Hi Paul,
There are many birding trip reports (and a few dealing with mammals too) from Brazil in
http://www.cloudbirders.com/
Another good resource for SE Brazil is the book "A Birdwatching Guide to South-east Brazil" by Honkala and Niiranen (available from Amazon).
In Oct-Nov of last year I and a friend birded some of the sites in your list. We used the above book for directions.
ITATIAIA:
Lower part (around the hotels): the ex hotel Simon was still closed but one can reach the main gate (sign on main road) by car and walk around and then get on the Tres Picos trail (walk towards the very large and abandoned swimming pool) which was the only trail that we birded. Feeders at Hotel do Ype were very good too.
My list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15745850
Agulhas Negras Road: still very rough but drivable with a small passenger car (we had a small VW Gol), my list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15714797
CANASTRA:
Lower part: it was raining when we got there in the evening, next morning it rained till about 9am, due to the rain and road work the road to the upper part was closed and we birded the lower part first, we did not see the merganser along the river between Vargem Bonita and São José do Barreiro (in a subsequent trip in Dec 2013 I did see the merganser in this stretch), we were told they are easier to see outside the breeding season. If you have trouble finding a watchable hummingbird feeder in Vargem Bonita, there was one on the sidewalk at 255 Rua Varginha, right off Avenida São Paulo (the continuation of the road to the waterfall in the park, it is the big, divided avenue that crosses the town). Collared Crescentchest can be found in the shrubby cerrado around the town of São Roque de Minas. Local guides know the best spots. One spot that is publicly accessible is an unfenced area at the corner where the unpaved road to the upper part joins the paved road that goes from SRM to Piumhi. A few birds where singing along an old erosion dug deep ditch (now covered with vegetation) along the furthest side from the road. My lists:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15714610 ,
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15714641 and
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15714632
Upper part: next day the weather was gorgeous and the road to the upper part was open but it was in very bad shape, we got the car stuck once but managed to dig it out by ourselves without wasting a lot of time. Although we didn't see it Yellow-faced Parrot has been seen in and around the national park, one place it has been found inside the park is in the Curral de Pedras (an old cattle enclosure made with rocks on the upper part of the park, there is big sign on the road marking the access to this area). My lists:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15714668 and
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15714698
CARMO: we follow the directions in the book mentioned above to reach the Three-toed Jacamar site, we got there around noon and, essentially the jacamars were the only noteworthy birds that we found. We saw a few more interesting birds roadside along the Carmo-Sumidouro road. Time of the day severely hampered the birding. My list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16285373
UBATUBA: again we relied on the Honkala book plus a tip from Rick Simpson. We missed the Spotted Bamboo-Antwren (which we had already seen in Intervales) and the Buff-throated Purpletuft (which we saw at Pereque, the site for the Black-hooded Antwren which we also saw). Saw Rufous-sided Crake in Ubatumirim in Ubatuba, GPS coordinates: -23.330592,-44.906596.
My lists:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16281856 ,
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16282030 ,
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16282210 ,
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16282289
and the Pereque (about 1.5 hour from Ubatuba) list -
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16285138
Hope this helps,
Dalcio
