Roraima
We drove from Manaus to Boa Vista, destroyed the steering alignment of the hired car in potholes and wore out two new tyres in 6000km. which we had to pay for.
Boa Vista, the state capital, is a well laid out city and a good centre for birding. There are now plenty of hotels but hotel accomodation outside Boa Vista is sparse. The Quatro Rodas map of Roraima is very small scale. You can buy a large scale map from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) shop just off the main square in Boa Vista. This map is eccentric – it marks fazendas and Indian villages but not small towns – but useful.
The Ilha São José, mentioned by Forrester, is 20km, not 10km upstream, almost an hour in a boat. The wetlands across the river are only accessible by boat. We did not explore these, merely passing through on the way back from Ilha São José. A few kms along the BR-401 to Bonfim there is a nice little pond and marsh where we found a pair of Spotted Puffbirds Bucco tamatia at a termite nest and Sulphury Flycatchers Tyrannopsis sulphurea in the Mauritia palms.
An excellent area not covered by Forrester is along the RR-319 road which runs northeast from the BR-174, just north of Boa Vista. In the savanna we saw White-tailed Nightjar Caprimulgus cayennensis (probably), Grassland Yellow-finch Sicalis luteola and Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna. Just after the ferry over the Rio Uraricoera there is a short road to the right, along the river, where we found Streak-headed Woodcreeper Lepidocolaptes souleyetii, Rio Branco Antbird Cercomacra carbonaria and four pairs of Hoary-throated Spinetail Poecilurus kollari. In the marsh along the RR-319 we found other local specialties: Crested Bobwhite Colinus cristatus, Double-striped Thick-knee Burhinus bistriatus and Bicoloured Wren Campylorhynchus griseus. Near Contão, which we never reached because of floods, we saw White-bellied Piculet Picumnus spilogaster Streak-headed Woodcreeper again and Yellow Oriole Icterus nigrogularis. Contão itself is the place for Sun Parakeet Aratinga solstitialis and Pale-eyed Pygmy-tyrant Atalotriccus pilaris.
We found some accessible white sand forest beside the BR-174 a few kilometers south of Mucajái. The Parque Nacional do Viruá (Forrester’s Rio Anaua Biological Reserve) is probably well worth a visit though we were unable to bird there because of torrential rain. The entrance is from the BR-210 (174), 48km southwest of Caracaraí (where there are simple hotels). Yapacana Antbird Myrmeciza disjuncta has recently been found in the park, the second site for this species in Brazil.
