CENTRAL BRAZIL SPECIALITIES TOUR

Brazil really is the gift that keeps on giving. Our exciting Central Brazil birding adventure aims to fill in the gaps between your other visits to this amazing country targetting some of the rarest species on the planet. We will be visiting the seldom-visited states of Tocantins and Minas Gerais in our exploration of the more unknown regions of this fabulous birding destination. Starting in Montes Claros, in the state of Minais Gerais we will being our birding at Botumirim, home to the Critically Endangered endemic Blue-eyed Ground-Dove, only rediscovered in 2015. There will also be a few species associated with this rocky environment that we will also target such as Hyacinth Visorbearer, Cinereous Warbling-Finch and, with a lot of luck, Cipo Canastero. Next is the wonderful Peruaçu National Park and there are a number of specialities to search for here including the rare endemics Moustached Woodcreeper, Plain-tailed Nighthawk and White-throated Seedeater, Other endemics here are White-browed Guan, Sombre Hummingbird, Outcrop (Dry Forest) Sabrewing, Great Xenops, Red-shouldered Spinetail, Sao Francisco Black Tyrant and Sao Francisco Sparrow, as well as near-endemics such as Rusty-margined Guan and Sibilant Sirystes. Moving on to the Caraça Sanctuary with its Maned Wolves and Giant Anteaters, we will also hope to find Serra Antwren here. Heading to Serra do Cipó for Cipo Cinclodes, Cipo Canastero and Rock Tapaculo, there's a fine supporting cast such as Hyacinth Visorbearer, Horned Sungem, Checkered Woodpecker, Lesser Grass-Finch, Pale-throated Pampa-Finch, Blue Finch, Streamer-tailed Tyrant, Stripe-tailed Yellow-Finch, Long-tailed Reed-Finch and Cinereous Warbling-Finch. And we'll aim to end our stay here on a high with the superb Diamantina Sabrewing. One of the highlights of our tour is a visit to the crake capital of Pompéu, where two brothers have done something remarkable and have seemingly 'tamed' such cryptic and shy species such as Ocellated, Russet-crowned and Grey-breasted Crake, much to the delight of visiting birders. And finally, we will end this fabulous tour at Serra da Canastra National Park, which is home to the much-wanted Brasilian Merganser. We also hope to see a good selection of other scarce species here such as Golden-capped Parakeet, Campo Miner, Cock-tailed Tyrant, Brasilia Tapaculo, Helmeted Manakin, Collared Crescentchest and much more. 

If that wasnt enough, there is an extension to the awesome Carajás National Forest, where during our four full days possibilities include a mouth-watering selection of species including Dark-winged Trumpeter (dextralis), White-crested Guan, Chestnut-headed Chachalaca, Cryptic Forest-Falcon, Silky-tailed Nightjar, Pearly Parakeet, Rufous-throated Sapphire, Dot-eared Coquette, Guianan Red Cotinga, White-tailed Cotinga, Para Foliage-Gleaner, Carajas & Brigida's Woodcreeper, Snethlage's Scythebill, Peruvian Recurvebill, Rufous-faced Antbird, Variegated & Snethlage's Antpitta, Purple-breasted Cotinga, Ash-throated Casiornis, Chestnut-belted Gnateater, Rose-breasted Chat & Opal-crowned Manakin,

This is guaranteed to be an exciting birding adventure, travelling around relatively remote regions of Central Brazil after some really crazy species. There's several long drives to be taken in a minibus, and it will be a full-on dawn til dusk birding tour targetting the endemics and truly rare species. So let's go birding!