Secret Garden
We work up to the sound of howler monkeys today. Before we headed anywhere, we stopped to admire some Bare-faced Curassows wandering around the lodge grounds. Then we went to an area close to the lodge known as the “secret garden”. We quickly spotted a White-throated Toucan, soon followed by Rufous-necked Puffbird. Then a Lettered Aracari came in. We'd been hearing some serious woodpecker tapping, which turned out to be a Lineated Woodpecker. Some smaller birds included Masked Tanager, followed by one of our target birds, Brown-banded Puffbird. A trogon proved to be Black-tailed Trogon.
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| Bare-faced Curassow |
By now, we had returned to the lodge area, where we found Plain-brown Woodcreeper, Dusky-billed Woodcreeper Striolated Puffbird, and Long-billed Woodcreeper. The Long-billed has a distinctive long bill. The Dusky-billed is usually included as a race of Buff-throated Woodcreeper, but I consider it a race of Lafresnaye's Woodcreeper, Xiphorhynchus guttatoides. I treat this as distinct from Buff-throated based on a 2002 paper by Aleixo in the Auk. Roughly speaking, this means Buff-throated applies only north and east of the Rio Negro and Amazon, while Lafresnaye's applies to the south and west. If Dusky-billed is split, it applies to the Lafresnaye's east of the Tapajós. In fact, the Negro/Amazon and Tapajós are two of the major dividing lines between areas of endemism in the Amazon basin.
After 2 hours or so of birding, we were ready to cross the river and walk one of the trails (our planned activity). Some Tufted Capuchin Monkeys were moving through the trees as we approached the dock.
The Cacau Trail on the other side of the river was fairly quiet. I only saw two new birds, Forest Elaenia and Gould's Toucanet. We also encountered a slow-moving tortoise, Yellow-footed Tortoise. We then returned to the lodge for lunch. During the break, I photographed some of the Dusky-billed Parrotlets.
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| Yellow-footed Tortoise | Dusky-billed Parrotlets |
Downriver to the Teles Pires
At 3, we headed out in the boat on the Rio Cristalino toward the Rio Teles Pires. A couple of Sunbitterns were on the bank. Amazonian Swift flew over the water. Somewhere in here we encountered some White-Whiskered Spider Monkeys. A mystery bird on a small rocky island in the Teles Pires turned out to be a Giant Cowbird. We also saw a Yellow-billed Tern in the same area.
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White-Whiskered Spider Monkey |
We landed at the site of a former fish camp on an island in the Teles Pires. A Spectacled Caiman lounging near there was obviously surprised. Birding was pretty good on the island, and we found Buff-breasted Wren, Silver-beaked Tanager, Blue-gray Tanager, Glossy Antshrike, Spotted Tody-Flycatcher, and Amazonian Streaked-Antwren.
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| Landing Place |
We found some displaying Amazonian Umbrellabirds on the return trip, as well as White-bellied Parrot. It got dark on the way back, and Great Potoo was caught in the spotlight. Although we heard Crested Owl at the lodge, we were unable to see it.
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| Herons at Dusk | Rio Cristalino Sunset |
My bird total for the day was 79 species, including 13 lifers. The trip total increased by 28 to 436 species (430 seen), with 252 lifers.
Cristalino Jungle Lodge, Rio Cristalino