Mato Grosso do Sul
Hotels have improved a lot since Forrester’s day. Find the road that runs north from the town into the Pantanal, towards Barra Mansa and Tupaceretã. This passes through typical drier Pantanal habitat. At Km 33 there is a gate and a trail into dry forest. Undulated Tinamou Crypturellus undulatus can be seen easily here. You can also find golden-collared macaw Propyrrhura auricollis, blaze-winged parakeet Pyrrhura devillei, Mato Grosso antbird Cercomacra melanaria, white-lored spinetail Synallaxis albilora, cinereous-breasted spinetail Synallaxis hypospodia, rusty-backed spinetail Cranioleuca vulpina, grey-crested cacholote Pseudoseisura unirufa (a recent split), great rufous woodcreeper Xiphocolaptes major and saffron-billed sparrow Arremon flavirostris.
The luxury hotel Refúgio Ecológico Caiman is very expensive but delightful. Birding is first class – lots of hyacinth macaws – but it is however difficult to get into the field on your own.
100km after Miranda a dirt road loops round to the right and eventually reaches Corumbá, passing through Pantanal wetlands on the way. Where it crosses the Rio Miranda at Passo da Lontra there are several fishing hotels. Birding is excellent along this road, both on foot and from the car, with much same the species as at Aquidauana. Hyacinth macaw Anodorhyncus hyacinthinus can be seen at the Fazenda Santa Clara but this hotel now overcharges for inferior accommodation. The owner was, however, quite willing to let us bird there. The Pousada Arara Azul pousadaararaazul@com.br , about 40km further along this road looked attractive.
Here again there are now decent hotels. Urucum, mentioned by Forrester, is a mountain to the north of the road, just before Corumbá. The main road up is impossible to bird, with large manganese ore trucks passing every few minutes, but we did find a quieter road to the right at the foot of the mountain with green-cheeked parakeet Pyrrhura molinae, Bolivian slaty-antshrike Thamnophilus sticturus, a disjunct population of white-backed fire-eye Pyriglena leuconota and fawn-breasted wren Thryothorus guarayanus.
