Today’s birding in the Atlantic Forest of Ubatuba was really about brilliance.
We could not have our breakfast quietly, nor leave the lodge on time, because of tanager et al. action on the bananas.
Green-headed Tanager is truly spectacular
Brazilian Tanager is so brilliant red it hurts the eye
Blue Dacnis are uber-pretty too. Here’s daddy dacnis feeding baby dacnis:
Young male
Mommy and daddy Dacnis
Ruby-crowned Tanager that never shows his ruby crown to humans
Golden-chevroned Tanager is rather subtle
Stunning Violaceous Euphonia
Pale-breasted Thrush – adult
Juvenile
Eventually we managed to drag ourselves away from the feeders, and headed over to Fazenda Angelim. Birding was excellent with several good birds – Buff-throated Purpletuft was the rarest, nice views but hard to photograph them high up in the canopy against bright sky. Other highlights included a Red-legged Honeycreeper, Rufous-backed Antthrush and many more. Full eBird checklist here.
Ferruginous Antbird
Flame-crested Tanager – showed very well but I failed to get a good, respectable photo of it
It is very beautiful even in blurry photos
Loads of cool Collared Swifts over the forest
After lunch I walked with Marco around the lodge and added a few more species, including this showy Scaled Antbird:
In the evening we went down to the beach. At sea we had Brown Booby, 3 American Royal Terns and Magnificent Frigatebirds. None were as beautiful as this stunning South American Kelp Gull. presumably 4th cycle:
In the mangroves and adjacent forest some nice birds inlcuding Black-throated Mango. This Crested Oropondela put on a display show:
Yellow-headed Caracara
Yoav Perlman
I have been birding since the age of 9, and from the age of 15 I started working professionally in birding. I have been working for the Israeli Ornithological Center since 1998. I was a member of the Israeli rarities committee between 2001 - 2007. I have an MSc in Ecology from the Ben Gurion University. I did my research on the ecology of Nubian Nightjars in Israel, and spent hundreds of nights with these fascinating birds. I lead tours in Israel, and especially focus on Nubian Nightjars obviously. I traveled and birded Asia extensively, and also Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and North America. I am married to my lovely wife Adva and father to two sons - Uri and Noam, and one daughter - Libby. Currently I live in Norwich, where I am starting a PhD project at UEA.
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