Tufted-ear Marmoset Planalto Tapaculo
Mottled Owl
My traveling companions on this trip consisted of a pathologist , a foreign service state department officer , a teacher , a few business people , a few scientists , a nurse , an aerospace engineer and a software developer ( mostly retired ). Most of us were from the states , but one was from Canada and one from Norway . Many had taken 20 to 30 such birding trips , but one had been on over 100 trips . After a night ’ s rest , we were off by airplane to Sao Paulo . It was quite a jolt to the system to land at one of the 10 largest cities in the world ( population 11,821,873 ) where apartment and other tall buildings are the norm for as far as the eye can see and then hop on a small mini-bus with all your gear and drive to the faraway reaches of the countryside , where it can be difficult to find a drug store or restaurant For much of our trip after this , we bounced along dirt roads , lined with wildflowers .
So how does one bird in faraway places ? Here is where our highly-trained guides come in . They are armed with the latest and greatest iPhones loaded with tape recordings
of bird songs . At the right time of year ( in Brazil in November , it is about the same time as May / June here , or breeding season ), the birds are territorial and are easy to draw forth from the vegetation using the tapes . This allows the birdwatcher to locate even the smallest , dullest colored birds in the darkest forest thickets .
Speaking of small , dull birds , the Tapaculos are tiny birds that live on the floors of jungle-like forests in many areas of Brazil . They have a very tiny range and they rarely fly . Rather , they walk on the ground and hop from vine to vine in the dark undergrowth of established forest . They are dark in coloration and are usually quiet . They are simply too small and dark to be seen well and they are extremely secretive . So how does one go on a tapaculo hunt ? First our guide hires a local guide , who knows where these birds live , and these local guides hack away at the undergrowth ( using a machete ), creating small openings next to the road . A speaker with a 20 foot-long cord is then laid in the middle of the opening and the bird ’ s song ( previously recorded in a similar location ) is broadcast from the iPhone to the speaker direct to the tapaculo ’ s ears . Thinking it has new competition in its ’ breeding territory it becomes agitated and runs across the opening as fast as a mouse ( zip ) to fend off the competition . It can ’ t find said competition , but the singing continues , so it races across the opening again . Mostly , it
looks like a shadow moving but you can ’ t really trust your eyes . Now imagine trying to photograph the shadow . If you know anything about photography , you may know that to take good pictures you need light ( scratch that one ), an unobstructed view of your subject ( scratch that one ) and a subject that stands still ( scratch that one ). If you ’ re me , you simply spend lots of time shooting at every shadow that you think moves and hope for the best .
Not all birds , however , are difficult to find or photograph . Brazil is host to approximately 1,900 species of bird , 270 of which are endemic , which means that they can only be found in Brazil . For the enthusiastic lister , Brazil is one of the ‘ hotspots ’ of the world , along with Costa Rica , Ethiopia and a few other countries .
Nighttime birding is a favorite of mine , as it is amazing to me that there are so many species that thrive in the dark . On several occasions we went birding to see owls ( playing tapes ) and nightjars ( knowing where they hang out ). On another night , we went on a giant snipe hunt . A giant snipe is a large snipe ( 17 inches tall ) found in Brazil . It lives in swampy bogs , just as our snipes do . This particular evening , we donned our rubber boots and slogged through a bog in the pitch dark with only a few flashlights to aid us . The bog was pitted with deep trenches that were dug by locals , who would like to drain it permanently to provide additional pastureland for their
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Guide Playing Taped Bird Songs
G I L R O Y T O D A Y S P R I N G 2 0 1 4
Capybara Azara ’ s Agouti