This is a terrific 8-day tour for those who don't like to spend a lot of time traveling. You are based for seven nights in the new Guapi Assu Bird Lodge on the magnificent 7400 hectare REGUA reserve on the slopes of the Serra dos Orgãos mountain range, so you only have to unpack once! The beautiful lodge was built with birders in mind and features five comfortable double rooms with en-suite facilities, a dining room where superb Brazilian cuisine and Caiparhinias are served, a lounge with a complete birding library, hummingbird feeders, tanager feeders, and even a swimming pool.

Day 1: Arrival. Your international flights arrive in Rio de Janiero. We'll pick you up and drive you about an hour and a half hours northeast to Guapi Assu Bird Lodge. 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 Capped Heron, Brazilian Teal, Savannah Hawk, Aplomado Falcon, Ash-throated Crake, White Woodpecker, Tail-banded Hornero, and Yellowish Pipit.

Day 2: Guapi Assu. After breakfast, we'll start with some easy birding in the forest patches right around the lodge, which can be surprisingly productive with species like Crescent-chested Puffbird, Chestnut-backed Antshrike, Crested Becard, and Hooded Tanager all regular in the lodge garden. We then drive about 20 minutes to the start of the forest trails, where we can bird our way to a spectacular waterfall where we enjoy a picnic lunch. The forest is full of birds and with patience we will find some 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: Nova Friburgo. After breakfast, we'll drive about an hour to higher elevations near the town of Nova Friburgo. We'll start birding along a road near a private residence that has superb hummer feeders that attract Scale-throated Hermit, Sombre Hummingbird, Black Jacobin, Plovercrest, White-throated Hummingbird, and occasionally other species. The road also provides easy birding for some of the species of higher elevation including the astounding Black-and-gold Cotinga, Hooded Berryeater, Gray-hooded Flycatcher, Drab-breasted Bamboo-Tyrant, Gilt-edged Tanager, and Bay-chested Warbling-Finch. Later in the day we may walk an old railway line that has been converted into a trail. The odd Slaty Bristlefront is sometimes seen here.

Day 4: 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 good birds we could see up here include Grayish Mourner, Long-billed Wren, Ochre-breasted Foliage-gleaner, Streak-capped Antwren, Rufous-capped Antthrush, Eared Pygmy-Tyrant, and White-bibbed Antbird. In the afternoon we may bird the wetlands again or try the trails.

Day 5: Sumidouro and Carmo. 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 as well as other uncommon birds like Yellow-eared Woodpecker, Sooretama Slaty-Antshrike, and maybe even the rare Rio de Janiero Antbird. The open habitats that we pass through along the way also hold an assortment of spectacular species like Red-legged Seriema, Blue-winged Macaw, White-eared Puffbird, and Streamer-tailed Tyrant

Day 6: Serra dos Orgãos NP. One day isn't enough to cover the higher elevations, so we'll take a packed lunch and head back up the mountains to the national park a little more than an hour to the west. The trail to the top is famous for being the only known site for the enigmatic Gray-winged Cotinga, but we would be extremely lucky to see it. The nomadic and improbable Swallow-tailed Cotinga would be more likely and as one of the most sought-after birds in the Atlantic forests certainly very welcome! Other possibilities include Hooded Berry-eater, Sharpbill, Pale-browed Treehunter, and Pin-tailed Manakin.

Day 7: Wildcard day. Our last full day we always hold in store to target particular species we may not yet have seen. We could visit one of the previous sites a second time or else go somewhere completely different. A couple of options are a trip to the coast to look for the endangered Restinga Antwren, or try a road that goes up to some communication towers above treeline where Itatiaia Thistletail may be seen.

Day 8: Departure. Return to the Rio de Janeiro airport to catch your flights home.