Tuesday 11 September 2012

Heading to the North



Cliffs at Penhasco near Chapades

Leaving the Pantanal proper we headed north beyond Cuiaba to an area of hills covered in dry cerrado forest and great sandstone cliffs at Chapades.  Close to our accommodation was a wonderful trail built into the cliff.  A bit hairy at first but finding birds soon put any fears to the back of our mind.

The Cliff Trail

Birding the Cliff Trail
Finding birds here was not difficult.  Hordes of Yellow-chevroned Parrots roosted on the cliffs in the evening as did Green-and-red Macaws.  sadly both species were too distant to get photographs.  Small groups of birds moved through the vegetation near the trail and we managed to find Swallow Tanagers, Blue Dacnis, Planalto Hermit, Sooty-fronted Spine-tail, Streaked Flycatcher, Black-tailed Tityra, White-lined Tanager, Burnished -buff Tanager, Barred Antshrike and Cliff Flycatcher in a couple of visits.  The highlight for many was a flock of White-collared Swifts feeding noisily close to the cliffs.


Male Barred Antshrike

Cliff Flycatcher
We also spent some time exploring more open cerrado forest which I have described in an earlier post.  Next post the final leg of the journey. 

No comments:

Post a Comment