Rick Simpson Birding Services

Teresópolis – Parque Nacional da Serra Dos Orgãos

You can enter the park between 8:00 and 17:00. In July 1999 the cost for six people to camp one night on the Trilha da Pedra do Sino, leaving the car at the barragem (dam) was R$70 (US$35).

The road up to the dam (about 2km) runs through good forest. Leave the car at the dam (altitude 1100m – 3,600ft). The walk to the first camp site at 1900m (6,200ft) takes three hours, without stopping. The second camp site is at 2100m (6,900ft) after a further 1 1/2 hours. There is excellent forest all the way up to the first camp site, the trees becoming lower as you get higher. Near the second camp site you get above the tree line.

Hooded Berry-eater Carpornis cucullatus occurs up to about 1500m, Black-and-Gold Tijuca atra and Swallow-tailed Cotinga Phibalura flavirostris from 1500m to 1800m, and Gray-winged Cotinga Tijuca condita from 1800m upwards. Recently the most reliable place for Gray-winged Cotinga has been on the hillside opposite the first camp site.

The lower part of the park is also open to visitors, the entrance being on the right about one third of the way up the “serra” from Rio to Teresópolis. The habitat is good but the trails are short and there is a lot of noise from the road. The avifauna here is lowland, very different from that of the high elevations of the park.

For further information on this site see John van der Woude’s site notes and maps.

Teresópolis – Garrafão

The place where Ricardo Parrini and a few others saw the kinglet calyptura Calyptura cristata in 1996 (no one has seen it since) is just before you get to Teresópolis, coming up the serra from Rio. 200m after the “Garrafão” petrol station, at a sharp left curve, turn right off the main road onto a rough track. Wind down the hill for about 500m. The calyptura was seen at a fork where the main track goes straight ahead and a paved track goes steeply down the hill to the right. This latter track goes through some good forest where there is a dusky-throated hermit Phaethornis squalidus lek.

For further information on this site see John van der Woude’s site notes and maps.

Carmo / Sumidouro

Carmo is a reliable site for three-toed jacamar Jacamaralcyon tridactyla and Rio de Janeiro antbird Cercomacra brasiliana. Take the road from Além Paraiba (on the Rio de Janeiro / Minas Gerais state border, where the BR 116 crosses the Rio Paraíba do Sul) to Carmo. Just as you get to Carmo, there is a petrol station on the left. Take the dirt road to the left, beside the petrol station. After 2.5km, when you get to a place with forest on both sides of the road, look for the jacamars. A good way to see them is by walking along the track to the right, just after the patch of forest, playing a tape to them from the hillside.

5.2km further on there is a wooden gate on the left. Rio de Janeiro Antbird can be found in the thick vegetation just before the gate and the jacamar is here too.

The two species can also be found at Sumidouro.

For further information on these sites see John van der Woude’s site notes and maps.

Reserva Ecológica de Guapi-açu – REGUA

REGUA (Reserva Ecológica de Guapi Açu http://www.regua.co.uk – there is a bird list on the website) is a non-governmental conservation project with a mission to save the forests in the catchment of the Guapi Açu River basin. There is another website possibly more directed to birders at http://www.guapiassubirdlodge.com/index.html. Being only about 2 hours drive from the airport in Rio de Janeiro (where you can usually arrange to be picked up by a vehicle from the reserve if you do not have your own vehicle), REGUA is a good point to start a trip to Southeast Brazil, especially for anyone who is unfamiliar with the avifauna. The reserve supports a wide variety of Atlantic forest birds, including rarities such as Golden-tailed Touit surdus and Brown-backed Parrotlets T. melanonotus, Salvadori’s Antwren Myrmotherula minor, White-bearded Antshrike Biatas nigropectus and Spotted Bamboo-wren Psilorhampus guttatus (though some of these are difficult to find).

The lodge at REGUA is extremely comfortable, and has an excellent bird library, including ten volumes of  It overlooks a wetland where a good selection of waterbirds occur, including Giant Snipe Gallinago undulata (though not easy to see) and Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana can be found easily around the lodge and office. Whilst there is regenerating forest nearby, the best trails are those that go to the waterfall (green trail) and the elfin forest trail (the red trail, which goes up steeply off the green trail, to c.950m). You need transport to reach the beginning of these trails, which is provided free by the reserve if you are staying there (or you can drive yourself). The green trail passes through regenerating forest but supports a great variety of species, including many Atlantic forest endemics. It is also an excellent place to find Shrike-like Cotinga (Elegant Mourner) Laniisoma elegans. To do the red trail properly, you need to plan for a whole day since it is a long, tough walk. However, the walk is well worthwhile since there are many mid to higher altitude species, including Blue-bellied Parrot Triclaria malachitacea.

REGUA can also arrange excursions using their vehicles to visit birding sites in the vicinity to look for species such as Gray-winged Cotinga Tijuca condita and Itatiaia Thistletail Oreophylax moreirae (Caledonia peak, which can only easily be reached by 4WD), Three-toed Jacamar Jacamaralcyon tridactyla and Rio de Janeiro Antbird Cercomacra brasiliana (near Sumidouro) and Restinga Antwren Formicivora littoralis (near the coast). Instead of hiking up the red trail to look for higher altitude species, you can arrange to visit forest at 1200m around the house of David Miller, an orchid expert. Here you find Black-and-Gold Cotinga Tijuca atra, Giant Antshrike Batara cinerea, Rufous-backed Antvireo Dysithamnus xanthopterus and many more. You can arrange for a guide from REGUA to accompany you on your trips.

TO GET TO REGUA from Rio de Janeiro City. Either go over the Rio-Niteroi bridge, passing Itaboraí on the road to Nova Friburgo. At the Schincariol brewery (on left) turn sharp left at a police check point onto the road to Guapi Mirim. After 2km, at Funchal, immediately before a petrol station turn right. Or, if you come straight from the airport, follow the directions to Petropolis, then left to Teresopolis and finally at Guapimirim-Parada Modelo turn right and follow the sign for Cachoeiras de Macacu. At Km 32 by the disused petrol station (on right) turn left. Follow this all weather dirt road for 11.3km and at a fork with a number of signs pointing right to Guapi Açu and a Hotel Fazenda, bear left, cross a river bridge and continue along the road, turning 90deg to the left instead of straight on where there is an obvious junction 600 meters after the bridge. After another 500m along this straight section of road, you cross a small bridge. Turn right immediately after this bridge, passing a gate. This is the road that leads up to the lodge, first passing the REGUA office (on the right) and the houses where some staff live (also on the right). To make enquiries about staying at the reserve, contact Nicholas Locke, the reserve manager, at aregua@terra.com.br (0055) 21 2745 3998 or 22 2533 3603.

[we are grateful to Frank Lambert for writing these notes]

Itatiaia

I can add little to Forrester’s coverage of this site. For a time the Maromba (”Jeep”) trail was overgrown and practically impassable but it is now reported to be cleared. You need written permission to walk it. The Hotel do Ypê is the best place the stay, though a little expensive, and they will obtain the permission required for the Maromba trail. Gail Mackiernan recently recommended the Hotel Donati which is also well located and may be cheaper. In any event, stay at a hotel in the park; there is cheaper accommodation in the town but you will have to pay each time you enter the park and may have difficulty getting in before 8:00 am.

Shrike-like Cotinga Laniisoma elegans has been seen along the access road to the Hotel Repouso. Red-and-White Crake Laterallus leucopyrrhus (not on Forrester’s list) has been found in the marsh just above the town (outside the park).

If you want to visit the Agulhas Negras road only, it is closer and cheaper to stay in the Hotel Thomaz in Itamonte than in Itatiaia.

For further information on this site see John van der Woude’s site notes and maps.

Parati

This attractive colonial town (with excellent restaurants) lies between Ubatuba and Perequê. The birds are similar to those found in Ubatuba.

There is interesting lowland forest at Patrimônio, a village on the road from Ubatuba, about 14km before Parati. Turn right up a steep hill, signposted to Condomínio Laranjeiras and Trindade and at the top of the hill fork left to Laranjeiras. Just before the gatehouse of this millionaire beach development there is a dirt road to the left. This is one of the few places in the area that is fairly reliable for Salvadori’s Antwren Myrmotherula minor. Cinnamon-vented Piha Lipaugus lanioides is fairly common.

The upper part of the road over the Serra do Mar from Parati to Cunha is unsurfaced and may be difficult in wet weather. It passes through good montane forest.

There is a bird list for Parati in Cotinga 24.

Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina

This fairly new national park has some excellent montane habitat but much of it is occupied by small holdings and pine plantations and has been seriously degraded. The Casa da Bocaina http://www.casadabocaina.com.br/, however, is set in pristine primary forest and is well worth a visit. The pousada is simple (no electricity) but comfortable and the couple who run in, Walter and Luciana, are most hospitable. The pousada is open intermittently, usually at long weekends, and is an hour and a half’s drive over rough roads from Barra Mansa, on the motorway from Rio to São Paulo.

Perequê

The best site for the black-hooded antwren Formicivora erythronotos is near the town of Perequê, between Paratí and Angra dos Reis. Turn inland off the BR-101 into the town of Perequê (first town west of the nuclear power station). Drive up the main street till the end of the asphalt (1.4 km) and turn right. Continue for several blocks and turn left immediately after the football pitch (”Campo da Gringa”) on the left (1km). Drive along a dirt road for 2.1km where there is a gate set back on the right hand side. 20 meters past this Rick Simpson found a pair of antwrens in Jan 2009 [Two singing males March 2009 plus white-bellied seedeater Sporophila leucoptera and orange-eyed thornbird Phacellodomus erythrophthalmus]. 1.3km further on, just after the river bends away from the road, he found another pair. Gunnar Engblom saw this pair again a few days later.

The ‘traditional’ spot for the antwrens is a further 4 kms along the road. After the third bridge there is an open shed on the right with a dirt track to the left in front of it; the site is 200m further along the main road, through a barbed wire gate on the right, with a big tree on the edge of the road (three different becards nest in this tree). In October 1998 we found six pairs of the antwren here and also a nest of Buff-throated Purpletuft Iodopleura pipra. There are plenty of other good lowland forest species around.

Maçambaba

Restinga antwren Formicivora littoralis is easily found in restinga scrub beside the road that runs parallel to the beach, a little inland from the Praia da Maçambaba, east of Praia Seca (near Araruama). 7km from the edge of the town of Praia Seca there is a marsh and lagoon where a variety of other species can also be found.

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