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The Introtours are
designed for people who enjoy a more
relaxed trip, based in just one or
two lodges. This one visits the beautiful rainforests
on the slopes of the Serra dos Orgãos
mountain range. We are based for
five of the nights in the excellent
Guapi Assu Bird Lodge, at the base
of the mountains and in a large
18,500 acre (7,400 ha) nature reserve,
while two nights will be spent at
a hotel up in the mountains.
Day 1:
Arrival. After a morning arrival
in Rio de Janeiro, we’ll drive
about two hours northeast to Guapi
Assu. After settling into our rooms,
we’ll have time for some easy afternoon
birding around the wetlands near the lodge.
We’ll look for some neat birds like
Long-billed Wren, Aplomado Falcon, Ash-throated
Crake, White Woodpecker, and Tail-banded
Hornero.
Day 2:
Guapi Assu.
After breakfast, we’ll drive about
20 minutes to the start of a forest trail,
where we can bird our way to a beautiful
waterfall and have a picnic lunch. The
forest is full of birds and with patience
we will find many of them like Spot-billed
Toucanet, Spot-breasted Antvireo, Unicolored
Antwren, Scaled Antbird, Shrike-like Cotinga,
Blue Manakin, Southern Antpipit, and Azure-shouldered
Tanager.
Day 3:
Guapi Assu.
Another day to enjoy the forest trails.
This time we will probably take a jeep
to a trail that is several hundred meters
higher in elevation and good for mixed-species
flocks. Some birds we could see up here
include Grayish Mourner, Bare-throated
Bellbird, Ochre-breasted Foliage-gleaner,
Streak-capped Antwren, Eastern
Striped-Manakin, Eared Pygmy-Tyrant,
and White-bibbed Antbird. In the afternoon
we may bird the wetlands again or try
a different trail.
Day 4:
Sumidouro. We’ll
take a full day-trip to some drier
forests on the other side of the
mountain range. Forest patches still
support small populations of the
endangered Three-toed Jacamar, and
Blue-winged Macaws usually fly over
in the morning, but we'll also take
time to look for some of the distinctive
open-country species like Red-legged
Seriema, Firewood-gatherer, Streamer-tailed
Tyrant, and Whistling Heron. We
end the day near the town of Nova
Friburgo, where we spend two nights
in a mountain hotel with great
feeders.
Day 5:
Pico Caledonia. This 2200m
(7200ft) is the highest mountain
around, and we'll make use of
a 4WD to drive a long way up it. The treeline
forest is home to one of the world's rarest
birds, the Gray-winged Cotinga, one of
the state's three endemic birds. Even
though this is the best place to see it,
we still need some luck. A trip up here
is still worthwhile for the high elevation
birds that we won't see elsewhere such
as Rufous-tailed Antbird, Serra do Mar
Tyrannulet, Diademed Tanager, and perhaps
even Itatiaia Thistletail.
Day
6: Macae de Cima. Not far
from our hotel there is a private
reserve with superb hummer feeders
that attract Scale-throated Hermit,
Black Jacobin, White-throated Hummingbird,
and others. The wide entrance track
also provides easy birding for higher-elevation
species such as Black-and-gold
Cotinga,
Hooded Berryeater, Brassy-breasted
Tanager, and Bertoni's Antbird.
In the afternoon, we return to Guapiassu
Bird Lodge for another two nights.
Day 7:
Atlantic Coast. A two-hour
drive takes us to the Atlantic coast
where we target another of Rio's
endemics, the critically endangered Restinga
Antwren. This bird is restricted to the
rapidly-vanishing coastal scrub east of
the city of Rio de Janeiro. We look for
this bird right next to the sea, where
we will also see Brown Boobies, Magnificent
Frigatebirds, and a variety of terns.
We usually return to Guapiassu for lunch,
and half another afternoon to bird around
the reserve.
Day 8: Departure.
We need to return to Rio to catch
our flights home, but time permitting
we will take a detour to the Serra dos
Orgaos National Park to look for some
of the montane species we may have missed,
such as Brazilian Antthrush and Mouse-colored
Tapaculo.
Tour
Info:
CLIMATE:
Hot in the lowlands, cool in the
mountains. Rain likely.
DIFFICULTY:
Easy to moderate. The walking is not usually
difficult, but there is one two-mile roundtrip
hike at Guapi Assu, and getting to
the top of Pico Caledonia involves
walking up a very steep, cobbled road.
Several early starts are necessary.
ACCOMMODATION:
Very good, but two of the rooms at
Guapi Assu share a bathroom. Single
rooms cannot be guaranteed at Guapi
Assu, but no single supplement is
charged here.
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