Mata Atlāntica Travel Diary - p. 2  

26 Aug 2001 
After breakfast Eduardo and I bird the main Intervales compound, about 50 ha of open area interspersed with trees.  One might think that with cars dashing about and general human commotion, there would be few birds, but the opposite is true.   Here we see more birds, and more species, than in the forest.  One reason is obvious:  birds in the open are easier to see.  Another is the edge effect:  many birds naturally live where forest meets clearings such as lakes or landslides, because fruiting trees and insects are more abundant there than in closed forest.  Last, many birds actually prefer to be near humans, because they are safe from predators such as hawks and toucans, who have the good sense to be wary of humans.  In an Acacia tree near headquarters, for example, is the nest of a Swallow-tailed Cotinga.   The nest of this handsome, mild-mannered endemic would likely fall victim to a predator in the forest.  For several years, however, it has nested in relative safety around the Intervales compound.   Intervales also features colorful Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, who are chiseling out nesting holes in the telephone poles.  Their favorite, near the soccer pitch, was replaced by a new pole.   Undeterred by this setback, the male and female immediately began work on the new pole. 
    

With Eduardo's help I photograph the White-eared Puffbird, whose unflattering Portuguese sobriquet is Joao-bobo, Stupid Joe, owing to its lack of fear of humans.

27 Aug 2001
Eduardo returned by bus to Sao Paulo this morning.   My local guide Faustino and I later drive through 8 km of rainforest track to Carmo, a small research site.  The roadside is lined with bamboo and cecropia, with forest giants above them festooned with bromeliads and other epiphytes. 
    Like all guides here, Faustino speaks no English - now I must speak Portuguese.  Needless to say, there are long gaps of silence during the trip.   This is fine by me - I never cared for a gabby birding companion anyway.  He soon learns that I can only comprehend statements of five words or less; with that and sign language, we manage.  I begin to learn his bird lexicon - pica-pau is woopecker, inhambus are the ground-dwelling, chicken-sized tinamous, sairas are the eagerly-sought tanagers. 
    Faustino neither owns nor uses binoculars.  He knows every bird call, and has a remarkable ability to spot them in dense green forest.   It often takes many seconds to see, with my 8x Bushnells, what he has found with the naked eye.  A Sharp-billed Treehunter lurking in the understory, a White-bellied Hummingbird perched 50 m away, nothing escapes his radar.  Anyone who fancies themselves a keen-eyed birder should spend some time with Faustino.  With his help I am able to see many Mata Atlāntica endemics - strange birds with names to match:   Blue Manakin, Bare-throated Bellbird, White-shouldered Fire-eye, Bertoni's Antbird, Hooded Berryeater, Black-fronted Piping-Guan.

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