Brazil: With André Tostes at Salesópolis

Birding is really important for nature conservation. I say this because I think birding is the best way to promote public natural history participation! Brazil is a country of amazing contrasts, inspiring conservation efforts and catastrophic environmental degradation often occur side by side. Just a few days ago, we returned from a trip to this remarkable country, meeting people and exploring places for the first time. Here, I will riff on the importance of birding in Southeastern Brasil, from our views during our mini-road trip through São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states. On this post I concentrate on one such destination near São Paulo and our guide there.

First, our guide and the birding scene in Southeast Brazil 

Of course, I want to thank my newfound friend and top birding guide André Tostes, who introduced us to the Salesópolis area. This took place on our second day in Brazil, of our 11-day road trip. His guidance was a trip highlight! First, I present some details of his bio and notes on the birding scene in Southeastern Brazil.

André Tostes is a 35-year-old Brazilian birding guide, a family man, and someone genuinely in love with nature. He is of the arts, with a business and letters degree and a tour guide certificated by the Tourism Ministry. He has been actively birding since 2017 and uploading pics and sounds since 2018, contributing to iNaturalist, Wikiaves and eBird. His major area of deep nature experiance is his home state of São Paulo, with particular knowledge of the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlantica) and southeastern Brazil in general. He has an amazing knowledge of the regional specialties and difficult-to-detect birds. His field skills include bird identification by both sight and vocalization, locating secretive forest and marsh species, bird photography, and sound recording. I was especially impressed by his persistence in bringing birds out by careful playback and his remarkable ability to find and identify birds by sound. And since André is also a master of languages—his own language and an expert English-language teacher as well—he is a great help for someone trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese! (I am listing André's address below - I highly recommend his guiding services for English-speakers in Brasil).  

Now something important for us english-speakers traveling in Brazil...If you don't speak Brazilian Portuguese, it is really a culture-shock to do an independent road-trip there. People speak their language, and many of course understand or speak some Spanish as well. It is not a touristy country and English is not widely understood. So to break-into the philosophy of the culture it is interesting and I think important to take up some Portuguese; I did and I enjoyed it. (I recommend a 30-day AI assisted multi-media blitz; also using Pimsleur® while drving, Youtube, and other such media; i.e., listen-repeat while commuting and keeping a notebook. Also, limited duolingo as well. The key is building confidence in speaking!).

Back to birding: I should mention that in very recent years, birding is growing strong in southeastern Brazil. I was told there are important events and a growing number of young specialists, not just eclectic photographers or jungle-hermit museum men. A birder is now known here as a passarinheiro (Informal community slang) or more formally observador/a de aves. The nationwide movement and social media hashtag used by local birders is #vempassarinhar ("come birdwatching"). Key citizen science hubs are: a) WikiAves, the absolute central hub for Brazilian citizen science, seemingly nearly every serious birder in Brazil uses this platform to upload photos and vocalizations; and b) Avistar: The largest annual birdwatching festival and gathering in Latin America, held in the greeny city of São Paulo. On Youtube media a very interesting channel for listening to the wonderful Brazilian language, about birds specificially, is Planeta Aves hosted by Willian Menq (https://www.youtube.com/@PlanetaAves). Also, have a look at the top-notch touring work promotion done by Calyptura Expeditions (https://www.youtube.com/@CalypturaExpeditions), shout-out and thanks to Brazilian birding veteran,  Rene Santos for his help in our trip preparation. 

The Salesopolis in São Paulo State: a new eBird hotbed of hotspots!

The tiny town of Salesópolis is known to birders worldwide primarily because it is home to one particularly rare bird, the São Paulo Marsh Antwren, and because of a small ecolodge that regularly hosts visiting birders, Macuquinho Lodge (providing feeders and a trail). The very small town of Salesopolis, not really a polis, is located only a couple of hours (91 kms) from the main international airport of São Paulo (Guarulhos). Our birding experience here, however, was somewhat different, since we toured the wider area without focusing exclusively on the rare birds and without visiting the well-known lodge. And we did not find the rare Antwren - Formicivora paludicola (also classified as a subspecies Formicivora acutirostris paludicola). It is very obvious that you don't need either of these two attractions to enjoy and explore Salesópolis as a premier birding and natural history area. There is so much more to see and discover.

One of the highlights was actually discovering a new eBird hotspot at our own guesthouse accommodation, Pousada Quintal de Hortênsias, just outside the town. We highly recommend the place for at least a three night stay. It is full of birds, with a short upland trail through secondary woodland and immediate access to a tiny stream floodplain. It has wonderful landscape views, but is not yet...geared to focusing on avitourism (no feeders, unfortunately). But the place has mega-potential, and it is also wonderfully situated for exploring a variety of other birding sites in the surrounding countryside. We evaluated the bird richness of the property and, within just two days, identified at least 60 bird species there. André then helped promote the site as an eBird hotspot and discussed with the proprietor some simple improvements that could make the property even more attractive to birders and other nature-going visitors.

For me, this is an important part of what birding can contribute to conservation. Promoting small, locally owned accommodations, documenting their biodiversity, and encouraging nature-based tourism can give local communities another reason to appreciate and protect the landscapes around them. We really believe that this kind of small-scale ecotourism and birding promotion can contribute to the conservation of the wider landscape around Salesópolis.

Salesópolis--Salesópolis Wetland

Salesopolis wetland, a huge area with open-country birds and wonderful road-side vistas. The farms nearby also present interesting open-country birds, very close to the town of Salesopolis.

Brazilian Teal. 

Yellow-throated Spinetail.

Black-headed Donacobius, these one's are at Pousada Quintal de Hortênsias.

Rufous Tiger Herons at the wetland.

Masked Water-Tyrant, another common bird, looks very much like a wheatear! 

Guira Cuckoo, a common species in open country and parks as well.

Marvellous wetlands! 

Early morning it was chilly! 

Salesópolis--Pousada Quintal Das Hortansias 

One of the nicest places a birder can stay at: Pousada Quintal Das Hortansias). 

The pousada with the native woods above. 

Nice trail above the pousada, regenerating native woods. 

Blond-crested Woodpecker, seen twice on our trip, this one was from further afield, but I got a similar view at the trail above the pousada. 

The view near the trail within the property of the pousada. View of the landscape east of town. Note the extensive eucalypt and pine plantations in the distance. 

Red-breasted Toucan. Surprisingly this is the only species we saw really well. We heard another two and saw one of those fly-over, but in 11 days we only say one decent toucan. I am so happy we took this photo.

Campos Flickers. 

Rufous-sided Crake, seen breifly (and filmed) after much play-back persistance. 

Black-headed Donacobius; amazing marshbirds on display.

Guans are not easy to see in a rural landscape where they are frequently hunted. On one of my early morning walks I saw some above the guesthouse. This photo is from Ubatuba on the coast (touristy place, where they are totally fearless of humans).

 

Sapphire-spangled Emerald. One of several hummers seen. 

Serra do Mar State Park--Núcleo Padre Dória

The guards and the paperwork upon entering Serra do Mar State Park--Núcleo Padre Dória. No one else was there, no fee to pay (just pre-book). Nice situation. 

Perhaps the best raptor of the entire trip: Black Hawk-Eagle (Spizaetus tyrannus).

One of the amazing bromeliads. 

One of the tigerwings we saw. Not much butterfly activity, it was still "late winter" in the area. 

Seeing birds in the forest was not easy. Trogons, we heard them many times, did not see a single bird. 

In good company.

Salesópolis--Bairro dos Mirandas

André Tostes, a natural optimist, working on his skills at playback. 

Bare-throated Bellbird: several were singing and easily visible from a far. One of the best birds of the trip. 

Sooty Tyrannulet, seen really well. 

  

Please inquire about at:

André Tostes: https://www.instagram.com/tostesandre/

And birders should visit Pousada Quintal das Hortênsias, find information at: https://pousada-quintal-das-hortensias.allsaopaulohotels.com/en/

This graffiti was found at the base of a bridge near Ubatuba: A bird that wants to fly needs no cage....

And our final eBird contributions in our 11-day trip from Sao Paulo to Rio and back again: 40 lists, 178 species identified, 144 photographed. Slow birding during a road-trip with many other obligations, not just birding. You may be surprised at the rather low overall number of birds. Birding needs time and lots of patience. A reason to go back!