Bahia
John Walls and Dave Sargeant’s 1994 trip report has excellent maps and species lists for most of the sites below. Please contact Arthur Grosset at arthur@arthurgrosset.com if you wish to contact the author’s for a copy.
Closed to the public in May 1999 but now open again (January 2001). The access road is not at all bad for birding and one could easily see banded cotinga Cotinga maculata here (we didn’t!). The Pataxó indians have taken possession of the area around the park entrance and are most importunate. The climb up to the peak is worth doing with a good view from the top but as a birding destination I do not rate Monte Pascoal highly. Ricardo Parrini has found black-tailed leaftosser Sclererus caudacutus here.
This is perhaps the most reliable site for banded cotinga Cotinga maculata (in Nov 2001 we saw a fine male and a probable female), which in general appears to be an order of magnitude less common than white-winged cotinga Xipholena atropurpurea. The reserves mentioned by Forrester now have different names, CEPLAC and Estação Veracruz. The latter is open to visitors and in 2001 we were able to get permission to enter early and bird the main track (the old road to Cabrália). There is a “canopy” tower but it is not high enough nor well placed and the main view from it is over farmland.
Just off the BR-101, south of Itabuna. For some good birding at the R.P.P.N. Serra Bonita, a private reserve, take the road to Jacarecí, passing the supermarkets Cesto do Povo and Super Sacolão (Km 0). Bear left after c.400m. After a speed bump and small shop (Km 10.2), turn left, opposite a bridge. A large sign has recently been installed. The track up to the telecomm. tower (Km 16.1) is rough and in wet weather slippery; it passes through good secondary growth. On 29 April 1999 four or five Pink-legged Graveteiro Acrobatornis fonsecai were building a nest practically at eye level in the trees by the access road to the research centre (Km 14.9 – 1.2km before the tower). We also saw Acrobatornis lower down and it can be seen in the cacau plantations along the Jacarecí road, but high up in the canopy. Golden-capped parakeet Aratinga auricapilla is fairly common in these plantations. Keith and Marlis Sneden report that Plumbeous Antvireo Dysithamnus plumbeus is common in the reserve.
Serra Bonita now has a web site http://www.serrabonita.org.br/ and very comfortable, reasonably priced accomodation is available in the reserve. The e-mail address is clemira@terra.com.br and the telephone number (73) 3283 0652.
BirdLife has recently bought land in these hills, north of Camacã. The habitat is mainly “cabruca”, plantations of cacau trees with tall forest trees left for shade, but there are forest remnants on the tops of the ridges. Pink-legged Graveteiro Acrobatornis fonsecai and Bahia Tyrannulet Phylloscartes beckeri are here, as is an undescribed Heliobletus Treehunter.
To get to the site take the BR-101 north from Camacã. After about 20 km you reach a road off to the left, signposted to Jussari. Opposite this road turn right onto a dirt road to Itatingui. At the end of the village of Itatingui take a rough track to the right to the fazenda de Doutora Katira. Keep asking for the ‘fazenda de Dotoura Katira.’ Leave the car at the fazenda and walk up a steep trail, through cabruca and then, near the ridge, secondary growth.
We did not find particularly good habitat here and I have since learnt that the Fazenda Orion (1° 11′S 39° 23′W) and the Fazenda Elza (15° 12′S 39° 24′W) are better.
There is a simple accomodation at the Pousada Fazenda Liberdade about 1 km north of the turning to Itatingui.
There is a bird list for Serra das Lontras in Cotinga 24.
This small town, 18 km north of Itabuna, is a popular stake-out for Pink-legged Graveteiro Acrobatornis fonsecai. Leave your car or stay at the Pousada do Bosque and look for the bird in the cacau plantation opposite.
White-winged potoo Nyctibius leucopterus, Bahia antwren Herpsilochmus pileatus (not to be confused with caatinga antwren – Ridgely and Tudor’s pileated antwren –Herpilochmus sellowi, a recent split) and Bahia black and tan tamarins are found here. The potoo responds fairly readily to playback. Look for it along the main track, about 400m inside the gate of the IBAMA reserve. Permission to visit the reserve is obtainable from the director, Saturnino de Souza (tel. (073)-236-2166. Next door there is a private reserve, EcoParque (tel. (073)-634-2179), with a canopy walkway, where the potoo has also been found. I have not visited either of these two sites.
In 1995 Stresemann’s bristlefront Merulaxis stresemanni was seen near the reserve at the Fazenda Jueirana, the first sighting since the species was described. Subsequent attempts to find it have been in vain.
Turn left off the BR 101 into the centre of Ubaitaba and drive back along the river bank, passing under the BR 101. The dirt federal BR 030 highway along the Maraú peninsular is dirt, very rough and in wet weather will require 4 x 4 drive. The c.60km to the beach at Saquaira takes almost 3 hours. An alternative is to drive to Itacaré (asphalt all the way), take the ferry across the Rio de Contas, and drive 34km (1 hr) to Saquaíra. There is fine accommodation here at the Pousada Maraú pmarau@uol.com.br in an idyllic setting on the beach. Look for black-faced tanager Schistochlamys melanopis and capped seedeater Sporophila bouvreuil in bushes in the sandy grasslands on the long straight before Maraú. There is good restinga forest along the northern access road from the BR 030 to the town of Maraú, where in January 2001 there were several pairs of Bahia antwren Herpsilochmus pileatus. 14km north of Saquaíra, on the road to Campinho (carry straight on at the right turn to Barra Grande) there are tidal mud flats surrounded by mangroves. They begin to dry out one and a half hours before low water. In January 2001 there were eight species of shorebirds here. It appeared an ideal place to find little wood-rail Aramides mangle but I was unsuccessful.
Take the asphalt road from Travessão to Camamú and 500m before Orojó turn right. There is fairly good forest 13km along this dirt road. Bahia antwren Herpsilochmus pileatus is common and we saw several white-winged cotinga Xipholena atropurpurea. The type specimen of Stresemann’s bristlefront Merulaxis stresemanni was collected very near here. Who knows, you may be lucky!
The maps in the Sargeant / Wall trip report are excellent. Logging of the wet forest started in May 1999 but was then stopped, probably by IBAMA. The logging created a number of excellent access trails but by July 2002 these were becoming very overgrown and some will soon be impassable. In July 2002 Arthur and I saw Hook-billed Hermit Glaucis dohrnii in the dry forest, a most unusual habitat for this little known species.
The Hotel Solar continues to be excellent value — R$15 (US$5) in 2002 for dinner, bed and breakfast.
This is (or was) a stakeout for little wood-rail Aramides mangle. Where the road from Candeias to São Francisco do Conde is joined by the road from Santo Amaro there is a bus shelter beside a rough track. Follow this track to where it ends in mangroves beside the river. This was a reliable place for the wood-rail but in recent years it appears to have been replaced by clapper rail Rallus longirostris which John Wall did not see but which was common in 2001. We did not see the wood-rail but did find some other interesting birds here, such as plain-bellied emerald Amazilia leucogaster, rufous-winged antshrike Thamnophilus torquatus and cinereous-breasted spinetail Synallaxis hypospodia. Half way along the track turn right down to mud flats with waders.
In November 2001 we found a new site for fringe-backed fire-eye Pyriglena atra, about 100km from the site near Estãncia, Sergipe. Look for a conspicuous telecommunications tower at Km 20 on the BR-101 (20 km south of the Bahia / Sergipe state border). The birds were in a forest remnant on the other side of the road. We found them there again in March 2004.
Access is much easier now than when Forrester was here. The BR-110 north from Alagoinhas is pot-holed but fast and there is a reasonable pousada in the town, the Hotel Bomfim, run by four elderly women. The stakeout for Pectoral Antwren Herpsilochmus pectoralis on the road to Canudos still exists, in good caatinga 20km from Jeremoabo. In March 2004 we found several pairs.
The best place to see Lear’s macaw Anodorhynchus leari is the Fazenda Toureiro, 29 km further on towards Canudos. The manager Zé Hilton and his wife Damiana will show you the macaws which spend most of the day here, arriving from their roosting site near Canudos at about 8:00am. A small tip is very gratefully received.
The macaws roost in cliffs at the Fazenda Serra Branca, owned by Sr. Otávio, the owner of the São Lázaro petrol station in Jeremoabo. In March 2004 we were unable to go to Serra Branca because the river was in flood but Sr. Otávio very kindly provided a guide to take us to his two other fazendas near Jeremoabo where we found, inter alia, several Great Xenops Megaxenops parnaguae and Pectoral Antwren Herpsilochmus pectoralis.
This beautiful region, with highly diverse habitats, is described in detail, with a list of birds, in an article by Ricardo Parrini et al. in Cotinga 11.
An excellent place to stay is the pousada “Casa da Geléia” run by José Carlos and Lia (www.casadageleia.com.br ,tel/fax 075-3334-1151, e-mail casadageleia@hotmail.com), in the road behind the petrol station, as you enter the town. José Carlos speaks English, they have a big garden and have had 14 different species of hummingbird at their feeders, including, occasionally, the rare (in Brazil) Brown Violetear Colibri delphinae. Lia provides early breakfast on a tray or a sumptuous feast at 8:00 am. She will also cook dinner by prior arrangement.
There are several good areas to bird near Lençois. One is the trail over the mountains to Capão which starts at the top of the town, opposite the hotel Portal Lençois. In the campo rupestre (dry montane scrub on rocks) look for the undescribed form of Formicivora antbird whose song is Example 2 for Formicivora rufa on Isler and Whitney’s Songs of the Antbirds. A little further up this trail there are two patches of humid gallery forest, locally called mata de grota, and in the second of these, in March 2004, I recorded a tapaculo with a slow song, probably a member of the Scytalopus speluncae / novacapitalis complex which is presently being studied by several ornithologists.
Another good area is the road to Remanso. Take the road out of town, zeroing the odometer at the petrol station. At 3.9km turn right off the main road. At the first fork you can bear left through secondary growth to Capitinga and the BR 242 (said to be good for Rufous Nightjar Caprimulgus rufus). Bearing right at this fork and left at the next takes you to a fazenda; keep up to the left, avoiding the buildings, and drive down to the lake along a track which leads to a pump house beside a clump of bamboos. This is a good place for marsh and water birds. [In 2001 acess to this lake was closed] Bearing right at the second fork puts you on the road to the village of Remanso (c.25km from Lençois). The road passes through some good forest, with tracks leading off it. When you get to a cross roads, about 3km from Remanso, turn left (the track straight ahead is barely driveable but good for birding). In the open areas before the village there is Little Nightjar Caprimulgus parvulus.About 1km after the village fork left (the right fork goes to a farm house). This track is very overgrown but leads to good forest beside the “marimbús” (the local name for the extensive wetlands all along this valley). The marimbús are well worth visiting by boat, which can be arranged in Remanso or through Lentour in Lençois.
At Km 2.5 on the road from Lençois to the BR 242 (9.2km from the petrol station) there is a track to the left called Toalhas. I have not birded this.
At the BR 242 turn left. There is a track to the right after c.200m which is birded by the Field Guides groups. Further on (1.7km from the junction) there is a dirt road to the right to Usina Velha. This goes down the hill through reasonable secondary growth and after 2.5km crosses the Rio Mucugezinho. This looks a good place for a picnic or swim.
Continuing west along the BR 242, 11.2km from the Lençois junction, the road crosses a bridge with a sign “Divisa Lençois / Palmeiras”. 1.3km after this bridge (just after the Morro do Pai Inâcio first comes into view) there is a dirt track to the left, leading down to a house in some mango trees. This is the start of an excellent trail back to Lençois which takes about four hours. You can take the Seabra bus from Lençois to the start of the trail. At the start of this trail, in March 2004, we found an immature male of the undescribed form of Formicivora antbird mentioned above.
The Morro do Pai Inácio is a good place to see Hooded Visorbearer Augastes lumachella and Pale-throated Serra-Finch Embernagra longicauda. This is a much more convenient and dependable site than Morro do Chapéu for these two endemics. I am told the visorbearer can be found near the car park but I have had better luck at the plateau on the right, half way up the path to the top (the view from which is spectacular). In November 2001 we found several Band-winged Nightjars Caprimulgus longirostris on this plateau.
18km after the Pai Inácio turn left to Palmeiras. Drive through the town (54km from Lençois) and after 2.2km turn right to Tejuco and Lavrinha. Leave your car at the bridge and walk up the hill, at first through dry gallery forest and then through caatinga. All the caatinga species are here, including Broad-tipped Hermit Phaethornis gounellei, Red-shouldered Spinetail Gyalophylax hellmayri and San Francisco Sparrow Arremon franciscanus. Great Xenops Megaxenops parnaguae is common, but is not easy to see without playback.
Continuing along this road, which is rough but driveable, you pass by some spectacular mountains and then reach patches of cerrado habitat, called “gerais” locally. The best gerais we found were about 38km from Palmeiras, after Guiné. Rufous-sided Pygmy-Tyrant Euscarthmus rufomarginatus is common here. After a further 37km you get to Mucugê.
The “campos rupestres” and cerrado on the road from Mucugê to Andaraí and along the two access roads to Igatu are worth visiting
Humid forest at 1000m elevation. Turn right from Lençois onto the BR 242 and after 34km turn left (at an electrical substation) onto the BA 142 to Wagner, Utinga, and Bonito. At Bonito take the road to Morro do Chapéu; 2.2km from the roundabout at the end of Bonito turn right onto a dirt road. After a further 5.8km there is a green gate on the left (Fazenda da Mata Doida). There is good birding both on the road and along the track into the forest on the other side of the gate. The site is about 132km from Lençois.
