The side trips I made without the bike to the more southerly States of Brazil were mainly intended to give me the opportunity to see a good number of new birds. I had been to the south of Brazil on my previous Tour, but my birding was much more limited then, and there were many species that were still available for me to see. As it turned out, one of the stops I made was essentially a failure, but the second more than made up for that.

The Estação Veracel at Porto Seguro has a nice list of frequently seen species on eBird, including some very special species, but my visit started strangely, and sort of went down from there. I arrived reasonably early, by using a rented bike, but was told that I would not be able to walk the trails without knee-high boots, the reason given: snakes. I also couldn’t go into the visitor center without long pants, presumably for some similar reason. Since I didn’t have either of those things, I could only ride along the dirt road the bisected the small forest parcel. That seemed satisfactory, since such situations, being more open, can often be superior to forest trails for seeing birds. However, during the hours I was there the birds were not making themselves available for me to see. I only acquired four new species, none of which I was able to photograph: Bahia Antwren, Plain-Winged Woodcreeper, Rufous-Throated Sapphire, and White-Chinned Sapphire.

After that rather disappointing day, I was a little concerned about a repeat when I was at Rio de Janeiro, and since the best birding sites are a fairly long distance from the city, I did something I don’t often do and hired a guide. Of course, that made a big difference. I used Hudson Martins Soares who was very good, and we chose to go to Parque Nacional Itatiaia, a nice park, but rather far from the city. After a long and tiring day, here are the results.

We began with Gray-Hooded Attila, and soon added…

…Buff-Fronted Foliage-Gleaner, one that I located myself…

…Rufous-Capped Motmot…

…Crested Becard…

…and a fairly elusive Magpie Tanager.

Before long, we saw distant Red-Breasted Toucan…

…and not very far away was Scale-Throated Hermit…

…but in another area Masked Duck, though only a female was present.

At the grounds of the lodge were Velvety Black-Tyrant…

… Brazilian Ruby…

…and Dusky-Legged Guan.

We also observed Firewood Gatherer, a plain bird with an odd name…

…and these beauties, Blue Manakin…

…Gilt-Edged Tanager…

…Surucua Trogon…

…Blue-Winged Parrotlet, and…

…Maroon-Bellied Parakeet.

The rest of the New birds seen that day were: White-Barred Piculet, Black-Throated Grosbeak, Rufous-Capped Spinetail, Golden-Crowned Warbler, Gray-Headed Tody-Flycatcher, Cliff Flycatcher, Planalto Tyrant, Palid Spinetail, Plain Antverio, Ferruginous Antbird, Streak-Capped Antwren, Slaty-Necked Wood-Rail, Black-Goggled Tanager, Black Jacobin, White-Throated Hummingbird, Scaled Woodcreeper, White-Spotted Woodpecker, Yellow-Olive Flycatcher, Dusky-Tailed Hermit, Brassy-Breasted Tanager, Lined Seedeater, White-Browed Meadowlark, Gray-Capped Tyrannulet, Orange-Eyed Thorntail, Serra do Mar Tyrannulet, Crested Black-Tyrant, Picazuro Pigeon, Rufous-Fronted Thornbird, White-Bellied Seedeater, Sick’s Swift, Gray-Hooded Flycatcher, and Sepia Flycatcher.

The total of forty-nine New birds in one day is probably my single best day of seeing birds, though there was one other that may have tallied that amount, or slightly higher, I can’t be sure until I can check my records. Either way, it was a fantastic day, more than making up for my disappointment at Porto Seguro, and somewhat compensating for my rather slow rate of sightings of late.