The Best of Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest: My Birding Top 10!

I'm often asked what my top 10 Atlantic Rainforest birds are... it's always such a tough question to answer! Where do you start with so many choices? Cotingas, Antbird, Woodpeckers, Toucanets, Tapaculos, Antpittas, not to even mention the Tanagers!

A favourite bird can be a favourite for so many different reasons, the obvious one being what the bird actually looks like. With this in mind, I would chose the Brassy-breasted Tanager, commonly found on the feeders at Itororo Lodge, followed by Red-necked Tanager which can be found in the lowlands. Next up for "looks" would have to be an all-time favourite of mine and one of the reasons I fell in love with Atlantic Rainforest birding; the Spot-billed Toucanet, followed closely by it's relative, the Saffron Toucanet. 

My next "category" would be for pure rarity value, not so much chosen for it's looks, but the fact it has a very restricted range and is extremely rare! The most obvious choice for this within my home patch of the Atlantic Rainforest would be Grey-winged Cotinga, only known from 3 mountain tops in south-east Brazil and nowhere else in the world! A few other species that fall easily into my top 10 as they are always "crowd pleasers" with visiting birders are Bare-throated Bellbird, Long-trained Nightjar and a bird that breeds annually in the Itororo Lodge grounds, the Swallow-tailed Cotinga!

Onto smaller species now and a couple of obvious choices for hummingbirds would be Green-crowned Plovercrest and Frilled Coquette, both such fantastic little birds! Another favourite family of mine is Woodpeckers and two species spring to mind for that wow factor, these being Blond-crested Woodpecker and Yellow-fronted Woodpecker and then onto Antbirds... but I've already chosen 12 favourites so I had better stop there. It's such an impossible task, being surrounded by so many wonderful birds!

We still have some spaces remaining on our 'overflow' departure of The Best of Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest:

Dates: Sunday 23rd November – Tuesday 2nd December
Cost: £4,095 (incl. flights)

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