Aracari
Birding in Brazil
I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this. First off let me say this is NOT a commercial advertisement, it's an invitation to join an exploratory trip.
I have a tourism company operating in northern Amazon. We always did mostly sport fishing but in recent years we are doing more eco-tourism and photography tours. Early this year I went to the Serra do Araca, which is a remote tepui mountain in N Amazonas state, near the border with Venezuela. We plan on going there again, in an effort to explore more the region in order to decide if we are going to build a base there or not. This would be mostly for birding tourists. We need someone to go along and help us in doing a very preliminary list of species for the region. So this someone must, ideally, have some experience in the neotropics and in good phisical shape. The place is very far and reachable only by small boats and hiking, so we can't take many ammenities for this exploratory trip. It will be a little rough, but nothing that an adventurous spirit won't love.
The cost of it, for an estimate 15 to 20 day stay, will be of R$ 3.000 (aprox US$ 1.500), without air. The trip is still to be confirmed, I need to check interest first.
So, a little bit more of the region: like I said it's a tepui mountain towering to 1.600 meters, surrounded by virgin rainforest. It really is completely virgin and unexplored. No ornithologists have ever been to the area and I'm sure we can find several tepui endemics, the area is extremelly rich in birds, you can see large flocks of macaws all day long and hear ALL kinds of sounds at night or early in the morning. The area is also very beautiful, with the largest waterfalls in Brazil, steep rock walls, lush rainforest, small clear water streams, etc. Besides birds, we will probably see tapirs, many monkeys, wild pigs and, who knows, even a jaguar. Difficult birds are easy to see here, like curassows.
To get there you fly to Manaus (daily flights from Miami) where I meet you at the airport. From there we get a boat to the small town of Barcelos, on the Rio Negro, 2 days upriver. From there we get our small boat and start our trip first up the Negro, then the Demene and Araca rivers and then a couple smaller creeks. It's far and this trip should take 5 or 6 days. On the way we will pass through several habitats:
1 - Mariuá Archipelago (bigger than the more famous Anavilhanas downriver), lots of igapó forest habitats.
2 - Demene River forests (this river has muddy water and the vegetation is different than in the surrounding rivers, we should find different species here).
3 - Araca River sandy soil forests (these are basically campinaranas and campinas, which are more open vegetation, some grassy areas inland, very rare in the Amazon)
4 - Riverine habitats (sand bars, beaches, lagoons, small creeks)
4 - Black water igapó forests
5 - Terra firme forests
6 - Sub montane forests
7 - High altitude fields
8 - Gallery forests on top of the mountain
On just one short trip this year I photographed a caura antbird (which was never photographed in nature before) and a great horned owl, which was a first sight for the state of Amazonas. We also saw an adult harpy eagle, a cock of the rock and some other worthy species.
We take a satellite phone along and all other necessary equipment.
I have a tourism company operating in northern Amazon. We always did mostly sport fishing but in recent years we are doing more eco-tourism and photography tours. Early this year I went to the Serra do Araca, which is a remote tepui mountain in N Amazonas state, near the border with Venezuela. We plan on going there again, in an effort to explore more the region in order to decide if we are going to build a base there or not. This would be mostly for birding tourists. We need someone to go along and help us in doing a very preliminary list of species for the region. So this someone must, ideally, have some experience in the neotropics and in good phisical shape. The place is very far and reachable only by small boats and hiking, so we can't take many ammenities for this exploratory trip. It will be a little rough, but nothing that an adventurous spirit won't love.
The cost of it, for an estimate 15 to 20 day stay, will be of R$ 3.000 (aprox US$ 1.500), without air. The trip is still to be confirmed, I need to check interest first.
So, a little bit more of the region: like I said it's a tepui mountain towering to 1.600 meters, surrounded by virgin rainforest. It really is completely virgin and unexplored. No ornithologists have ever been to the area and I'm sure we can find several tepui endemics, the area is extremelly rich in birds, you can see large flocks of macaws all day long and hear ALL kinds of sounds at night or early in the morning. The area is also very beautiful, with the largest waterfalls in Brazil, steep rock walls, lush rainforest, small clear water streams, etc. Besides birds, we will probably see tapirs, many monkeys, wild pigs and, who knows, even a jaguar. Difficult birds are easy to see here, like curassows.
To get there you fly to Manaus (daily flights from Miami) where I meet you at the airport. From there we get a boat to the small town of Barcelos, on the Rio Negro, 2 days upriver. From there we get our small boat and start our trip first up the Negro, then the Demene and Araca rivers and then a couple smaller creeks. It's far and this trip should take 5 or 6 days. On the way we will pass through several habitats:
1 - Mariuá Archipelago (bigger than the more famous Anavilhanas downriver), lots of igapó forest habitats.
2 - Demene River forests (this river has muddy water and the vegetation is different than in the surrounding rivers, we should find different species here).
3 - Araca River sandy soil forests (these are basically campinaranas and campinas, which are more open vegetation, some grassy areas inland, very rare in the Amazon)
4 - Riverine habitats (sand bars, beaches, lagoons, small creeks)
4 - Black water igapó forests
5 - Terra firme forests
6 - Sub montane forests
7 - High altitude fields
8 - Gallery forests on top of the mountain
On just one short trip this year I photographed a caura antbird (which was never photographed in nature before) and a great horned owl, which was a first sight for the state of Amazonas. We also saw an adult harpy eagle, a cock of the rock and some other worthy species.
We take a satellite phone along and all other necessary equipment.
