REGUA, Atlantic Forest, Brazil: 7 June

The weather cleared enough for a morning trip to Waldenoor – an area of higher altitude selectively logged primary forest purchased by REGUA in 2008. Birding from the back of the trusty old blue Toyota Landcruiser along the dirt road from the main REGUA entrance to the trail head produced some of the usual open country birds, including 4 Burrowing Owl, 3 White-eared Puffbird, 4 Campo Flicker, 2 Chalk-browed Mockingbird and a Blue-black Grassquit, along with 2 Ringed Kingfisher.

Burrowing Owl

A fairly large mixed-species flock at the top of the road included 3 Plain Parakeet, 1 Squirrel Cuckoo, 1m & 2f Surucua Trogon, 2 Crescent-chested Puffbird, 1 Yellow-throated Woodpecker, 1m Unicoloured Antwren, 1 Olivaceous Woodcreeper, 2(1H) Streaked Xenops, 2-3 Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, 1 Planalto Tyrannulet, 1 Tropical Pewee, 1+ Chestnut-crowned Becard, 1 Red-eyed Vireo, 2 Rufous-bellied Thrush, good numbers of Green-headed Tanager, 1f Burnished-buff Tanager, 3 Blue Dacnis, 1f Chestnut-vented Conebill, 1 Buff-throated Saltator, 2+ Golden-crowned Warbler, 2 Red-rumped Cacique, 5 Violaceous Euphonia, a pair of Orange-bellied Euphonia and lots of Tropical Kingbirds. A Saw-billed Hermit visited nearby banana flowers, a lek of 5m Blue Manakin gave a fantastic display, and overhead 5 White-eyed Parakeets flew over.

Tropical Pewee, Waldenoor, 7 June 2012. A scarce winter visitor to south-east
Brazil, present at REGUA between May and September.

Further up the track 2 Plain-winged Woodcreeper gave brief views, but 1 Yellow-olive Flycatcher, 1 Greyish Mourner, 1m Black-capped Becard, 1m Flame-crested Tanager, 1f Black-goggled Tanager and 1m Red-crowned Ant-Tanager showed well.

On the Waldenoor Trail itself we added 2 flyover Scaly-headed Parrots, several Grey-rumped Swift, 2 Violet-capped Woodnymph, 2+ Yellow-fronted Woodpecker, 1 Yellow-eared Woodpecker, 1 Cliff Flycatcher, 1 Bananaquit, 1m Ruby-crowned Tanager, 4 Azure-shouldered Tanager, 2 Golden-chevroned Tanager and 1m Chestnut-bellied Euphonia. But the highlight was an excellent male Green-backed Becard at close range which showed well enough for a record shot before the rain began to fall again.

Male Green-backed Becard

The weather closes in on the Waldenoor Trail

The dirt road back to REGUA produced a few notables. A Reddish Hermit and 2 Blond-crested Woodpecker showed during a drink stop at the machete shop in Estreito, and at Matumbo 1 Cocoi Heron, 1 Laughing Falcon, 1 very distant Limpkin and 2 close Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture were around the fish farms, and 7+ Southern Caracara were in the fields. At the REGUA entrance a Roadside Hawk posed for photos.

Roadside Hawk

In the afternoon persistent heavy rain restricted birding to the lodge garden, where 4m & 1f Black-legged Dacnis associating with a flock of 60+ (including at least 10m) Swallow Tanager was particularly noteworthy, and a flock of 100 Red-rumped Cacique moving through was a good count.