BRAZIL: ITATIAIA, IGUAZU FALLS & PANTANALComfortable tour visiting three locales world-famous for their abundance of birds and wildlife in spectacular settings right outside our doors; also an overnight in Rio.
$5575 (March 2008; not including internal flights); $5775 (October 2008; not including internal flights). See a slideshow of photos from this tour. See our triplist for October 2007 or March 2007 or November 2006 or March 2006
Our first stop is Itatiaia National Park, Brazil’s oldest and most famous national park and simply one of the greatest places for birding and relaxing in all of South America. We’ll bird along roads and on hotel grounds (with such delights as Saffron Toucanet, Brazilian Ruby, Black Jacobin, and Yellow-fronted Woodpecker), and we’ll make a hike or two along lushly forested mountain trails (for the likes of Large-tailed Antshrike or Gilt-edged and Brassy-breasted tanagers). Iguazu Falls, our second locale, ranks as one the most spectacular settings on the continent of South America. Iguazu is easily accessible, with first-class accommodations, and the surrounding forest is another premier birding locality. A couple of nights each on the Brazilian and Argentine sides of the falls will allow us time to explore both the cataracts and the bamboo tracts at an unhurried pace. Numerous new birds will be possible, from Great Dusky Swifts at the falls to the fantastic Blond-crested Woodpecker and Plush-crested Jay and perhaps even the rare Black-fronted Piping-Guan. Perhaps even better known than Iguaçu is the low-lying, seasonally flooded region of southwestern Brazil that constitutes the largest freshwater marsh in the world: the Pantanal. At any time of year, the variety of birds to see is fabulous: jacanas, thornbirds, whistling-ducks, monjitas, ibis, parakeets, screamers, Jabirus, and myriad others. Among landbirds, there is one species that has come to symbolize the wilds of the Pantanal—the magnificent Hyacinth Macaw, one of the rarest parrots in the world but doing well on the delightful private reserve where we’ll stay.
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