Pantanal Wildlife Center
It was cold this morning in the pantanal. Our first birding location was to walk part of the Pantanal Wildlife Center road. We found Scaled Dove as we headed out, and although we saw a number of species, the only lifer was the White-naped Xenopsaris, which is closely related to the becards.
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| Grayish Saltator | Vermilion Flycatcher |
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| Saffron Finch | Hornero Nests |
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| Cocoi Heron Chase | Capybara |
We returned to the lodge for a short break before heading out into the gallery forest along the river. In between, I found a White-tailed Goldenthroat in the trees in front of the lodge.
We found a nice flock in the forest. Some of the birds were among those we'd already seen, such as Mato Grosso Antbird. Others were new for the trip, including Flavescent Warbler, Gray-headed Tanager, Pale-legged Hornero, Rusty-backed Spinetail, and Stripe-necked Tody-Tyrant. Before we were done, we also found a Crimson-crested Woodpecker on a dead tree. The woodpecker was holding on to a piece of bark that it was tapping on. The result was sort of like sawing off the branch you're standing on. Both bark and woodpecker fell. Of course, the woodpecker has wings and was not in real danger. It gave several calls of annoyance, then went back to working on the tree.
After lunch, we had a break until our boat ride at 3. During the break, I found a nice Toco Toucan in a short tree in front of the lodge.
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| Yellow-billed Cardinal | Nesting Jabiru | Scaled Dove |
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| Southern Lapwings | Rufous Cacholote | Toco Toucan |
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| Rufous-bellied Thrush | Silver-beaked Tanager | Yellow-chevroned Parakeet |
We then headed out for a ride down the Rio Pixiam in search of other birds. It was a pleasant float down the river. There were lots of wading birds, kingfishers, and caiman. We were also finding Gray-necked Wood-Rails along the banks. Then Dave spotted something that was not a wood-rail, but an Undulated Tinamou. Just down the river, we encountered both American Pygmy and Green-and-rufous Kingfishers. Soon afterward, we saw lots of Boat-billed Herons. We were still looking at the them when a Sungrebe appeared downstream. We spent some time trying to get a better look at the Sungrebe. Before heading back, a Giant River Otter poked its head up right in front of me. On the return, the highlight was Agami Heron.
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| Green Kingfisher | American Pygmy Kingfisher | Green-and-rufous Kingfisher |
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| Lesser Kiskadee | Sungrebe | Agami Heron |
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| Agami Heron | Band-tailed Antbird | Pale-vented Pigeon |
The sun set around the time we returned. We stood on the bank in hopes of nightbirds, and were soon rewarded by Nacunda Nighthawk and Band-tailed Nighthawk. We stood outside by a fire for a while, then went to dinner.
A spotlighting trip after dinner turned up Pauraque, Capybara, Crab-eating Fox, Red Brocket Deer, and a mystery nightjar that is likely a Spot-tailed Nightjar.
My bird total for the day was 125 species, including 6 lifers. The trip total increased by 14 to 558 species (555 seen), with 331 lifers.
Pantanal Wildlife Center, Pantanal