As part of the conference there were a few small birding
trips to areas outside of the city boundary. This morning we went on one of
these trips to a place half an hour’s drive away from Vila Velha. I can’t say I
have ever been on such a birding trip with twenty other birders, and it was far
from ideal, but I still managed two new species and a few other birds. Orange-winged Amazon Parrot was a long
overdue lifer, but my other White-fringed
Antwren, I was very pleased to see. This lasted for just two hours but the
birding was nice, and it was nice to see White-bellied
Tanager and Black-backed Tanager
again, after they had been lifers on this section of my time in Brazil.
In the afternoon I headed back to the beach to do some Seawatching.
Whilst the species composition was much the same, I spent most of my time
photographing the South American Terns
that were feeding very close inshore.
-South American Tern
-Royal Tern
-Cabot's Tern
-Southern Caracara
Species List:
Vila Velha: Muscovy
Duck, Picazuro Pigeon, Feral Pigeon, Ruddy
Ground Dove, American Oystercatcher, Southern Lapwing, Kelp Gull, South American
Tern, Cabot’s Tern, American Royal Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, American
Black Vulture, Burrowing Owl, Southern Caracara, Yellow-headed Caracara,
Orange-winged Amazon Parrot, Sooretama Slaty-Antshrike, Southern White-fringed
Antwren, Common Tody Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee, Boat-billed Flycatcher,
Tropical Kingbird, Brown-chested Martin, Creamy-bellied Thrush, Southern
Yellowthroat, Brazilian Tanager, Sayaca Tanager, Palm Tanager, Black-backed
Tanager, Burnished-buff Tanager, White-bellied Tanager, Swallow Tanager,
Saffron Finch, Tropical Mockingbird, House Sparrow,
Brazil Day 38 11.07.2019
Brazil Day 38 11.07.2019
The previous evening we had the conference party, with large
amounts of alcohol consumed. But with little time left to do the things we want
to do, we forced ourselves out of bed to make the most of our day. We had
decided to try and recruit a fisherman to take us out into the Atlantic where
we might see some more seabirds than we were seeing from the shore. And whilst
we did not manage this, we had an amazing time that was well worth pushing our
hungover bodies for.
As soon as we had found someone willing to take us and were
heading out to his boat we struck lucky, with a Green Sea Turtle showing very
well in the bay. On the way back we saw two more, one of them grazing the algae
off the underside of a moored boat. Obviously this was amazing, being only my
second time ever seeing a sea turtle.
-Green Sea Turtle
On the way out we got fantastic views of Brown Booby, as we
did on the way back as well, with individuals perched up on buoys that we were
able to get insanely close to, but that was the seabird highlight. I had never
seen them as well as this however, so it was a real treat to be able to get up
close to them.
-Brown Booby
All the while I insisted we kept going further out, despite
not feeling our best and having forgotten to bring anything to eat. We made it
past the reef and decided to keep going, to try and make it past the shipping
lane. In the end we made it 15km offshore, no small distance, but still no
pelagic seabirds. I was scanning the horizon when I spotted what was clearly a
whale spout in the far distance. Humpback Whales are migrating at this time of
year, so we knew that whale was a possibility, but we did not expect that we
would actually encounter one. Still, it remained distant and hard to see, but
our fisherman, who was an actual legend, tried to catch the animal and soon we
were experiencing one of the best wildlife moments of my life. In the end, we
had three Humpback Whales swimming not too far away from us, accompanied by a
pod of Bottlenose Dolphins, which at one point breached clear of the water. The
whales were amazing, with crazy close views of tails, fins and even the mouth
at one point. It really was amazing, and well worth pushing ourselves for.
-Humpback Whale
-Bottlenose Dolphin & Humpback Whale
-Bottlenose Dolphin
Species List:
Vila Velha: American
Oystercatcher, Kelp Gull, South American Tern, American Royal Tern, Cabot’s
Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Booby, American Black Vulture, Southern
Caracara, Humpback Whale, Common Bottlenose
Dolphin, Green Sea Turtle,
Brazil Day 39 12.07.2019
Brazil Day 39 12.07.2019
This was our last full day in Vila Velha, but with many
conference commitments we only had a couple of hours in the morning, so we
headed to a small location less than a ten minute drive from our flat, where an
eBird checklist had reported a few species that we wanted to see, namely rails
and Bicoloured Conebill.
We arrived nice and early in the morning to make the most of
our time. We were immediately rewarded as the first bird that we saw was our
number one target Bicoloured Conebill.
Whilst not a particularly rare or range restricted species, it is only found
along mangrove coastlines, and we had missed it at a number of points during
our stay. During the morning we found the bird to be extremely common, with
more than ten different individuals seen, some extremely well. My other lifer
of the morning was much more common; Blond-crested
Woodpecker, with a stunning male and female showing very nicely. Other nice
birds that we recorded included East
Brazilian Chachalaca, Little Blue Heron and Chestnut-vented Conebill. It was fun exploring the mangroves,
although we never were able to find a good enough viewpoint to have a proper
scan of the banks for rails or other mangrove species.
-Blonde-crested Woodpecker
-Bicoloured Conebill
Species List:
Morro da
Manteigueira: East Brazilian Chachalaca, Picazuro Pigeon, Ruddy Ground
Dove, Scaled Dove, White-tipped Dove, Southern Lapwing, Magnificent
Frigatebird, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, American Black Vulture, Short-tailed
Hawk, Ringed Kingfisher, Amazon Kingfisher, Blonde-crested Woodpecker, Southern
Caracara, Wing-banded Hornero, Yellow-chinned Spinetail, Ochre-lored Flatbill,
Masked Water-Tyrant, Great Kiskadee, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbird,
Blue-and-white Swallow, House Wren, Moustached Wren, Pale-breasted Thrush,
Creamy-bellied Thrush, Palm Tanager, Bicoloured Conebill, Chestnut-vented
Conebill, Saffron Finch, Bananaquit, White-faced
Marmoset,
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