Rick Simpson Birding Services

We had a couple of days to spare, so Elis and I headed for Ilha Comprida (Long Island) on the southern stretch of São Paulo’s coastline some 400+kms away.

Birding on the beach, Ilha Comprida.

It was well worth the effort, I had chosen the spot after seeing a number of photos on the internet of shorebirds taken there, and I wanted to see some more Nearctic species. From this point of view it was rather disappointing, we only found a few Semipalmated Plovers, some Sanderlings and a Greater Yellowlegs. However a Collared Plover was a most welcome addition to the list.

Sanderlings and Semipalmated Plover.

One of the highlights of the trip was the colony of Scarlet Ibises. In among these stunning birds were Great and Snowy Egrets, Little Blue Herons and both Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night-Herons.

Two juvenile and three adult Scarlet Ibises.

The Ibises came in waves to feed their young, the stunning colour of these birds defies desciption, and the photographs don’t do it justice.

Ibises in flight.

We spent a good while at the colony watching the comings and goings of the birds and enjoying a stunning sunset over the channel between the island and the mainland.

Sunset over the channel.

Next morning we headed south along the island and came to some pretty good looking restinga habitat. Here, before long, we found the object of our search, Restinga Tyrannulet. Also here we saw the endemic Long-billed Wren and Unicoloured Blackbird, a bird of patchy distribution.

Restinga Tyrannulet.

Long-billed Wren.

Unicoloured Blackbird.

Later in the day we searched some more for shorebirds. One of the joys of birding here is that you can drive along the beach, although that didn’t help us much with finding the birds, but it was fun.

Birding the beach.

Once again we enjoyed a stunning sunset.

Sunset on the beach, Ilha Comprida.

All photographs on this page copyright Rick and Elis Simpson.