Jamaica de Arras: Brazil

We had a long but uneventful drive north to Jamaica de Arras on 28th June. The heavy truck traffic turned the drive into an eight hour sojourn. We were welcomed by our hosts & quickly settled in. The place is rustic but quite charming & very comfortable.

Pousada Jamaica de Arras

Cocktail hour!

We were up before dawn on 29th June & after enjoying breakfast started exploring in & around the garden. 

Agouti

Quite common in the garden.

Red & Green Macaw

Drinking from a flooded hole in a Palm Tree.

Amazonian Motmot

Pale-crested Woodpecker

Swallow Tanager

Birding was quite slow, but we saw a few good species before deciding to bird the access road, which was quite good.

The fish was cooked in a very traditional way.

Lunch!

We awoke to heavy rain. Looked outside, strong winds & fog as well! It didn't look good for birding on 30th June! However, we gave it a good go!

Cerrado habitat. Blue sky lasted for five minutes!

It rained a lot after 

this photo was taken!

Narrow-billed Woodcreeper

Chapada Flycatcher

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Male Barred Antshrike

Female

Rusty-backed Antwren

Caatinga Puffbird

White-rumped Tanager

Pair displaying.

Male Red-crested Finch

We had to abort our birding early afternoon & returned to the pousada. This proved to be a good move, as the weather steadily deteriorated. This was a real shame as we never really saw the national park.

Emas National Park: Brazil

 We left Pousada Aguape early morning on 26th June. We had a long drive of 580 kms, but the roads were generally good to OK, so the drive wasn't too bad.

Pousada de Gloria. 

rustic, but actually very nice inside.

Grey-cowled Wood Rail:

walking around our accommodation.

Helmeted Manakin

Saffron Finch

We arrived at Pousada de Gloria late afternoon & settled in. The accommodation is in riverine forest literally a few yards from the national park. Our host informed us that she would take us out looking for White-winged Nightjar after dinner! One of my most wanted species, so I am excited! 

White-winged Nightjar

One of the rarest nightjars in the world

 & one of  most wanted species!

We went & we got it! In fact we saw three birds, but only one close up on the ground. Excellent evening out!

This place is very special!

Burnt area on the left.

Cerrado is full of endemic plants, animals & birds.

Young male Pampas Deer.

Female

Peach-fronted Parakeet

They love termite mounds!

Several beautiful rivers flow through the park.

Delana & Anna our guide.

To fully explore the park one has

 to have a guide.

The next day we were up well before dawn, out in the park spotlighting. It was freezing! The cerrado habitat once covered a third of Brazil, but farmers easily cleared the area for farming & today just relatively small patches remain. Emas National Park is the largest area of intact cerrado habitat in Brazil & the place is awesome!

Yellow-headed Caracara

Curl-crested Jay

Goes around in noisy groups.

Yellow-faced Parrot

Rare & highly localized.

Immature Chaco Eagle

One of my most 

wanted species!

White-tailed Hawk

This is the rare dark morph.

Aplomado Falcon

Peach-fronted Parakeet

White-eared Puffbird

White-rumped Monjita

Rufous-winged Antshrike

Lesser Seed Finch

Male Cock-tailed Tyrant

Yellow-rumped Marshbird

Coal-crested Finch

Black-throated Saltator

Unfortunately we only have one full day here, so we were out before dawn & returned just after 8pm in the evening! This place deserves a three night stay: two days in the cerrado & a day in the riverine forest, where a whole new suite of birds awaits!

This is not a video. 

It is a series of photos stitched together by Delana

We also observed a good selection of mammals including Pampas Deer, Crab-eating & Hoary Fox & best of all the bizarre but wonderful Maned Wolf.