You would think my writing about birding in Brazil would be about the birds (and there will be birds), but I confess this post is more about the people I met because of the shared passion for wild birds and their conservation.
I credit the organizers of Avistar 2024, Brazil’s premier bird festival, with the vision to bring together the diverse group of international guests of the organization to travel for five days together on a post-Avistar festival EXP (Experimental, or reconnaissance) trip. Each of us had been invited to the festival as speakers on a science or birding related topic, and the trip afterwards was to introduce us to birding in Brazil on an organized tour. Thanks to the generosity of EMBRATUR (Brazil’s tourism board), our expenses for this birding trip were covered.
Some of us had birded in Brazil before, but none on a multi-day, inclusive tour. This was my first time in Brazil ever—let along birding in Brazil—and the entire experience of both Avistar festival and trip was blowing my mind in real time, and still is as I write this.
Because the guests on this trip represent the future of what birding and wider birding tourism could become: a springboard for connection across so many levels of lived experience and interests outside of the archetype birder that history presents: affluent able-bodied white people over 60.
How are we different?
We are young, all under 51 (I was the oldest guest, and you can guess my age, it’s just under that number), four women and three men, with a fifth woman joining to film the trip. Country of origin ranged from USA, Uganda, Paraguay, Chile, Germany/France, and Colombia. We were scientists, professional birding guides, a composer, and a journalist.
The core group together with Serra do Mar State Park staff at the Caraguatatuba location. Left to right, top row: Park manager Miguel Nema, Ignacio Rodriguez J., Amanda Carter, Judith Mirembe, Alex Lieberman, park guide Felipe Pina. Left to right bottom row: Filmmaker Sandra Beltrao, Bryony Angell, Rebeca Irala, Luis Uruena, and lead guide Felipe Arantes.
Scientist Rebeca Irala includes the worldview of the Guarani People of Paraguay as part of her approach to her work. Composer Alexander Lieberman transcribes birdsong into music played by string quartets. Birding guide and scientist Judith Mirembe leads Ugandan Women Birders, a decade old training program for women entering the male-dominated field of bird guiding and eco-tourism in her country.
These are just three examples of how new ideas can influence the current state of science, art and commerce as related to recreational birding and resulting bird conservation. New ideas also enable access for a bird curious audience who otherwise might not consider birding a pastime that welcomes them.
All of us value what a baseline birding tour offers in the way of a cultural and natural history deep dive in the country where we are investing our time and resources (though we were guests, we all considered this a working trip from which we will produce content for, continue scientific collaboration with or generate business back to Brazil and its science and tourism).
Our trip was organized and led by Brazil Birding Experts, itself a young tour company run by millennial Brazilians, our guide Felipe Arantes at 36 years old representative of the young guides working in Brazil today.
I will say it again, this group and trip represents the future of birding tourism and the bird conservation supported by that tourism. Younger birders need to see themselves on these trips in order to consider joining one. Younger birders need to see themselves represented as professionals in this field in order to consider a career in it.
Judith Mirembe, a professional guide and scientist in her home country of Uganda, photographing seven different species of hummingbird at the Sitio Macuquinho eco lodge in Salesópolis, Brazil.
And Brazil is growing as a birding destination. Colombia and Costa Rica are the current birding destination leaders with Brazil a distinct, ecologically diverse and vast country quickly catching up in infrastructure and support for this particular kind of ecotourism.
My experience is replicable, whether choosing an inclusive multi-day tour or hiring a local guide for a day and boot-strapping the accommodations yourself. Granted, I’m an able-bodied white woman with past experience traveling in Latin America as a birding tourist, having done both approaches to my trips. The São Paulo state of Brazil where this tour took place is rich in avifauna with established parks, good roads, ample accommodations catering to birders and English-speaking birding guides available for day or package tours.
The group birding in Parque das Neblinas in the Atlantic Forest of the Serra do Mar Mountain range, São Paulo state, Brazil.
And now for the trip, five days through the Atlantic Forest of the southeast of Brazil, within driving distance of Brazil’s most populous city, São Paulo. Our tour concentrated in the Serra do Mar Mountain range, which runs along the coast of Brazil. Our first days were spent at an altitude of 800 meters, so brisk morning and evening temperatures.
The green dots are the locations of our birding walks across the São Paulo state to the coast. The large concentration of white on the upper left of the map is the metropolitan sprawl of the city of São Paulo.
Most of our birding was done on foot. We walked level, wide trails or roads for distances of about three miles a day or less, through forest, along riverbanks and beside wetlands, in parks both privately and publicly managed, with good infrastructure and in some cases, accommodations (as was the case with our first and second nights stays at Parque das Neblinas, in researcher’s cabins out of an air bnb dream).
What follows is a photo tour in chronological order of some visual highlights to give you a sense of the landscape and the energy of the trip and the group. A full list of the birds we saw is available at the end via a link to eBird.
Pin tailed Manakin, Parque das Neblinas. Photo by Luis Uruena.
Amanda Carter scanning the riverbank in the Parque das Neblinas.
The Casa do Mato researchers cabin where we ladies stayed! Parque das Neblinas.
The dining pavilion set in the tree canopy at Parque das Neblinas main lodge. Bird while you eat breakfast.
Those eucalyptus on the hillside look uniformly planted for a reason: Parque das Neblinas is a private reserve managed by Ecofuturo Institute and owned by Suzano, a cellulose company. What you see is farmed eucalyptus for pulp, with Atlantic Forest regrowth below it. The reserve sits next to the Serro do Mar state park system, thus protecting a greater swath of land in this area through private ownership.
The group gathered for an evening species tally after a day of birding, Parque das Neblinas researchers’ cabin. Photo by Alex Lieberman.
Saw-billed Hermit, Sitio Macuquinho eco lodge. Photo by Luis Uruena.
Hummingbird paparazzi, Sitio Macuquinho eco lodge. Left to right Ignacio Rodriguez J., Felipe Arantes, Sandra Beltrao.
Red-and-white Crake stake out along the wetland trail on the property of Sitio Macuquinho eco lodge. Photo by Rebeca Irala.
Downtime in hammock, Sitio Macuquinho eco lodge. Could passively watch hummingbirds buzz past at close range.
Birding Serra do Mar State Park, Caraguatatuba. That’s me on the right, taking notes for this post! Photo by Felipe Arantes.
Serra do Mar State Park, Caraguatatuba.
Serra do Mar State Park, Caraguatatuba.
Yellow-fronted Woodpecker, Serra do Mar State Park, Caraguatatuba. Photo by Luis Uruena.
Brazilian Tanagers, Serra do Mar State Park, Caraguatatuba. Photo by Judith Mirembe.
Judith Mirembe and Rebeca Irala photographing hummingbirds, Folha Seca, Ubatuba.
The hummingbirds one might see at this single private residence Folha Seca, in Ubatuba.
Festive Coquette, Folha Seca, Ubatuba. Photo by Luis Uruena.
Early morning birding in the Serra do Mar Park system, Caraguatatuba.
And we made it to the beach! Caraguatatuba. Left to right Bryony Angell, Amanda Carter, Rebeca Irala. Ignacio Rodriguez J. in background. Photo by Rebeca Irala.
Medley of birds seen on the five-day Atlantic Forest tour, from top left to bottom right: Red necked Tanager, Chestnut bellied Euphonia, Festive Coquette, Gray hooded Attila, Blue-naped Chlorophonia, Saffron Toucanet, Green backed Trogan, Green headed Tanager, Yellow fronted Woodpecker, Blue Manakin, Pin tailed Manakin, Brassy Breasted Tanager. Photo collage by Luis Uruena.
By the end of our trip, we’d seen over 150 bird species. You can see them listed here at the eBird trip report, as recorded by Rebeca Irala in real time at every location. Many of these species are endemic to Brazil and the Atlantic Forest, which makes the preservation of this area critical for the biodiversity of this country and these habitats.
Brazil’s scientists and birding advocates are fostering novel approaches to the celebration of birds both domestically and outwardly through their work promoting Brazil as a birding destination, and a way to ensure habitat preservation. My Avistar Bird Fair experience demonstrated to me the vision that other countries like Brazil have for expanding birding as a pastime to promote conservation. I’m paying attention and sharing what I’ve learned with a North American audience. This is your introduction, stay tuned!
This post was updated 5/28/2024 to reflect attribution to EMBRATUR for covering the costs of this described birding trip.