try Hyacinth Macaw, Cryptic Forest-Falcon, Zigzag and Agami Herons, and just scores of antbirds, trogons, puffbirds, parrots, furnariids and heaven knows what else, including a whole stack of tasty primates and other mammals.