Tag Archives: Pantanal

Orange-winged Amazon Parrot (Amazona amazonica)

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The Orange-winged Amazon (Amazona amazonica), also known locally as Orange-winged Parrot, Curica and Loro Guaro, is a large amazon parrot. Its habitat is forest and semi-open country.  I took these photos in Nariva Swamp.

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They have a huge range from Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil.  I have seen them in the Pantanal, on Parrot Island near Belem and Nariva Swamp in Trinidad.

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I had to wade through a lot of pet bird videos to find these wild birds!

Blue-headed Parrot (Pionus menstruus)

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The Blue-headed Parrot, also known as the Blue-headed Pionus (Pionus menstruus) is a medium large parrot.

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They have a huge range throughout Central and South America but there are 3 different sub-species which are have their own geographic ranges:

P.m. menstruus: Trinidad, Guianas, and Venezuela to E Colombia, E Ecuador, and E Peru south to C Bolivia, and Amazonian Brazil.
P.m. reichenowi: E Brazil.
P.m. rubrigularis: S Costa Rica and Panama to W Colombia and W Ecuador.

They are easily seen in Cristalino, the Pantanal, Tambopata and Soberania NP.

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I think this one is a food critic!

 

 

Red pileated Finch (Coryphospingus cucullatus)

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The Red pileated Finch (Coryphospingus cucullatus), also known as the Red-crested Finch, is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae.

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They have a huge range in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay,  and Peru, on the eastern side of the Andes.  I saw them in Chapada do Guimaraes which seems to be a hot spot for them.

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This looks like  a wild bird that someone is putting food out for.

 

 

Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri)

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The Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri) also known as the canary-winged parakeet, is native to tropical South America south of the Amazon River basin from central Brazil to southern Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina.

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I spotted this little cutie in one of the large trees at Pousada Piuval, but they are easily seen in most of the Pantanal.  Their range extends throughout most of Brazil and Bolivia, into Argentina and Paraguay.

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This little guy can’t figure out why he is the centre of attention!

And this one is hungry and wants everyone to know it!

 

A Morning At Pousada Piuval

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After leaving Curicara Lodge and starting back towards Pocone & Cuiaba, we were birding the Transpantaneira and saw the turn-off to Pousada Piuval.

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Just for fun, we turned in for a look.  At the time, they didn’t have a day visit package (they do now) so we had coffee and a snack at the restaurant.

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They have a really nice little gift shop and I ended up buying a few things.

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Best of all – the garden is full of birds!

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Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

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Quaker Parrot

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Vermilion flycatcher

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Saffron Finch ZP-16

Blue-crowned Parakeet

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It’s a shame we didn’t have more time (and money) as this place looked really nice, but there is hopefully a next time!  For now, we were bound for Chapada dos Guimarães!

Bare-faced Curassow (Crax fasciolata)

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The bare-faced curassow (Crax fasciolata) is a species of bird in the Cracidae family, the chachalacas, guans, curassows, etc.  Males and females are quite different as you can see in these pics I took in the Pantanal.

Male

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They have quite a large range throughout Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia.  Probably the easiest place to see them is in Brazil’s Pantanal.

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Sadly I couldn’t find a video of them in the wild but this clip of captive birds shows the sounds they make.

Birding The Grounds Of Curicaca Lodge

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I had absolutely no information about this hidden gem before we showed up, but Curicaca Lodge delivered some fantastic and easy birding.  Before the sun actually rose, we could hear the resident Hyacinth Macaws calling while some monkeys and Blue-fronted Amazons looked on.

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As the sun rose, the light got better so better pics!ZC-18 ZC-19 ZC-20 ZC-21 ZC-22 ZC-23 ZC-24 ZC-25 ZC-26 ZC-27 ZC-28 ZC-29 ZC-30 ZC-31 ZC-32 ZC-33 ZC-34 ZC-35 ZC-36 ZC-37 ZC-38 ZC-39 ZC-40 ZC-41 ZC-42 ZC-43 ZC-44 ZC-45 ZC-46 ZC-47 ZC-48 ZC-49 ZC-50 ZC-51 ZC-52 ZC-53 ZC-54 ZC-55 ZC-56 ZC-57 ZC-58 ZC-59 ZC-61 ZC-62 ZC-63 ZC-65

 

Some gorgeous little hummingbirds, not sure of exact species.ZC-66 ZC-67 ZC-68 ZC-69 ZC-70 ZC-71 ZC-72

Blue-headed ParrotZC-73 ZC-74 ZC-75 ZC-76 ZC-77

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As you can see there are plenty of birds to keep you busy at Curicaca!

Lodge Review: Curicaca Lodge, Transpantaneira, Brazil

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Curicara Lodge has a stunning location along the Transpantaneria in the northern Panatanal fo Brazil.  They don’t seem to have a website of their own, but there is good information here.

We were there in Sept, 2012 so things may have changed.  The one thing that needed improvement was the access road which was very bumpy!  Hopefully they have fixed it up since then.

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Once you get to the lodge, it is beautiful and natural with lots of bird-attracting habitat so you don’t even have to leave the grounds to find birds.

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This was our cottage – very cute!ZC-06 ZC-03 ZC-04 ZC-05

 

Monkey keeping an eye on us.ZC-07

This is the dining room – most rates will include full board and you need this because there are no other places to eat except at other lodges.ZC-08 ZC-09 ZC-85

 

Take a stroll down to the river and look for caiman.ZC-84 ZC-86 ZC-87

Of course I will save the best for the next post – birding the grounds of Curicaca Lodge!

Chestnut-eared Araçari (Pteroglossus castanotis)

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The Chestnut-eared Aracari  (Pteroglossus castanotis), is a bird native to central and south-eastern South America. It belongs to the toucan and aracari family (Ramphastidae).

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With such a huge range in South America you are likely to see them in any of the national reserves of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia & Paraguay.  I took these pics at Araras Eco-Lodge along the Transpantaneira.

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This video taken in the Pantanal shows the bird’s calls and how they eat.

 

Blue-crowned Parakeet (Psittacara acuticaudatus)

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The Blue-crowned Parakeet aka Blue-crowned Conure,  (Psittacara acuticaudatus) is a small green Neotropical parrot with a blue head and pale beak native to large parts of South America, from eastern Colombia in the north to northern Argentina in the south. They inhabit savanna-like habitats, woodland and forest margins, but avoid dense humid forest such as the Amazon.

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They have a large range in South America with the Pantanal being one of the easiest places to see them.  I took the above photos in the Transpantaneira region.  They are also commonly seen in Bolivia and Colombia with some feral populations in Florida.

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Lovely close-up of the birds in Colombia.

Nesting pair in Florida, check out the affectionate behaviour!