Collecting some target birds
Target birding to complete our Caiman list. Today was spent focusing on picking up any birds that had eluded us until now. Once more, we hadn’t gone far from our lodge before we were adding new birds: Great Black Hawk was sitting next to a Savannah Hawk atop a tall tree. Next bird on the list: Small-billed Tinamou. We followed its call into a field of head-high grasses, found an open area and crouched down and waited for the bird to show. Knees went stiff and muscles went numb but eventually our patience was rewarded with close, if brief, views of Small-billed Tinamou.
Moving to an area of mature forest we slowly walked a narrow trail, avoiding spiders webs across the path and tick-bearing bushes waiting to trap the unwary. After twenty minutes or so we heard the distinctive call of a White-fronted Woodpecker, a bird we had missed on several previous occasions. This time there was no problem, the bird flew in above us and hammered ferociously at a dead bough, sending a shower of sawdust down onto us. This same forest area also gave us our first Rusty-fronted Tody-flycatcher, a name that is bigger than the bird itself!
We took a short drive over to the guides’ accommodation, where we‘d been told a flowering tree encouraged hummingbirds. A buzzing zap over our heads and in shot a Swallow-tailed Hummingbird, a gorgeous bird that lives up to its name with a long forked tail. Out the back of the garden we had close up and personal views of charismatic Hyacinth Macaws, not a new bird but spellbinding to watch as they fed, nimbly holding their food with one claw while they picked at it with their bills.
The afternoon was spent searching forest areas for new birds but sadly none came our way, but we still enjoyed some great sightings including Black-crowned Tityras, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Capped Heron, Jabiru on its treetop nest with chicks and two more Giant Anteaters. As darkness fell, we drove the dirt tracks to see what nightlife we could encounter, always hoping of course for a Tapir or Jaguar. None came our way but we did add another bird to our year list with Scissor-tailed Nightjar, and our first sight of Tropical Screech-Owl, previously this species had only been heard. We also had our first, and hopefully last, encounter with a Tarantula spider as it marched across the road.
Bird species total: 2400 exactly!!
Posted 18th June, Caiman Lodge, Pantanal, Brazil