Pernambuco
The R.P.P.N. Frei Caneca is a private reserve owned by the Usina Colônia sugar mill with excellent montane forest. The four Murici specialities, Orange-bellied Antwren Terenura sicki, Alagoas Tyrannulet Phylloscartes ceciliae, Alagoas Antwren Myrmotherula snowi and Alagoas Foliage-gleaner Philydor novaesi, are all here. Other interesting birds are Scalloped Antbird Myrmeciza ruficauda and Buff-breasted Tody-Tyrant Hemitriccus mirandae.
To get permission to visit the reserve write to Dr. José Alves Siqueira pcicjas@superig.com.br at the Federal University of the Valley of the São Francisco (UNIVASF). To get there take the road from Palmares to Garanhuns. A few kms after Jaqueira there is an asphalt road to the right, signposted “Usina Colônia”.
At the gatehouse ask for Zezito, Dango or Nice. If they are not there, get directions to the reserve or, better still, get a friendly motorcyclist to take you there. The reserve is 9 km from the Usina up a steep dirt road and you will need four-wheel drive, especially if there has been any rain. There is accomodation for visitors in a well furnished house but you must take all your own food. The wife of the the reserve guard will do the cooking and her husband will accompany you into the forest.
Stigmatura is an interesting genus. The two species, greater and lesser wagtail-tyrant, Stigmatura budytoides and S. napensis, have main populations in the chaco and riverine vegetation along the Amazon respectively and small, disjunct, sympatric populations in NE Brazil. We found both species (and pygmy nightjar Caprimulgus hirundinaceus) in very degraded caatinga near Lagoa Grande, which is 58km northeast of Petrolina. The two species of wagtail-tyrant were sometimes in the same bush. Lesser is smaller and browner than greater and forages lower. The local race Stigmatura n. bahiae is probably a separate species from its Amazonian relative Stigmatura n. napensis; their habitats and vocalizations are very different.
This island, 400 km off the northeast coast of Brazil, boasts two endemics: Noronha Elaenia Elaenia ridleyana (considered by some a subspecies of Large Elaenia E. spectabilis) and Noronha Vireo Vireo gracilirostris. Both species are common. Ten species of seabird nest in the archipelago: Red-billed and White-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon aethereus and P. lepturus, Masked, Red-footed and Brown Booby Sula dactylatra, S. sula and S. leucogaster, Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens, Sooty Tern Sterna fuscata, Brown and Black Noddy Anous stolidus and A. minutus and White Tern Gygis alba. All these except Red-billed Tropicbird are easy to see, though the main concentration of Masked Booby is on the Rasa and Sela Gineta islands and you will need a boat to see them at close range. The main island is infested with Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis, Eared Dove Zenaida auriculata and House Sparrow Passer domesticus and that is it, so far as birds are concerned, except for waders in migration and vagrants (in 1999 a White Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia, spent a few weeks on the island, the first record of this species for Brazil). Josivan Rabêlo da Silva (aka Bam), an IBAMA park guard, is very friendly and helpful and will take birders to the offshore nesting colonies which can be reached on foot at low tide.
The beaches and skin and scuba diving are superb.
There are daily flights to the island from Recife. A tourist tax of R$23 (US$8) per day is charged. There is a wide choice of pousadas and bed and breakfast accomodation at fairly exorbitant prices. I paid R$240 per day for two rooms for three people in a B&B. The main island is about 17 km long and a beach buggy is convenient to get around. We hired one for R$80 per day. The only crime on the island is theft of petrol so take care!
